The first “Mullivaikkal Remembrance Day” action in Japan was joined by a dozen of peace and human rights activists in Kyoto on the evening of May 18. They raised placards condemning the massacre of Tamil people and showing solidarity with the human rights and self-determination of Eelam Tamil.

The action was organised by Global Justice Study Group (GJ), a local group of activists, which was formed two years ago. Maki, one of the founding members of the group organized a meeting on militarization in Asia in January 2016 featuring Dr, Jude Lal Fernando, who are teaching in Ritsumeikan University at that time. Maki incidentally get acquainted with Jude late 2015 when she was leafleting against the construction of a new U.S. base in Okinawa.

At the meeting Jude analized the geopolitics surrounding Sri Lanka and the region as the historical background of the Tamil issue and described the tragedy of Eelam Tamil. It was quite a shocking report for the audience.

In late that year, some of the participants of the meeting decided to publish the Japanese edition of the documents of People’s Tribunal on Sri Lanka in Bremen. The translation was completed early this year. Based on the information from Jude, GJ began to discuss some concrete action on this issue. On April 21 GJ organized a small meeting and heard reports from Jude (living in Ireland) and Ms. N Malathy, a Tamil activist living in New Zealand through Skype. Their reports were very impressive and the participants decided to organize the first “Mullivaikkal Remembrance Day” action on May 18.

Although the number of participants was limited, it was a good starting point. In Japan we have to start with spreading basic information about the oppression and genocide of Tamil people. It will take a lot of time and efforts to make people understand the importance of the issue but activists are determined to extend this kind of action in the whole country.

Correspondent