Overview

The US-Japan-NoWar Network is a group of individuals from Japan united against the use of any military force to respond to international terrorism, which struck the Eastern shores of the United States on September 11, 2001. We believe that countries must form international alliances on the basis of peace, not retaliation, in response to the horrible tragedies.

The Network offers individuals from Japan in the Bay Area and beyond a safe space to come together on the basis of a single fundamental value: prevailing peace and civil liberties for all people.

It all began when a Japanese language house meeting was held at a home of several individuals from Japan who wished to offer a safe space in which concerned individuals from Japan could discuss and share thoughts on the airliner attacks that occurred just two weeks before. With co-sponsorship from Nobiru-Kai, Japan-US Community Education and Exchange, Japan Pacific Resource Network, and outreach support from NOSEI, fourteen individuals attended. By the end of the meeting, one thing for certain was clear: we all did not know, but wanted to learn, what was happening around us, and that we wished for peace and only peace as the right response to the tragedies that befell thousands of people and their families in New York and Washington, DC. A list server US-Japan-NoWar@freeml.com with bilingual font compatibility was set up, and Japan Pacific Resource Network, a civil rights organization based in Oakland, CA, came forth to provide the space and resources necessary for the participants to meet and continue the dialogue.

We believe that genuine peace can be achieved only through peaceful means. As a unique community of a cultural milieu that is a blend of Western and Japanese perspectives, we the following areas of the current conflict to promote global peace:

-The role of the Japanese and US governments in the international community;

-The capacity-building and education of the Japanese civil society for peace across the Pacific and within the Bay Area primarily in the Japanese language;

-Standing in solidarity with all communities that are subject to unjust scapegoating and backlash across the country;

-Protecting against the erosion of civil liberties of all peoples by their respective governments; and

-Seeking meaningful participation in the international peace movement.

In the space and meetings convened by the Network, the following ‘ground rules’ are closely observed to ensure an internal culture that reflects the values of the group:

-All participants are equal players in the Network: the Network is committed to providing a safe space where comments and questions are voiced and addressed without fear or intimidation;

-We will LISTEN to one another and maintain mutual personal respect;

-The Network is committed to providing a space free of prejudices and discrimination against any of its members for any reason;

-The Network is committed to preventing a situation in which independent will of any member is undermined due to pressure to contribute or any other reason; and

-The Network respects its members ‘not knowing’, as it is committed to the joint effort to educate each other as well as others, and continue to grow. The mutual respect among all members shall not be undermined by any factor such as educational status, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, ethnicity, etc.

All activities and operations of the Network are done by the members with active support from Japan Pacific Resource Network(JPRN), 501(c)3 civil rights advocacy organization with offices in Oakland, CA and Tokyo, Japan. As we presently lack the capacity to raise and maintain funding, the motto is to do what we can, when we can. But in this limited capacity we have identified four main activity areas the Network aims to sustain as core components of its work:

-Education and Information exchange for and among the members: Currently it is extremely difficult to obtain credible and objective reporting of the current situation, both in the United States as well as in Japan. Despite the existence of various alternatives being proposed to the current retaliatory measure employed by the US and its supporters, accessing such information can be an insurmountable challenge for a Japanese speaker in the United States with limited time, resources and often times, language barriers. Therefore, the Network seeks to facilitate the identification, discernment, and flow of credible and reliable information in Japanese as well as English languages.

-Peer support of Bay Area residents from Japan: Amidst the chaotic circumstances today marked by hateful attacks against people of color and a furious call for a blood-for-blood revenge on a national scale, those in the Bay Area far from their familiar home environment and apart from their families face a level of uncertainty around their status in the US as well as the extremely delicate political balance in the Far East region. With mounting concerns for personally relevant issues such as their livelihood, the US status, and the US-Japan relations among others, the Network seeks to offer a space for members to address them collectively.

-Political Activities: The Network will demand an international alliance for peace to the Japanese and US governments by organizing and voicing Japanese civil society’s desire for nothing less. By organizing and speaking up in unity, we hope to increase the impact, effectiveness and influence of our voices as much as possible. The Network will respond to the turn of events by making public statements and strategically engaging in various efforts to effect the course of our governments and other decision-makers with our fellow members and allies.

-Networking and Alliance-building: There is truly a plethora of activities seen in the Bay Area and beyond speaking against war and violence. Ironically, the tragic events of September 11 are eliciting watershed alliances among various communities to unite for peace and civil liberties. Such an occasion took place between the Japanese-American community and the Arab, Muslim and South Asian communities with a common experience of being targeted victims of backlash. The Network seeks to bridge interaction between the Japanese community and other communities that make up the diverse landscape of the Bay Area to foster mutual understanding and respect, a critical element in a truly peaceful civil society.

-Fundraising and Outreach: The capacity of the Network is inevitably limited without the resources to conduct its activities and operations. The Network will actively implement creative ideas for fundraising events and projects to together build its organizational capacity while utilizing the opportunity for further outreach.

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