To: Takenori Kanzaki Chairperson, New Komei-to Party
Toshiko Hamayotsu Deputy Chairperson, New Komei-to Party
Dear Officers,
On January, 23 2004, Ms. Toshiko Hamayotsu, a deputy chairperson of New
Komei-to party, delivered a speech representing the party in the upper
house of the national diet of Japan. In her speech, we firmly believe
that Ms. Hamayotsu quoted Dr. Galtung’s words out of context. Therefore,
we demand that Ms. Hamayotsu and New Komei-to party to retract the quote
and officially apologize to Dr. Galtung.
Ms. Hamayotsu’s speech includes the following:
“There is no argument regarding the purpose of the deployment of the
Self Defense Force to Iraq; it is for the humanistic support to rebuild
and not for war.”
“A world renowned peace scholar and activist, Dr. Johan Galtung, said:
‘We must be realists with our minds while keeping the flame of idealism
burning in our hearts.’ We, the New Komei-to party, shall be a party for
peace with action, while holding a high ideal for peace, for humanity,
and for human rights. For every problem that we face, we are determined
to challenge ourselves to find real solutions while remaining grounded
in reality.”
There are two points we would call to your attention. First, Dr. Galtung
has consistently opposed the US invasion of Iraq and the deployment of
Japanese Self Defense Forces to Iraq. Therefore, it is highly in appropriate
to quote him in a speech that was delivered to justify the current war
efforts of the United States and Japanese governments. Secondly, following
this sentence that you quoted, Dr. Galtung further elaborated “Being blind
to realities helps no one. By the same token, people who cannot develop
a humane idealism transcending realism cannot contribute to the progress
of humankind.” From the entire quote, it is clear to us that the New Komei-to
party, which has supported the US policy from the very early stage of
the current conflict, has failed to “transcend realism”, and failed to
“contribute to the progress of humankind.” We are seriously worried that
the current international policies of the party sharply deviate from its
founding principles.
Since it was delivered in a highly public and official manner, Ms. Hamayotsu’s
speech will be recorded in history. In order to eliminate any possibility
of misunderstanding Dr. Galtung now and in the future, we demand that
the above quotation be officially retracted from the record, and that
the New Komei-to party and Ms. Hamayotsu issue official letters of apology
immediately. Those letters should also be published in its organ paper.
We also demand that Dr. Galtung be given appropriate space to elaborate
his position on the current Iraq conflict in the organ paper.
Yours truly,
World Citizens Renouncing War