Hiroshima und Auschwitz
The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 13, Issue 3, No. 1, January 19, 2015.
Mit freundlicher Erlaubnis von Japan Fpcus
Zum Download als pdf hier

Never Again: Hiroshima, Auschwitz and the Politics of Commemoration
もう二度と…　広島、アウシュヴィッツと記念の政治学
Ran Zwigenberg

Abstract:
Ran Zwigenberg makes a case for revising the history of Hiroshima and its global connections and importance. Focusing on the little known episode of the 1962 Hiroshima-Auschwitz Peace March, he argues that the march was a unique point of convergence between multiple national narratives of victimization. The Peace March illustrates the emergence of a shared discourse of commemoration of WW II following the Eichmann trial and others, which agents like the marchers facilitated and which emerged from multiple Western and non-Western sources.

In 1962 a young Jewish American psychiatrist by the name of Robert Lifton visited the Hiroshima Peace Museum. Lifton described his visit to the museum in a letter to his friend David Riesman, “I had seen many such pictures before…but somehow seeing these pictures in Hiroshima was entirely different…we left this part of the exhibit reeling…Both of us anxious, fearful and depressed–Betty [Lifton’s wife] to the point of being physically ill.”1 Lifton decided to stay in Hiroshima and help its survivors. His research greatly altered our understanding of Hiroshima and the psychiatry of trauma. It would be hard to find similar responses by visitors today. The Liftons’ reaction to the museum was not just a function of their encounter with the horror of Hiroshima but of the heightened awareness of the importance of the city in light of the global tensions that would bring the world to the brink of nuclear war that same year. The museum and Peace Park today are far calmer places. Perhaps even too calm. The message of peace, felt so urgently by Lifton, has lost its edge in Hiroshima. Italian journalist Tiziano Terzani captured the mood of the place succinctly when he wrote, “In Hiroshima…even the doves are bored with peace.”2 The serenity and passivity of the memorial begins right at the entrance to the museum,

Frieden auf der koreanischen Halbinsel

Seeking Peace: the World Council of Churches and the Korean Peninsula
World Council of Churches

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct12dXvW4q0

Veröffentlicht am 19.11.2014
The division of the Korean Peninsula and the Korean War marked the WCC since its beginnings in an era when, after the end of World War 2, the hope was that a more peaceful era would begin.

The efforts to find a response to the tragedy of division came into visible effect when, in 1984, the WCC's Commission of the Churches on International Affairs convened the founding consultation of the Tozanso Process. "At the time it was an act of prophetic courage" says the Rev. Prof. Dr Sang Chang of the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea, WCC president for Asia. During this period the Korean Christian Federation [based in the DPRK] became regular observers at WCC Assemblies. After the post-9/11 climate of dissipating possibilities for direct encounter, the WCC 10th Assembly in 2013 provided an opportunity for the wider international ecumenical community to become re-acquainted with the reality and consequences of the division of the Korean people.

Website of the WCC 10th Assembly: http://wcc2013.info
More information on the International Consultation on Justice, Peace and Reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula, June 2014: http://www.oikoumene.org/en/press-cen...

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Magosaki Ukeru 
Japan's Collective Self-Defense and American Strategic Policy:
Everything Starts from the US-Japan Alliance

Translated and Introduced by John Junkerman

This article presents an interview with a former top official of Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs that was conducted immediately after the adoption of a Cabinet resolution that changed the government's long-standing position: that Article 9 of Japan's Constitution prohibited the country from engaging in collective self-defense (military action in support of an ally that has come under enemy attack).

WCC - News,  19. Juni 2014

Church leaders meet and agree to advance peace on Korean Peninsula

In a first meeting since 2009 and since the 2013 appointment of a new leader for the Korea Christian Federation (KCF) of North Korea, an international group of church leaders from 34 countries, including North and South Korea, met near Geneva, Switzerland, to seek ways to advance reconciliation and peace on the peninsula.

The group agreed in a communiqué released at the end of their meeting on Thursday to seek new initiatives to advance peace, such as increasing visits between churches in North and South Korea, inviting younger people around the world to become involved in working for peace on the peninsula and calling for an annual day of prayer for peace on the peninsula.

The group also recommends promoting annual ecumenical meetings and consultations involving Christians from both countries in conjunction with the day of prayer.

Eine Bitte aus Japan

TO ALL who are concerned about the Abe administration's nationalistic policy
Let's together join in a lawsuit against the Abe Shinzo's officially visiting the Yasukuni War Shrine in violation of the Constitution.

The Group Supporting Lawsuit Claiming against Offi cial Visits by Prime Minister Abe; Tokyo

On 26th in December 2013, the Prime Minister ABE Shinzo visited the Yasukuni Shrine as a Japanese Prime Minister and prayed to the war gods who had been the war dead and honored collectively.
The Prime Minister Abe rode on his official car with the formal suite and signed on the visiting book as "The Japanese Prime Minister ABE Shinzo" when he arrived at the Yasukuni Shrine. After that, he walked into the heart of the shrine and prayed to the war gods. This act is clearly identified as officially visiting and breached the rule of secular politics which is stipulated in Article 20 of the Japanese Constitution. We need to raise our voices to criticize against his visiting by way of our specific actions:  the lawsuit against Abe's visiting the Yasukuni Shrine.   Lesen Sie bitte hier weiter

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Video-Message von Gangjeong auf Jeju-do in Südkorea

The Spirit of Gangjeong - Episode Nr.3

In Gangjeong auf Jeju-do in Südkorea wird mitten im Naturschutzgebiet ein moderne Kriegshafen gebaut. Die südkoreanische Regierung läßt ihn durch di Fa. Samsung und in Anbsprache mnit der US-Regierung bauen. Die Proteste dauern nun schon 7 Jahre, die Firma und die Polizei greifen immer wieder zu gewaltsamen Methoden, um den friedlichen Protest zu unterdrücken.

Es geht bei dem Protest gegen Krieg, Militarismus, Verweigerung der Menschenrechte und Zerstörung der Umwelt um eine inzwsichen viele Menschen im ganzen Land ergriffene Bewegung. Das Video zeigt die jüngste Entwicklung: