The Guardian 6 April, 2005
Oppose Japan as permanent member
of UN Security Council
An international petition opposing the seating of Japan as a permanent member of the UN
Security Council arising from Kofi Annan's proposals to reform the United Nations
Organisation has already received over 11.5 million signatures according to China's
Xinhua News Agency.
The signature drive was launched after UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan appeared to back
Japan for a permanent council seat as part of the most wide-ranging reforms to the world body
since its creation in 1945.
The petition urges people to "speak out and vote against any procedure to grant Japan the status
of a permanent member of the UN Security Council". It points out that Japan was an aggressor in
World War II, destroyed and looted an astronomical amount of property and has never formally
acknowledged its wrongdoing. It has never offered official apologies to those thousands of
women forced into sexual slavery, the nearly one million who died in its biochemical experiments
and those butchered, brutalised and enslaved when prisoners of war. Japan's leaders have
refused to repent.
The on-line petition is at: http://www.alpha-la.org/petition.asp
The petition campaign is a worldwide collective movement consisting of civilian organisations
from wartime victim countries — the US, South Korea, North Korea, China, Taiwan, the
Philippines, the Netherlands and Japan.
Many Australians have good reasons as former POWs to oppose Japan's promotion to the
position of UN permanent member. Japan's leaders have not only not acknowledged the crimes
committed during WW2 but are now pushing re-militarisation and are using every opportunity to
send their military forces overseas.
The Japanese government is also attempting to remove the clause in their Constitution which
limits the use of Japan's military forces to self-defence. They are getting ready to again launch
aggressive wars to re-establish their colonialist role in Asia and beyond.