Hi there,

Where is the source for this information? I need it to report the
issue responsibly to CBC radio here in Canada...

Melisa


> The following is a translation of last night's speech by the Prime
> Minister of Japan, explaining why the Japanese air force bombed military
> bases and command-and-control installations in the American Southwest:
>
> "My fellow citizens:
>         Today our armed forces joined our allies in the Pacific Rim
> Organization for National Treaty Observance in air strikes against
> American forces responsible for the brutality in New Mexico.  We have
> acted with resolve for several reasons.
>         We act to protect thousands of innocent people in New Mexico from
> a mounting military offensive by the `border patrol.' We act to defuse a
> powder keg at the heart of North America that has exploded twice before in
> the last century and a half with catastrophic results, when the US invaded
> Mexico in 1846 and 1916.  We act to stand united with our allies for
> peace.  By acting now, we are upholding our values, protecting our
> interests, and advancing the cause of peace.
>         Tonight I want to speak with you about the tragedy in New Mexico
> and why it matters to Japan that we work with our allies to end it.
>         First, let me explain what it is we are responding to.  New Mexico
> is a state of the United States, in the middle of southwestern North
> America, about 1500 miles west of Cuba -- that's less than the distance
> from Hokkaido to Okinawa -- and only about 1000 miles north of Mexico
> City.  Its people are mostly ethnic Latino and mostly Catholic.
>         In recent years America's leader, Bill Clinton, the same leader
> who started the wars in Iraq and Colombia and attacked Sudan and
> Afghanistan in the last decade, increased the authority of the federal
> secret police, the `INS'; Mexicans are denied their right to speak their
> language, run their schools, shape their daily lives.  For years, Latinos
> struggled peacefully to get their rights back.  When President Clinton
> sent his troops and police to crush them, the struggle grew violent.
>         The American leaders refuse even to discuss key elements of the
> Japanese peace proposal.  America has stationed Marines along the border
> in preparation for a major offensive.  We've seen innocent people taken
> from their homes, forced to kneel in the dirt and sprayed with bullets;
> Mexican men dragged from their families, fathers and sons together lined
> up and shot in cold blood.  This is not war in the traditional sense.  It
> is an attack by armored vehicles and high-tech weapons on a largely
> defenseless people whose leaders speak only of peace.
>         Ending this tragedy is a moral imperative.  It is also important
> to Japan's national interests.  Take a look at the map.  New Mexico is a
> small place, but it sits on a major fault line between North America,
> Latin America, and the Pacific, at the meeting place of Catholicism and
> both the liberal and evangelical branches of Protestantism.  To the South
> are our allies, Peru (whose president is of Japanese descent) and
> Venezuela (which produces oil); to the north our increasingly important
> trading partner, Canada.
>         And all around New Mexico there are other states struggling with
> their own economic and political challenges, states that could be
> overwhelmed by a large new wave of refugees from New Mexico -- California,
> Texas, Arizona.  All the ingredients for a major war are there: Ancient
> grievances, struggling democracies, and in the center of it all, a
> president in America of highly questionable personal character who has
> done nothing since the Cold War ended but start new wars and pour gasoline
> on the flames of ethnic and religious division.
>         In neighboring Guatemala President Clinton recently acknowledged
> that American support for torture and murder cost 200,000 lives.  Earlier,
> World War II engulfed the Pacific.  In both wars, the world was slow to
> recognize the dangers, and Japan held back from entering these conflicts.
> Just imagine if leaders back then had acted wisely and early enough.  How
> many lives could have been saved?  How many Japanese would not have had to
> die?
>         We learned some of the same lessons in Nicaragua and El Salvador a
> decade ago.  The world did not act early enough to stop those wars,
> either.  And let's not forget what happened: Innocent people herded into
> concentration camps; children gunned down by snipers on their way to
> school; soccer fields and parks turned into cemeteries; a quarter of a
> million people killed not because of anything they had done but because of
> who they were.  Two million Central Americans became refugees.
>         This was genocide in the heart of the Americas, not in 1945 but in
> 1985, not in some grainy newsreel from our parents' and grandparents'
> time, but in our own time, testing our humanity and our resolve.
>         At the time, many people believed nothing could be done to end the
> bloodshed in Central America, They said, `Well, that's just the way those
> people in the Americas are.' But when we and our allies in the UN joined
> with courageous Central Americans to stand up to the aggressors, we helped
> end the wars.  We learned that in the Americas inaction in the face of
> brutality simply invites more brutality, but firmness can stop armies and
> save lives.  We must apply that lesson in New Mexico, before what happened
> in Central America happens there too.
>         Today we and our PRONTO allies agreed to do what we must do to
> restore the peace.  Our mission is clear: to demonstrate the seriousness
> of PRONTO's purpose so that the American leaders understand the imperative
> of reversing course; to deter an even bloodier offensive against innocent
> civilians in New Mexico; and if necessary, to seriously damage the
> American military's capacity to harm the people of New Mexico.  In short,
> if President Clinton will not make peace, we will limit his ability to
> make war.
>         Now, I want to be clear with you, there are risks in this military
> action -- risk to our pilots and the people on the ground.  America's air
> defenses are strong.  It could decide to intensify its assault on New
> Mexico or to seek to harm us or our allies elsewhere.  If it does, we will
> deliver a forceful response.  Hopefully Mr. Clinton will realize his
> present course is self-destructive and unsustainable.
>         If he decides to accept our peace proposal and demilitarize New
> Mexico, PRONTO has agreed to help to implement it with a peacekeeping
> force.  If PRONTO is invited to do so, our troops should take part in that
> mission to keep the peace.  But I do not intend to put our troops in New
> Mexico to fight a war.
>         Do our interests in New Mexico justify the dangers to our armed
> forces? I thought long and hard about that question.  I am convinced that
> the dangers of acting are far outweighed by the dangers of not acting --
> dangers to defenseless people and to our national interests.  If we and
> our allies were to allow this war to continue with no response, President
> Clinton would read our hesitation as a license to kill.  There would be
> many more massacres -- tens of thousands more refugees, more victims
> crying out for revenge.  Right now our firmness is the only hope the
> people of New Mexico have to be able to live in their own country without
> having to fear for their own lives.
>         Imagine what would happen if we and our allies decided just to
> look the other way as these people were massacred on PRONTO's doorstep.
> That would discredit PRONTO, the cornerstone on which our Pacific security
> rests.
>         We must also remember that this is a conflict with no natural
> national boundaries.  Let me ask you to look again at a map.  The arrows
> show the movement of refugees -- north, east, and west.  Already this
> movement is threatening the unstable democracy in Texas, which has its own
> Mexican minority and an Indian minority.  Already American forces have
> made forays into Mexico, from which New Mexicans have drawn support.
> Mexico has a Mayan minority.  Let a fire burn here in this area, and the
> flames will spread.  Eventually key Japanese allies could be drawn into a
> wider conflict, which we would be forced to confront later only at far
> greater risk and greater cost.
>         I have a responsibility as Prime Minister to deal with problems
> such as this before they do permanent harm to out national interests.
> Japan has a responsibility to stand with our allies when they are trying
> to save innocent lives and preserve peace, freedom, and stability in North
> America.  That is what we are doing in New Mexico.
>         If we have learned anything form the century drawing to a close,
> it is that if Japan is going to be prosperous and secure we need a North
> America that is prosperous, secure, united, and free.  We need a North
> America that is coming together, not falling apart, a North America that
> shares our values and shares the burdens of leadership.  That is the
> foundation on which the security or our children will depend.  That is why
> I have supported NAFTA and the economic unification of North America.
>         Now, what are the challenges to that vision of a peaceful, secure,
> united, stable North America? The challenge of strengthening a three-way
> partnership with the EU, that despite our disagreements is a constructive
> partner in the work of building peace.  The challenge of resolving the
> tension between Latin and indigenous peoples, and building bridges with
> the Christian world.  And finally the challenge of ending instability in
> the United States so that these bitter ethnic problems are resolved by the
> force of argument, not the force of arms, so that future generations of
> Japanese do not have to cross the Pacific to fight another terrible war.
> It is this challenge that we and our allies are facing in New Mexico. That
> is why we have acted now, because we care about saving innocent lives,
> because we have an interest in avoiding an even crueler and costlier war,
> and because our children need and deserve a peaceful, stable, free North
> America.
>         Our thoughts and prayers tonight must be with the men and women of
> our armed forces who are undertaking this mission for the sake of our
> values and our children's future.  May God bless them, and may God bless
> Japan."
>
>                                 --30--