PNWJ Presents: Peace Film and Live Music Festival in Kunitachi

Peace Not War Japan, a grassroots collective that has been organizing live music, dance and other cultural events since 2006 to raise awareness and funds for citizen-level peace groups, is pleased to announce its latest event to be held this weekend, November 1st-3rd, in the western Tokyo town of Kunitachi.

Kunitachi--known for its progressive social activism and a lively arts scene--will also be holding the "Kunitachi Tenkaichi festival" on the same three days. The town's main street of "Daigakudori" will be transformed into full festival mode, with food stalls and local merchants showcasing their wares.

On each of the three nights, the Chikyuya bar and cafe--a cozy space whose name loosely translates as "Earth House"--will host a lineup of fantastic live bands representing a variety of musical genres, as well as a thought-provoking, peace-themed documentary film to be followed by a talk session. A portion of each night's proceeds will then be donated to a grassroots peace group working in conjunction with the issue being spotlighted.

We believe that peace starts in each of our own individual hearts, and this event will be held in the spirit of inspiring peaceful energies amongst everyone present. So come out to Kunitachi to get some fresh perspectives on important issues that you're not likely to find elsewhere... all while supporting a great cause, *and* enjoying some fabulous entertainment!


Venue: Chikyuya Live House, Kunitachi, Tokyo
Phone: 0425-725-851
Website here (map in Japanese only).
Entry: 1500 yen per night (includes peace group donation)
Time: Doors open at 7:30 PM nightly; shows will run from 8PM
until around 11PM

Sunday, November 1st
Peace issue: Stop construction on Mt. Takao!
Documentary film: "Takao san: 24 years of memories" (Japanese only)
Director: Sisido Daisuke
Peace talk: Sakata Masako from the Kenji no kai (eco-action
group working to save Mt. Takao from slated construction)
Donations: Kenji no kai
Website: http://homepage2.nifty.com/kenju/ (Japanese only)

Live performers:
* LEYONA
* Ailie
* Numazawa Takashi (DUB AINU BAND/blues.the-butcher-590213/ill)
* Tengokudan

Monday, November 2nd
Peace issue: War in Iraq and Afghanistan
Documentary film: "Fuyu no heishi" (Winter Soldier)
(English with Japanese subtitles)
Director: Tabo Junichi
A peace talk will be held with the director following the film,
which recounts the Iraq Veterans Against the War's Winter Soldier testimonies of U.S. soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and are now committed to revealing the truth regarding the miseries of war and militarism.

Donations: Collateral Repair Project (grassroots coalition of U.S. and Iraqi citizens working to provide support to Iraqi refugees )

Live performers:
* Nigayomogi
* 東京月桃三味線
* Takeru

Tuesday, November 3rd
Peace issue: No Helipads in Takae!
Documentary film: "Kukuru" (Japanese only)
Director: Kim Sunyon
Peace Talk: Kondo Ichiro and Murakami Yoko, from Yuntaku Takae

Donations: Yanbaru Takae--Association to Protect the Broccoli Forest (Local movement to stop U.S. military construction in Okinawa's Yanbaru region)

Live performers:
* Kudo "Big H" Haruyasu & Friends
* poodles
* Love Station

Additional Info:
* We ask that you please refrain from smoking in the venue.
* All artists are performing on a volunteer basis. Once the venue rental fee and other expenses have been paid, all proceeds will be donated to the peace groups specified above.

Peace Lovers and Musicians Stir Up Good Vibes During World March Tokyo Event

Peace activist Yamada Sei, musician Harada Shinji, and eight World March for Peace and Nonviolence marchers from Spain, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland and New Zealand led a jam session for a new global vision of peace Monday evening at the Yoyogi Hachiman Community Center in Tokyo.

Artists transformed the stage with dreamcatchers (wooden hoops decorated with natural objects) woven through several enormous pieces of driftwood. The dreamcatchers, first created by Native Americans as a shamanistic creation to help manifest dreams, surrounded the evening’s key speaker Yamada Sei. Now 71, the peace and environmental activist recounted her forty-some years of organizing. Her work started along the seacoast of Okinawa’s Ishigaki island, when villagers began a struggle against plans to build an airport along a fragile coral reef. “These were people whose life rhythms were firmly rooted together with the ocean, and in the cycles of nature—tending to their fields by day, and enjoying their food and drink at night. They were furious at the thought of airplanes roaring overhead and destroying their tranquility. At one point, they even protested by dancing in front of the local police office!” Yamada recounted, explaining that their struggle was more cultural than being rooted in any sort of ideology.

Yamada, whose life work springs from the intersection of peace and environmental issues, also made clear her concern about nuclear power in Japan. "The truth is that nuclear power was first produced for the purpose of creating nuclear weapons—the same ones that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki—and there is nothing to say that nuclear power plants in Japan won’t be utilized for this purpose in the future,” she said. “We must also understand the incredible danger posed by the high levels of radiation that these plants spew out on a continual basis, due in part to which we are practically swimming in a sea of chemicals.”

Yamada, being interviewed by peace activist Hoshikawa Mari, with peace cranes placed onstage by a World Marcher participant during the talk session

Yamada also voiced a concern about the inability to trust corporate media. “I don’t read the newspapers or watch television, but I trust my knowledge of events more than people who rely on such sources, simply because I make it a point to go out and see for myself what is happening,” the activist emphasized. She has traveled extensively within Japan, where she worked with people including the victims of the 1995 Kobe earthquake and the homeless. Her international activism includes work with Iraqis in Jordan; Palestinians in Gaza; North Koreans fleeing repression and starvation over the border into China; and—perhaps her most dedicated project—working for social justice in the Philippines.

“I offer you my deepest thanks for coming here to Japan to be with us,” she said, addressing the assembled World Marchers. “It’s going to be everyone here tonight––including the young people of Japan––who create a more positive future.”

World Marcher Isabelle Alexandrine Bourgeois echoed Yamada's view on the mainstream media. The Swiss journalist said her frustratration with the mass media focus on depressing events motivated her to start her own news source, the French language website Planet Positive. This positive news website spotlights inspirational news from around the globe. “I believe that when left to its natural state, the relationship between human beings is one of love and understanding, and not the negativity and fear that are perpetuated by media and governments.", Bourgeois explained. “Indeed, while maintaining this resource, I have continued to discover nothing but beauty and positivity.”

Featured performer Shinji Harada shared an equally uplifting message. The rocker just returned from New York City, where he performed for Universal Peace Day and a September 11th floating lantern ceremony organized by the New York Buddhist Church. Born in Hiroshima, Harada gained musical fame while a still teenager. Only seconds after taking the stage, his infectious positive vibe pulled audience members halfway out of their seats to dance, clap and groove .

His urgent message between songs was this: “Given the state of the world today, it is extremely important that we take action--and that we do it now, since even five years from now it may be too late. Even so, what we have going for us is that our humanity is shared...and everyone single one of us has an important role to play.”Harada shares of his thoughts on peace at his website's English page here, as well as at the site of his NPO Chinju-no-Mori ("Gentle Earth"), which organizes concerts at forested shrines to raise awareness of environmental and peace issues.

Many of the 50-some people who attended also browsed through photojournalist Hirokawa Ryuichi's exhibition and other peace booths. This was a decent turnout considering that the event competed with a “Naked Loft” café (event and music space in Tokyo’s neighborhood of Shinjuku) featuring Yumi Kikuchi. The well-known activist held a talk and live performance session with Himalayan-born performer Bobin and author, musician, and spiritualist Alicia Bay Laurel. Laurel, who has longstanding connections with Japan, is here on tour--look out for more on her work!

World marcher participant from New Zealand, together with Japanese university students in attendance at the event

--Kimberly Hughes

World March event in Tokyo on Monday, Oct.19, to feature peace talks, musical performances and more

Date: Monday, October 19th
Time: 6:30-9PM
Venue: Yoyogi Hachiman Kumin-Kaikan (near Yoyogi Hachiman station)
Address: Yoyogi 5-1-15, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Tel: 03-3466-3239

A map (Japanese) may be found here.
Admission: Free
Event Support: Peace Not War Japan

Teams of marchers are presently making their way across the globe as part of the World March for Peace and Nonviolence, which kicked off October 2nd (Gandhi’s birthday), holding events to encourage a “new, non-violent global consciousness.”

One team of marchers, which includes 15 members of varying ages and nationalities, will be in Tokyo early next week to share stories of peace actions from their home countries and in the places they have visited thus far during the march, which include Hiroshima for the meeting of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation & Disarmament and a "Nuclear-Free World" event.

The Tokyo event will also feature musical performances by singer/peace activist Harada Shinji and the “World March Support Band”, as well as by the some of the marchers themselves. In addition, there will be a talk session by peace activists Yamada Sei (Aman no kai) and Hoshikawa Mari (“Be-In” peace events), who will share advice and ideas on how we can take actions in our daily lives to help create a more peaceful world. There will also be booths with information from various peace groups, including the Yanbaru Takae Association to Protect the Broccoli Forest (a local movement in Okinawa's Yanbaru region to stop U.S. military construction), and a photo exhibition from Hirokawa Ryuichi, chief editor of the award-winning Days Japan photojournalism magazine, showing his work from Chernobyl, Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The event will be held in Japanese, Spanish and English. Don’t miss this opportunity to meet and interact with people who are involved in creative peace work all around the world, while also enjoying some fabulous music and other peace-related inspiration!