Workers, teachers and citizens held a joint
rally against Hinomaru flag and "kimigayo"
anthem at Hibiya park in Tokyo Friday, July
23. Under the slogans; Stop passing Hinomaru-Kimigayo
Bill in the current Diet! Never enforce school
to raise Hinomaru, sing "Kimigayo"!
6.5 thousand people attended the rally and
took part in the demonstration. In particular,
teachers union all over Japan spoke out how
their struggle kept on.
Just before the rally, a primary school teacher
in Hino, Tokyo, who refused to provide a
piano accompaniment for students singing
"Kimigayo" during an entrance ceremony
has receieved an official warning from Tokyo
Metropolitan Board of Education. This is
the first time that a teacher in Tokyo has
been punished for violating the Local Civil
Service Law by refusing to accompany students
singing the anthem. Since the warning means
that any teacher who refuses to sing "Kimigayo"
could be punishted and students be forced
to sing "Kimigayo," the Tokyo Teachers
Union lodged a protest with the board of
education.
Every spring, during the run-up to graduation
and enterance ceremonies, a conflict arises
over whether schools should raise the Hinomaru
flag, and whether teachers and students should
sing "Kimigayo" anthem.
This issue was even more controversial this
year because Toshihiro Ishikawa, the principal
of Hiroshima Prefectural Sera High School,
committed suicide under the heavy pressure
to raise Hinomaru and to enforce teachers
and students to sing "kimigayo"
by the Hiroshima Prefectural Board of Education
the day before his school's graduation ceremony.
Just after the incident, in March, the capitalist
LDP-LP (Liberal Democratic Party & Liberal
Party) government began considering the enactment
of lefislation to offically designate the
Hinomaru and "Kimigayo" as the
offical flag and anthem, and submitted the
Flag-Anthem Bill to the current Diet.
Teachers, workers and citizens including
"Nikkyoso" teachers union and Buraku
Liberation League have led the resistance
to the Hinomaru and "Kimigayo."
The "Kimigayo" song is translated
in the following way:
Thousands of years of happy reign be thine;
Bule on, my lord, till what are pebbles now
By age united to mighty rocks shall grow
Whose venerable sides the moss doth line.
"Kimigayo" is sure to be a symbol
of imperial Japan, stating that sovereign
power resides with the emperor, contradicting
the Constitution, which stipulates that ultimate
authority lies with the people.
We argue that the flag and song were symbols
of agresive war and military rule during
World War II. In addition, we regard "Kimigayo"
as a form of homage to the emperor and a
symbol of the hierarchy associated with the
imperial system.
Although the bill to legally designate the
hinomaru and "kimigayo" as the
national flag and anthem respectively was
passed into law Monday, August 9, with the
support of the LDP, LP, New Komeito and twenty
Democratic Party of Japan, the struggles
against Hinomaru and "Kimigayo"
would never die, particularly, in school
and education field.