AT THE FOOT OF THE MOUNTAIN
The Shibokusa women of Kita Fuji have developed a strong movement at the foot of Mount Fuji, near a fortified military base. The struggle for their land and for a human life is centuries old. In the seventeeth century, they made a modest living growing beans and radishes and creating a silkworm industry. Then in 1936, militarism disrupted the
fragile prosperity of the community. First, the army executed drills on their land. After the war, the US army troops stationed on the site led to a startling increase in prostitution. Women were treated like dirt on the ground.
Nothing changed after the San Francisco Peace Treaty signed in 1952 and when in 1955 farmers protested, they were arrested as rioters. But wide publicity following a car
accident in which the chief of police was killed drew attention to them and they were promised more land. Then, as men left the land, the women took over the struggle against
the military base, building a series of small cottages around the base, small bastions of ordinary life amid the soldiers' incessant preparations for death. The women have now
built fifteen!
In 1970, the police came to evict the women — who decided to stay until death. At the last minute KimieWatanabe, the leader, said that they would better serve their cause
alive. They surrendered but they learnt that they had nothing to lose and this knowledge makes them strong.
They disrupt military exercises by making their way into the middle of the exercise area, popping up in the middle of the firing. They are often arrested, but the police don't like their screaming and have realised that they make trouble.
The women have been attacked by right wing groups who harrass them, crying "go home, you old witches", and throwing stones and burning brands. The women say that
they are so old that they don't know when they were born and who they are... so they think that if anything happens to them it is no disaster. The young women who are now bringing up their children will then take their places.
What do they want to achieve? They wanted to get back their land, but now they have realised that the whole phenomenon of militarism is violence against the land, wherever it takes place. And they added, " Y o u see. Mount Fuji is the symbol of Japan. If they are preparing war on her flanks, how can they say Japan desires peace?" and "Don't imagine our lives are miserable. It's fun to make a nuisance of ourselves and embarrass those men. This work is our whole life... We will continue it to the end... Men will not endure the worst: they have no patience, they give up or get violent, rather than sitting it out."
"We are not clever, most of us have hardly been educated at all. But we are strong because we are close to the earth. Our conviction that the military is wrong is unshakeable."
There was laughter in the end, and they bowed to each other, in Japanese style, but it was more, it said: I salute your spirit, sister, mother, warrior against war.