Article 9 of Constitution of Japan

An article on May 4th Shinano-mainichi Shinbun surprised me a lot. It is an interview with Arthur Binard, a poet from the United States. He says he found two war and peace issues that surprisd him in Japan. The first one was the fishing boat named "Dai 5 hukuryuumaru", that met the United States' H-bomb test in 1954 in the Pacific Ocean and 23 people on it were killed or injured because of it. The fact has been seldom introduced in the US, and he didn't know it. He says his second surprise was that the constitution of Japan is still working, while the American one is like a mummy, not living. It is saying that only the US Congress has the right to make a declaration of starting a war, but the US has started many wars without it.

I didn't know both; the fact little people of America knows the terrible affair with the fishing boat; to know it means to learn what the nuclear weapons mean for human beings, and the American people are giving up to make their constitution work for their own life.

Arthur says it's time to change the US economical strategy from relying on the forces and wars to the other way. "The constitution of Japan has seemed too new, but the time to make it work is coming now. It can be a great foothold to the future days when wars are out of vogue."

He is telling of the Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan. It bans the government of Japan to go to war and to have forces But our government, conservative politicians and people who want benefits in the war or armament are trying to change it and make Japan a nation that can involve with wars. It's an urgent subject now. On May 3rd, the memorial day for proclamation our constitution, I stood in front of Sakudaira Station with some other people and asked the people to vote if they support the the article or not. And, almost all the people were against changing it. The picture is the cards we gave that day, and it says " Never go to war. Never hold weapons. It is the Article 9."

Some days ago, the US president Obama spoke about reducing nuclear weapons refering the US's responsibility as the only nation that used them on people, I read. Many of us, Japanese people, appriciate his speech. They say there are about 16500 nuclear bombs in the world and the USA and Russia have 90% of them. Can you guess how many times they can kill all the human beings on the Earth? Shall we work together to abolish the wars and weapons?

By the way, I haven't heard from Abby for a long time.Does anyone know about her?