World Peace Forum Asia Regional Conference
June 25, 2006, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
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World Peace Forum Asia Regional Conference |
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| Media |
| NOTE: Last updated June 14. Please check back for updates to the Asia Regional Conference Program |
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| Conference Venue: University of British Columbia, Henry Angus Building |
| 9:00-11:00 PLENARY SESSION: WHEN SORRY IS NOT ENOUGH - FROM REDRESS TO RECONCILIATION Colonialism, World War II and the Cold War devastated Asia. This session will address the progress and stumbling blocks to achieving reconciliation, including outstanding issues related to World War II, and to Cold War conflicts. The lack of reconciliation has direct impact on the regional peace and stability as evident by the recent tensions among Japan, China and Korea. The experience of redress for Japanese Canadians will be highlighted as a positive example for redress and reconciliation process. |
| Moderator: | Roy Miki | Poet, scholar, and author (Redress. Inside the Japanese Canadian Call for Justice) |
| Panel: | Kang Jian (speech-English) (speech-Chinese) |
Attorney-at-law and advocate for victims of war crimes |
| Akihiko Kimijima (speech) | Specialist in Japanese Constitution, Ritsumeikan University |
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11:00-12:00 |
| Moderator: | Harsha Walia | Writer and Activist |
| Keynote Speaker: | Hassan Gardezi (speech) | Professor Emeritus, Algoma University College, Ontario |
| 1:00-4:00 WORKSHOP A: From Nuclear Tension to Cooperative Security: A Northeast Asia Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone (NEA-NWFZ) NGOs in Asia, with allied groups in North America drafted a Model NEA-NWFZ Treaty that includes North and South Korea and Japan, in particular to address the long-standing tensions on the Korean Peninsula. |
| Moderator: | Patti Willis | PCDS Resource Coordinator |
| Panel 1: | Hiromichi Umebayashi (speech) | President, Peace Depot, Yokohama |
| Wade Hunley | Director, Simons Foundation for Disarmament & Non- Proliferation Research | |
| Cheong Wook sik | Chair, Civil Network for Peaceful Korea |
| How can we promote & build momentum for a NEA- NWFZ? Civil Society Initiatives | ||
| Panel 2: | Nobuo Kazashi | Board Member, Peace Depot; Director, No DU Hiroshima Project |
| Niu Qiang | Secretary General, Chinese People’s Association for Peace and Disarmament | |
| Kyoko Ishida | International Coordinator, Japan Congress Against A- and H-Bombs (GENSUIKIN)/Forum for Peace, Human Rights and Environment (Peace Forum) | |
| Kyeongju Lee | Professor, College of Law, In-Ha University; Advisor, Civil Network for a Peaceful Korea | |
| Carol Jahnkow | Director, Peace Resource Center of San Diego | |
| Murray Thomson | Founder & former Executive Director, Peacefund Canada | |
| 1:00-4:00 WORKSHOP B: RECONCILIATION AND PEACE IN NORTH-EASTERN ASIA Challenges in North-Eastern Asia are introduced through a recitation play, and then by speaker/citizens addressing themes of history, U.S military bases in Japan, and the Yasukuni Shrine, discussion following. |
| Participants: | Suh Sung | Ritsumeikan Centre for Korean Studies |
| Ikuro Anzai | Director, Kyoto Museum for World Peace | |
| Eiichi Kido | Osaka University | |
| Atsushi Fujioka | Ritsumeikan University | |
| Kyoko Okumoto | Osaka Jogakuin College | |
| Li Xiaolin | Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries |
| 1:00-4:00 WORKSHOP C: MILITARY BASES AND PEACE IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC Focus is on U.S. military bases and on the danger of war that they represent in particular the expansion of forces in Korea and Japan into rapid-deployment troops for intervention purposes. |
| Panel: | Agatha Haun (speech) | SPARK |
| Kyoko Ishida | International Coordinator, GENSUKIN/Peace Forum |
| 2:30-4:00 WORKSHOP D: ROADBLOCKS TO PEACE IN SOUTH ASIA Civil war in Sri Lanka, Maoist insurgency and democratic movement in Nepal, possibilities of peace in Kashmir and between nuclear-armed Pakistan and India, and Pakistan's wars in Waziristan and Balochistan will be explored. |
| Moderator: | Zahid Makhdoom | Freelance writer and human rights advocate |
| Speakers: | Aziz Baloch (speech) | Representative of the Baloch community in Vancouver |
| Abi Ghimire | Canadian Network of Democratic Nepal | |
| Imran Munir | Journalist and Ph.D. candidate, Simon Fraser University | |
| Haider Nizamani | Department of Political Science, University of British Columbia | |
| Promod Puri | Journalist, editor and publisher |
| 1:00-2:15 WORKSHOP E: MOVING BEYOND VOLUNTARISM: CANADA, MINING AND CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION Canadian mining companies have been implicated in human rights abuses and environmental disasters in many countries in the Asia-Pacific region, including in conflict zones. This workshop will examine recent initiatives by the Canadian NGO sector and concerned Parliamentarians to hold Canadian mining companies accountable in Canada for their actions/activities abroad. |
| Panel: | Catherine Coumans | Senior Researcher, MiningWatch, Canada |
| Sara Kemp | Coordinator, Asia-Pacific Working Group, Canadian Council for International Co-operation to Workshop |
1:00-4:00 WORKSHOP F: TRAGEDY OF HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI "Does history justify the use of nuclear weapons?" "Or could it be interpreted as a crime against humanity?" Scholars and speakers discuss these questions with survivors. |
| Moderator: | Hiroshi Taka | Secretary General, Gensuikyo |
| Participants: | Mikiso Iwasa (speech) | Assistant Secretary General, Japan Confederation of A- and H-bomb Sufferers Organizations (Hidankyo). "Survival of hell in this world" |
| Joseph Gerson (speech) | Representative, American Friends Services Committee, New England Regional Program. "Can history justify the dropping of the A-bombs?" | |
| Kwi-Hoon Kwak Hibakusha (speech-English) (speech-Japanese) |
Korean A-Bomb Survivors' Association. "Invasion of Asia, Dropping of A-Bombs and Anti-War Peace Movements-An Overseas Survivor's Perspective" | |
| Kenichi Okubo (speech-English) (speech-Japanese) |
Executive Director, Japanese Law Society. "Legal Aspects of the Dropping of A-Bombs" | |
| Presenter to be announced | "The Criminality of Nuclear Weapons" | |
| Joy Kogawa | Japanese Canadian Author. "Gently to Nagasaki" |
| 1:00-2:15 WORKSHOP G (1): REDRESS FOR ASIAN CANADIANS Current controversy of redress for Head Tax (levied from 1885 to 1947) and exclusion (1923 - 1947) of Chinese immigrants to Canada is addressed in context of Japanese Canadian Redress and the Chinese American experiences. |
| Moderator: | Sid Chow Tan | National Director, Chinese Canadian National Council |
| Panel: | George Jung | Convenor of BC Coalition of Head-Tax Payers, Spouses and Descendants. "The community resists "Divide and Rule" approach of the government |
| Film documentary: | Karen Cho | In the Shadow of Gold Mountain (10 minutes) |
| 2:30-4:00 WORKSHOP G (2): DISCRIMINATION AGAINST RACIAL MINORITIES After the 1988 Redress Agreement with Canada, Japanese Canadians, who had been unjustly identified as `enemy aliens' during the Second World War, vowed no other community should ever endure such an experience. |
| Moderator: | Judy Hanazawa | Director, National Association of Japanese Canadians |
| Speakers: | Expert on Canada's anti-terrorism law and current security practice | |
| Zool Suleman | Canadian Immigration Lawyer | |
| Itrath Syed | Muslim human rights and anti war activist | |
| Aziz Khaki | President, Committee for Racial Justice | |
| Excerpts of film: | Lina Hoshino | Caught In Between. What to call home in times of war (25 mins.) |
| 2:30-4:00 WORKSHOP H: PEACE ON KOREAN PENINSULA Discussion on Nuclear and peace issues on the Korean peninsula and about the conflict between DPRK and U.S. |
| Moderator: | Park Jung Eun | Center for Peace and Disarmament (PSPD) |
| 1:00-2:15 WORKSHOP I: MIRACLE IN FUSHUN (report) Process of recovery of humanity and transformation experienced by Japanese war criminals interned in China in the 1950s, is examined towards application to reconciliation in more recent war-related crimes. |
| Moderator: | Tatsuo Kage | Historian and author (Nikkei Canada-jin no Tsuiho/Expulsion of Japanese Canadians); Member of Vancouver's Japanese Canadian Citizens' Association Human Rights Committee |
| Panel: | Motomu Ishikawa (speech-Japanese) (speech-English) |
Uketsugu Kai, Tokyo Metropolitan University |
| Shinichi Arai (speech) | Professor Emeritus, Surugadai University | |
| Mizuho Shimada (speech) |
Staff Member of Uketsugu Kai | |
| Documentary Film: | A repentant war criminal - Mr. Tsuchiya, former Kenpei, and China |
| 4:00-5:15 CLOSING PLENARY: PREVENTING SUPERPOWER CONFLICT IN ASIA This plenary session of eminent scholars examines strategies to prevent superpower conflicts in the region and to achieve a Nuclear-free Asia. |
| Moderator: | Hiro Umebayashi | President, Peace Depot, Yokohama |
| Keynote: | Lois Wilson (speech) | Retired Senator, moderator of United Church |
| Hari Sharma | Professor Emeritus, Simon Fraser University | |
| Suh Sung | Ritsumeikan University |
| 5:15 CLOSING REMARKS |
| Keynote: | Walden Bello | Executive Director, Focus on Global South Conference Organizers |
| Special Messages:
SU Zhiliang
History Professor of Shanghai Teachers University and Director of Chinese
“Comfort Women” Research Centre Hiroshi Oyama Japanese Lawyer,
Head of the Defense Counsel for the Lawsuits of Chinese War Victims |