KJ Online Special

“We Need to Eliminate War in Our Own Minds” – An interview with Satoko Norimatsu of Vancouver Save Article 9

by Jean Miyake Downey



Vancouver is North America’s epicenter of support for Japan’s Peace Constitution. At the Vancouver Save Article 9 (VSA9) launch in May 2005, Article 9 Association co-founder Kato Shuichi suggested an explanation: "Perhaps it is not a coincidence that an Article 9 group was formed here, because Vancouver is where the West meets the East." A Pacific Rim crossroads, the city is home to people of diverse heritage, many whose lives still resonate with memories of suffering wrought by the Pacific War.

One of these Vancouverites, Japan-born Satoko Norimatsu, was shocked into peace advocacy when she first learned about Japan’s wartime aggression while attending an international high school in Vancouver where she met students from Asian countries who told her about Pacific War history she had not learned about in Japanese history textbooks. A co-founder of VSA9, Norimatsu started the Peace Philosophy Centre to promote peace and sustainability.

The Centre’s "Peace Philosophy Salon” facilitates conversations between students from Japan, China, Korea, and other Asian countries, similarly to One by One, an organization that conducts face-to-face “dialogue among descendants of survivors, perpetrators, bystanders and resisters” of the Nazi era. Both groups seek to transform the legacies of war and genocide. Salon participants dialogue on events in Asia-Pacific wartime history, such as the Nanjing Massacre. Norimatsu explains that emotional tension is part of the process, but creates “surprisingly positive and synergetic learning outcomes.” Participants disseminate what they’ve learned through the Centre's blog in multiple languages. As a result of this immediate and original content, the blog is one of the Web’s best sources on Article 9 and Asia-Pacific historical reconciliation.



This year Norimatsu blogged on novelist Joy Kogawa’s speech at a Toronto Article 9 Event, "Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution: Bringing Peace to Today's World," held May 15, 2009 at the University of Toronto. The daughter of a minister, Kogawa was forcibly removed from Canada’s West Coast with her parents and brother (and 20,000 other Japanese Canadians); her book Obasan is considered the North American classic on the incarceration experience. The author proclaimed Article 9 "What is best in today’s Japan."

In collaboration with the BC chapter of Canada ALPHA (a group organized to raise awareness on the war atrocities in Asia committed by Japan's Imperial Army and to help bring justice to the victims of the war), the Peace Philosophy Centre helped compose an “Open letter to the Emperor and Empress” thanking them for their commitment to peace. The letter referred to paying tribute to the Korean victims' monument in Saipan in 2005; expressing regret for the wartime suffering that Japan brought to China in 1992; and visiting Battle of Okinawa sites commemorating tens of millions of civilian deaths in 1993. The letter then asked for the couple's continued support of endeavours to keep Article 9 and to help bring healing and justice to the victims of the Asia-Pacific War.”


The community-based educator also works with the Hiroshima/Nagasaki Peace Tour which brings Japanese and North American students together to visit the A-bomb afflicted cities every summer.

Peacebuilding has become Norimatsu’s entire life: “What is happening in the world is me.” As she became aware of the connections between violence and dominant patterns of environmental degradation, she moved her family from a suburb into an eco-sensitive certified house in the city center where she has a vegetable garden that uses EM (effective microorganism) composting invented in Okinawa. “My dream of living in a sustainable house with a vegetable garden (soil); looking after and loving myself, my family and my friends (soul), and engaging with the society and the world in a positive and transformative way (society) is finally coming together and coming true.”

JD: You spend much time advocating for Article 9. Why is this issue so important to you?

Article 9 represents to me the souls of 20 million people killed in Japan's wars in the Asia-Pacific. More broadly, Article 9 represents to me the more than 90 million people that state violence killed in the 20th century –– the bloodiest century in human history. And, of course, the millions of survivors of the wars who are still suffering. Those who say we should change it simply because of the current geopolitical situation are so narrow-sighted. Kato-sensei said we learn history so that we can detect signs in the current society that could lead us to repeat our past mistakes. We learn about the Nanjing Massacre and check whether in our present society the kind of racism that fueled those crimes still remains in our mind. Article 9 is the hard––the hardest lesson –– learnt from Japan’s history. We should never detach the Article 9 debate from its historical context. When we think about Article 9 with its wartime historical perspective, I can't believe anybody would want to change it.

JD: How did Vancouver Save Article 9 get started in 2005?

I was one of the founding members, and I was not that active initially. Yoshio Shiji and Chizuko Masukawa, a couple who used to live in Vancouver, initiated its creation. They were part of a local organic farming circle and, in my understanding; some of the original members of Vancouver Save Article 9 (VSA9) came from that circle as well. Yoshio and Chizuko knew about the movement networking Article 9 advocates throughout Japan (Article 9 Association), and thought of starting a similar group in Vancouver.

They started talking to like-minded people, mostly Japanese Canadians, and formed a committee to establish a group, which included Tama Copithorne, (former director of Japanese Studies at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver) and me.

I don't have any specific explanation for why one of the first and rare Article 9 groups outside of Japan was formed in Vancouver and not in another place, except the interpretation that Shuichi Kato gave in his speech at the launching event in May 2005, "Perhaps it is not a coincidence that an Article 9 group was formed here, because Vancouver is where the West meets the East."

JD: Is there anything in particular in your background that influenced your becoming a peace educator?

SN: Yes. Most notably, the two years I spent at Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific, in Victoria, BC, when I was 17 and 18 years old. It was an international high school built to promote international understanding. There were 200 students from 70 different countries then, and now the College has over 100 countries represented. My best friends included students from Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines. From them, I learnt for the first time the wartime atrocities committed by Japan. It was shocking becoming aware of how little I had been taught back in Japan.

This is when I became aware of the importance of education and the importance of having critical eyes about the education one receives whether it is at school or through media. This experience created the foundation for what I do now, but it took me a long time until I started acting upon this. Up until 2004, I was so preoccupied with the micro-management of my life––work, family, and studies, that I could not really think beyond the narrow sphere of my daily activities.

But the summer of 2004, Tama Copithorne, whom I regard as my mentor, brought me to a lunch where the establishment of a new Article 9 group in Vancouver was discussed. I was a little defensive at that time. I thought I was already contributing enough to world peace by teaching intercultural communication at a university and did not see a need to actively participate in a movement to maintain Article 9.

Then Tama brought my attention to the books by Kato Shuichi, a prominent author [interviewed in KJ #48] and one of the nine people who started "9-jo-no-kai" (Article 9 Association). Reading Kato's books motivated me to get involved with the establishment of a group now called Vancouver Save Article 9. Kato Shuichi came to Vancouver in May 2005, and gave a talk at the launching event of Vancouver Save Article 9.

Before Kato passed away in December 2008, he warned that the societal trends after the 90's resemble those in the 1920's - 30's. The democratic movements of a relatively free society were slowly and gradually suppressed and replaced by seemingly harmless scheme, such as the Peace Preservation Law enacted in 1924, which resulted in the imprisonment, torture, and deaths of tens of thousands of dissidents until 1945. Kato taught me the importance of being alert to these subtle signs of societal change and not being fooled by euphemisms often used by the government.

JD: When I befriended people from Asia whose families suffered during the Pacific War, my sensitivity to this history broadened and deepened. Because of personal bonds, I especially want to contribute to healing this history. I’ve noticed Asian American solidarity in interrelated Pacific War historical redress: Asian Americans supported the Japanese American incarceration redress. In turn, Japanese Americans (for example, the belated Tsuyako Kitashima) supported the Rape of Nanking Redress Coalition. Congressman Mike Honda supported Korean-Americans lobbying for an US congressional resolution demanding a better apology to Japanese military sexual slavery survivors. Vancouver also has a number of Asian Canadians who mutually supported each other in Asian Canadian historical healing (Japanese Canadian incarceration and the Chinese Head Tax). Do friendships in your diverse city contribute to the humanitarian cohesion that energizes movement towards historical healing?

SN: We share common interests and goals regarding Japan's wartime crimes and its post-war atonement or lack of it. I have grave concerns over the lack of knowledge and awareness of the Japanese people in general about their country's brutal behaviour during the war throughout Asia-Pacific regions.

As you said, Vancouver is richly diverse with immigrants from China, Korea, India, and beyond, and their children and grandchildren. Vancouver is the city with the highest percentage of children of inter-racial couples in Canada; diversity is becoming increasingly complex and people are giving up on the idea of labeling someone with single hyphenation. "Merry Christmas" has become politically incorrect as a standard wintertime greeting. Ironically, I hear this more in Japan than anywhere in Canada.

Thanks to this diversity, I think people in Vancouver, including those with Asian backgrounds, are generally open-minded and tolerant of differences, compared to societies that are more homogeneous. Asians, like Chinese, Koreans, and Japanese seem to work together better than their peers in their respective countries, as being in the third country helps them become aware of more similarities than differences between them.

For example, Japanese students who come to Vancouver to learn English usually find themselves making friends first with their Chinese and Korean peers in their classroom, then expand their friendship from that base. However, as they explore their friendship, one typical roadblock they face is a vast difference in their understanding of history or, again, lack of it. Many Japanese students are ignorant of their country's wrongdoing in fellow Asian countries, just as I was in high school. In contrast, many of the Chinese and Korean students have been taught a lot about that part of the history and some have negative views about Japan and its people.

Japanese students are often shocked to hear the comments by their Asian peers about perceptions often passed on from their parents and grandparents who experienced the Second World War. The same thing happens among older immigrants from these countries.

One great thing about Vancouver in my opinion is that we have no choice other than co-exist. The Japanese population is much smaller than the Chinese and Korean populations, so it becomes very difficult for a Japanese person to get away with holding onto distorted historical views like denying the Nanjing Massacre and calling the victims of military sex slavery "prostitutes."

Back in Asia, Japan is relatively isolated. People use the Japanese language exclusively so one can actually get away with holding those distorted historical beliefs, or the kind of ethnocentric views that played part in Japanese prewar colonialism.

Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, and Southeast Asians in Vancouver develop different views than they might in their ancestral countries. For example, they can observe nationalism in their own country with more critical eyes. Also, those who have had negative images of Japan can learn there can actually be "nice" Japanese people. So they become more open-minded as well.

These personal friendships might be simple but do play key roles in supporting a reconciliatory environment for mutual learning.

When I host my "Peace Philosophy Salon" with students with mostly Asian backgrounds, I had students from Japan, China, Korea, and beyond, in the session on Nanjing Massacre. Such an environment does create tension and sensitivity, but students are guided to look at the historical facts from other perspectives than their own. With balanced facilitation, we usually reach surprisingly positive and synergistic learning outcomes. We disseminate what we learn through my Centre's blog in multiple languages.

For example, if some information is abundant in Chinese but rarely available in Japanese, I try to provide it in Japanese and also in English, our common language. By sharing our learning on the Internet, our multicultural and multilinguistic approach for learning go beyond Vancouver and reach Asia. This is how we try to create more understanding and peace in Asia, from Vancouver.

I will share two more examples with you.

Last year I was invited by BC ALPHA to talk about Japanese people's initiatives, inside and outside of Japan, to support victims of Japan's aggressive war, with the teachers who came back from their study tour. They bring a group of Canadian teachers every summer to China and Korea to learn about Nanjing Massacre, Japanese military sex slavery, Unit 731, etc. In that talk, for example, I talked about the fact that Japan has a museum called WAM, Women's Active Museum on War and Peace, dedicated to the education of the Military Sex Slavery issue to the public. Many people are surprised to know the existence of such a museum in Japan. I thought it was such a meaningful move on ALPHA's side to have me speak about these transnational citizen's movements and efforts to bring peace and healing to the war wounds.

People tend to focus too much on the behaviours of governments and tend to allow those behaviours to speak collectively for everyone. While it is the responsibility of citizens to elect the right government and to try to help the government bring justice to the unresolved issues, each individual citizen needs to always to remain aware of how much power each of us has for bringing peace and reconciliation to Asia.

We also had a Japanese history teacher give a talk at a community centre in Vancouver Downtown about her approach for peace education, with emphasis on how young students can learn about horrors of war without losing hope for the future. We reported the event in Japanese, Chinese, and Korean as well as English.

JD: Even though Mairead Corrigan Maguire nominated the Global Article 9 Movement for the Nobel Peace Prize this year, many people, including peacebuilders, have no awareness of Japan’s or (for that matter) Costa Rica’s constitutional peace clauses. Do you have any advice for individuals and organizations in the U.S. who are aware of and want to support the maintenance the movement for a Global Article 9?

I want to raise awareness on Article 9 outside of Japan because I realize Article 9 would provide a new realistic approach to peace to the post-nuclear world. As Steven Leeper of Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation says, the world is at its crossroads with regard to nuclear weapons. At the Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference in May 2010, humanity will choose whether it will continue to live with the threat of total annihilation, or survival. U.S. President Obama acknowledged the U.S.'s "moral responsibility" for the use of two atomic bombs in Japan, and made it clear that the U.S. would start acting for realizing a nuclear-free world.

The world is about to shift from "more" to "less" — from more nuclear weapons to less of them. Not all countries want to follow this course yet, but it is extremely significant that the U.S. and Russia, which possess more than 95% of nuclear arsenals in the world, have decided to take on this course. When the world is standing for nonproliferation, it is at the same time standing towards Article 9.

The world will need a completely new paradigm for creating peace after it chooses to abolish nuclear weapons. We will still have other weapons, and we will still have nuclear power plants that can be targets of attack with non-nuclear weapons. How much safer will the post-nuclear world be, if we human beings are still clinging to the idea that our security (on personal, national, and global levels) can be only guaranteed by tools of violence?

It is for this reason that I believe anti-nuclear movements; elimination of war tools; and Article 9 movements (the elimination of war itself) have to go hand in hand, so we can develop a clear vision of and take full responsibility for creating and maintaining peace in the post-nuclear world. Elimination of means is not enough. As the UNESCO constitution suggests, we need to eliminate war in our own minds.

After the success of the Toronto Article 9 event, I am thinking of doing similar events in some of the major cities in the United States––maybe in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and St. Louis to begin with.

From my limited conversations with Americans in the past, it is often very hard for them even to imagine something like Article 9 or living in the world without war and without weapons. It takes a lot of mental reprogramming to change the mentality of a nation that has for a long time relied on military might as the nation's pride and identity. I believe that the time has matured for us to gently challenge and that mentality. We need to teach our brain it is possible to embrace Article 9.

I recently watched the impressive documentary film called The Power of Forgiveness, which talks about increasing trends in the United States and elsewhere for scientific and spiritual research on the power of forgiveness in peace-building, between nations, groups and individuals, and even intra-personally. The fact that many similar moves are being initiated in the U.S. is a good sign that the country and its people are changing. I think the development of Japanese Article 9 groups can provide a peace networking model for the world. The Article 9 Association (9-jo-no-kai) now charts nearly 7,500 Article 9 groups across Japan, since they started networking back in 2004.

I believe that overseas Article 9 groups can play an important role.

Back in June 2006, Vancouver hosted the world's first World Peace Forum. The Vancouver Save Article 9 received much attention from the Article 9 supporters in Japan when they learnt about the existence of such a group in Vancouver. It was a big pleasant surprise for them and also gave them much energy and inspiration. We needn't be shy from fully capitalizing on this "overseas effect" that supports the citizens of Japan dedicated to keeping and realizing Article 9.

I would also like to continue to talk about Article 9 and its significance to the world, for the larger sake of bringing the world’s attention to what Article 9 suggests as one, if not the only, realistic way of survival for humanity and for this Earth.

 

---

Back to KJ 72
Subscriptions