OSAKA -- Japanese against the war in Iraq and the dispatch of the Self-Defense Forces troops to help rebuild the nation may not be as vocal as their counterparts in the U.S. and Europe, but they are trying to sway public sentiment in an equally determined manner.
"Shouting in the streets like you see at antiwar demonstrations in London, Paris or Washington won't really work in Japan," said Masao Kinoshita, who represents the Kansai chapter of Block the Road to War, a nationwide group of antiwar protesters. "Instead, we're trying to persuade people in a more quiet manner that the war, and the dispatch of the SDF to Iraq, is wrong."
Since September, the group, whose members range in age from 18 to 80, has been waging a nationwide campaign to collect 1 million signatures in opposition to the SDF dispatch. As of Dec. 1 -- just two days after two Japanese diplomats were assassinated in Iraq -- however, the group had managed to get only 100,000 people to sign.