Author
~Bradley
Yumi is an organic farmer, independent reporter, and organizer with the Global Peace Campaign. Yumi traveled to the U.S. to cover the OneDance Summit and Dennis Kucinich's presidential campaign. On January 13, I had the chance to speak with Yumi about her life, the foreign policy of U.S. government which has run amok, the Japanese reaction to war and occupation in Iraq and Palestine, and the Kucinich campaign.
Yumi Kikuchi is an organic farmer, independent reporter, and organizer with the Global Peace Campaign. Yumi lives in Japan and traveled to the United States to cover the OneDance Summit and Dennis Kucinich's presidential campaign. On January 13, I had the chance to speak with Yumi about her life, the foreign policy of United States government which has run amok, the Japanese reaction to war and occupation in Iraq and Palestine, and the Dennis Kucinich presidential campaign.
People in America and Japan have more power and liberty to speak out and we are, therefore, more responsible for speaking out.
Audio:
Listen to the Interview with Yumi
http://santacruz.indymedia.org/media/all/display/2408/index.php
Download the mp3 (10min -- 2.3 MB)
http://santacruz.indymedia.org/usermedia/audio/9/yumi_1-13-04.mp3
Global Peace Campaign
http://www.peace2001.org
Yumi Kikuchi
http://www.peace2001.org/gpc_e/2002index.html
OneDanceSummit
http://www.onedancesummit.org
Dennis Kucinich
http://www.kucinich.us
>> read the full story and see a couple photos on Santa Cruz IMC...
http://santacruz.indymedia.org/feature/display/7169
Yumi Kikuchi is an organic farmer, independent reporter, and organizer with the Global Peace Campaign. Yumi lives in Japan and traveled to the United States to cover the OneDance Summit and Dennis Kucinich's presidential campaign. On January 13, I had the chance to speak with Yumi about her life, the foreign policy of United States government which has run amok, the Japanese reaction to war and occupation in Iraq and Palestine, and the Dennis Kucinich presidential campaign.
Japan is currently sending troops to Iraq. The deployment of Japanese soldiers to Iraq is a direct violation to constitutional law in Japan, a country with with Peace Constitution. Unfortunately, Japan's ruling elite are following the demands of the U.S.'s corporate led government. The power structure in Japan is no longer operated in Tokyo, but rather from Washington D.C.
Although many people in the U.S. are against Bush, the U.S. government is dominated by (C)orporations. Yumi has traveled to the U.S. to meet peace and sustainability activists. In Japan she has an organic farm with a focus on sustainability and sharing with people.
War is not sustainable. It is time for us to say no to war and to start living in harmony with nature. As an author, Yumi enjoys writing books about peace and environmental causes. She has her own column and her work has been featured in various magazines.
Although many people in Japan know about Dennis Kucinich, Yumi knows that Kucinich is not covered by the U.S. commercial media, so she assumes that most Americans do not know who he is. It was very hard for her to believe that Kucinich is a leading candidate in Santa Cruz.
Yumi and I then discussed the sleeping ban in Santa Cruz and the overlap of her speaking and multimedia presentation with the press conference against the sleeping ban.
Yumi's friend Takashi Morishimi is a photographer that has been photographing children that have been the victims of Gulf Wars 1 and 2 in Iraq. There has been a dramatic increase in cancer and deformations as a result of the use of Depleted Uranium weapons throughout Iraq since the first Gulf War. The main result of DU usage has been the killing of innocent children and the contamination of an entire country. The half life of DU is 4.5 bill years.
There is no way to fix the U.S. war machine; it must be stopped now. Yumi fears the loss of an entire whole population. Her concerns are certainly not alone in Japan, as the peace demonstrations in Japan have been larger than any since the war in Vietnam. The ongoing peace demonstrations in Japan are being organized by small independent people without direct connections to churches and unions.
A collective in Japan has recently launched the Japan Independent Media Center and Yumi has written about Japan IMC in her weekly column. Independent media is critical today and it is nice to see the creation of new indymedia collectives such as the recently launched Taiwan Independent Media Center. Translations are also vital to global communication, and the creation of Translations.Indymedia.org is a huge break-through.
Somewhere between one and two thousand people from Japan went ordered to Iraq to serve in the occupation. They get sent in as Airforce to operate transportation needs, and are currently not involved in direct combat. Japanese soldiers can not speak out, but they are angry to support the illegal U.S. led invasion and occupation of Iraq.
People in Japan are also concerned about the illegal occupation and continued violence in Palestine. Mori Sorinoriko is a kindergarden teacher that has visited Palestine and now speaks out in Japan against the occupation and an important figure in the growing movement within Japan against the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
Yumi has observed through projects such as Indymedia that one person can make a big difference and that since September 11, 2001, more people are making a difference.
People in America and Japan have more power and liberty to speak out and we are, therefore, more responsible for speaking out and need to very careful with our upcoming presidential election.
To learn more about the Global Peace Campaign, go to:
http://www.peace2001.org
E-mail
bradley (at) riseup.net