Beheiren
Beheiren (ベ平連, short for ベトナムに平和を!市民連合, Betonamu ni Heiwa o! Shimin Rengo, "The Citizen's League for Peace in Vietnam") was an antiwar Japanese "New Left" activist group that existed from 1965 to 1974 which protested Japanese assistance to the United States during the Vietnam War.
Beheiren claims to have helped 20 U.S. soldiers to desert, in some cases providing them with false passports and other paperwork and helping them escape to
Members included
History
Beheiren was organized with the assistance of the "
In March 1965, political scientist Michitoshi Takabatake approached Tsurumi about the possibility of creating a new organization along the lines of the Voiceless Voices to protest against Japan's involvement in the Vietnam War.[8] Tsurumi agreed, and the two approached novelist and travel writer Makoto Oda to become the new group's official spokesperson.[9] Oda agreed, and on April 24, Beheiren was officially established as an offshoot of the existing Voiceless Voices Society.
Oda traveled extensively around Japan and the world to promote national and international movements against the Vietnam War. In particular, he pressed Japanese New Left activists to overcome their consciousness as helpless "victims" (higaisha) of defeat in World War II and recognize their role as "victimizers" (kagaisha) as citizens of a country that was deriving economic benefit from supporting the U.S.-led war in Vietnam.[10]
In 1970, Beheiren took a leading role in organizing large-scale protests against the automatic renewal of the
Beheiren continued its activities until the U.S. announced its withdrawal from South Vietnam in 1974. A final closing ceremony was held in Tokyo on January 26, 1974.[12] In a farewell address, Tsurumi Shunsuke told an audience of around 1,000 activists that although Beheiren was ending, "another day I think Beheiren—although not as Beheiren—will want to make an appearance once again. Beheiren is dissolved. Long live Beheiren!"[13]
References
Citations
- ^ Dean, Kevin Robert. "What Japanese Anti-Vietnam War activists are up to". mailman.lbo-talk.org. Retrieved 2018-08-24.
- ^ "Asian Studies Conference Japan ASCJ 2004". www.meijigakuin.ac.jp. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2018-08-24.
- S2CID 148969373.
- ^ Whitmore, Terry (1971). Memphis-Nam-Sweden. Doubleday & Company, Inc. p. 130.
- ISSN 0447-5763. Retrieved 2018-08-24.
- ^ a b Avenell 2010.
- ^ Kapur 2018, p. 155.
- ^ Avenell 2010, p. 111.
- ^ Avenell 2010, p. 112.
- ^ Avenell 2010, pp. 117–124.
- ^ a b Kapur 2022, p. 17.
- ^ Havens 1987, pp. 235–236.
- ^ Havens 1987, p. 236.
Bibliography
- Avenell, Simon Andrew (2010). Making Japanese citizens : civil society and the mythology of the Shimin in postwar Japan. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520262706.
- ISBN 978-0691054919.
- Kapur, Nick (2018). Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo. Cambridge, MA: ISBN 978-0674984424.
- Kapur, Nick (July 15, 2022). "The Japanese Student Movement in the Cold War Crucible, 1945-1972" (PDF). The Asia Pacific Journal: Japan Focus. 20 (14).