UNIONS IN JAPAN SET VIETNAM WAR PROTEST FOR OCTOBER 21
A massive demonstration against U.S. aggression in Vietnam is scheduled to take place in Japan on October 21. Called under broad sponsorship, the action promises to be one of the most significant of the international protests being held in solidarity with the American antiwar movement's mobilization in Washington the same day.
The chief organizers of the Japan action are SOHYO [the Japan General Council of Trade Unions], the Japan Socialist party and the Japan Youth Committee Against War.
Hiroyuki Sasako, general secretary of the Japan Youth Committee Against War, estimated in a letter to the Student Mobilization Committee in the U.S. that a central meeting in Tokyo would bring out 300,000, and as many as three million people would demonstrate throughout Japan.
October 21, Sasako said, is a “very significant date for the peace and democratic movement in Japan." It marks the first anniversary of a nationwide general strike against the war in Vietnam called by SOHYO on October 21 last year.
It is also the date when Japan's Prime Minister Sato is expected to arrive in Saigon for a goodwill visit to the military clique of Thieu and Ky.
The Japan Youth Committee Against War, at a special national convention, voted to call for demonstrations of Japanese youth on October 13 to help build the International Day of Protest the following week. The demonstration will have two aims: to demand that the U.S. get out of Vietnam and to oppose the planned visit of Prime Minister Sato to South Vietnam, The government's decision to allow the U.S. atomic carrier Enterprise to dock at Japanese ports in the near future will also be protested.