JAPAN: Anti-war demonstration protesting against deployment of Japanese troops in Iraq

Record ID: 864310

  • Title: JAPAN: Anti-war demonstration protesting against deployment of Japanese troops in Iraq
  • Date: 3rd February 2004
  • Summary: (W5) TOKYO, JAPAN (FEBRUARY 3, 2004) (REUTERS) WIDE OF NIGHT VIEW OF ANTI WAR DEMONSTRATION IN FRONT OF DEFENCE MINISTRY CLOSE OF SIGN READING (English) "Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Axis of lies" VARIOUS OF PEOPLE HOLDING CANDLE HOLDER WITH SIGN OF "Stop the war!" (2 SHOTS) WIDE OF SECURITY OUTSIDE MINISTRY WIDE OF PROTEST SCU ORGANISER MAKING SPEECH WIDE OF PROTEST CL
  • Embargoed: 18th February 2004 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: CHITOSE, HOKKAIDO ISLAND AND TOKYO, JAPAN
  • City:
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVASVNSAVKA0F820F4PQZ1LNR25
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Japanese troops depart for deployment to Iraq amid protests by peace activists.
    The first troops of a main Japanese army contingent left for Iraq on Tuesday (February 3) with the public deeply divided over the nation's first military dispatch to what is effectively a war zone in nearly six decades.
    Nudged by its key ally, the United States, to take a bigger global security role, Japan plans to send about 1,000 military personnel in all to help with Iraq's reconstruction.
    About 90 soldiers left Chitose on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido for south-eastern Iraq, where they will build a camp on the outskirts of the city of Samawa. The rest of the main contingent of nearly 600 members of the Ground Self-Defence Force (GSDF), as the army is known, is expected to depart in three waves beginning later in February.
    The dispatch has divided public opinion and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's government is bracing for the possibility that the military may suffer its first casualties since World War Two.
    About 300 demonstrators chanted slogans in a candlelit protest outside the Defence Ministry on Tuesday (February 3).
    "We want the government to persuade the United States to withdraw from Iraq immediately, and also to bring back its own troops," said organiser Shingo Fukuyama.
    In line with Japan's pacifist constitution, a law enabling the deployment limits activities to "non-combat zones", and government leaders have stressed the troops are not going to war.

    Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register