Feature: Abe gov't forcing war bills triggers anger at swarming public protest in Japan

In a huge showing of public condemnation of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his ruling bloc's forcing through two constitutionally unsound security bills through a special lower house parliamentary committee Wednesday ahead of a full session vote, thousands gathered at the national Diet building to protest the move.

Following a sizable protest on Tuesday, as deliberations between Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party-led coalition and opposition parties and their respective experts made zero headway, the Abe-led regime decided that enough time had been spent trying to appease the public through parliamentary debate, and the bills were rammed through the special committee in the lower house on Wednesday.

Following a majority vote Thursday in a full session in Japan's lower house, the contentious bills will be immediately sent to the upper house to be enacted before the end of the current Diet session in late September, a scenario that is highly likely, as Abe's ruling coalition hold a majority of seats in both houses of Japan's bicameral parliament.

Outraged at Abe's continued autocratic steamrolling of war- related policies through parliament, the hawkish leader's systematic thwarting of the nation's pacifist constitution and unsanctioned cabinet reinterpretation of a key war-renouncing article therein, a record-breaking 60,000 people, gathered from morning until night at the Diet building, to voice their opposition to the powers that be.

"We do not accept the undemocratic way that (prime minister) Abe is running our country and moreover we stand united and growing in numbers against his war-related policies that threaten the safety and peace-loving ideology that Japanese citizens have held over the past 70 years," Tetsuya Murata, 24, a member of the Students Emergency Action for Liberal Democracy (SEALDs), a key organizer of Wednesday's demonstration, told Xinhua.

"Our generation has for many years enjoyed freedom, liberty and safety in the post-war era and we will not tolerate the current deterioration of politics in Japan, which is destabilizing the East Asian region.

"From the formation of the National Security Council to the special secrets law, Abe has been steadily and systematically leading the nation towards militarization and in doing so has hollowed out the constitution, and to protect our democratic ideals for generations to come, we, the younger generation, are leading the campaign to scrap these bills and oust the government, " an impassioned Murata explained.

SEALDs, a growing movement of young people in Japan who are politically-savvy and increasingly concerned that the future direction Japan may find itself in will directly affect them and generations to come, mobilized more than 1,500 of the protestors in the latter half of the day, in a sign of a shifting attitude away from political apathy that for years has been the norm for teenagers and twenty-somethings here.

Along with this growing demographic of anti-Abe youngsters, every other age group was represented at Wednesday's demonstration, which reached a fever pitch at around 8:00 p.m. JST, with a host of opposition party members, scholars and celebrities hammering Abe for the damage he is inflicting on Japan.

"Despite the heat and humidity, I'm here with my two-year-old daughter, Hana-chan, because she's the one who will inherit this country once I'm gone, and if I don't fight to protect her now, who will? " said 37-year-old Mamoru Ishii.

"I certainly can't trust this government to ensure the future liberty of my beautiful baby -- look at her -- no, really look at her, her eyes, she's so innocent, she deserves to have a future full of hope and happiness, not fear and anxiety, but the way things are going under Abe, I'm one hundred percent worried about her future," he told Xinhua.

He said that along with his wife he wasn't affiliated with any official protest groups, but simply "loved his daughter unconditionally."

The resounding theme of the demonstration echoed unruly, angry, yet justifiable scenes beamed around the world by news agencies and on social media sites of opposition party members surrounding Yasukazu Hamada of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and committee chairman in Wednesday's lower house session, in a bid to prevent the vote.

Demonstrators waved anti-war placards and shouted in staunch resistance to the LDP-led coalition's forcible move to allow Japan 's Self-Defense Forces (SDF) the right to exercise collective self- defense.

"We don't want or need a military, we have lived in peace for 70 years almost to the day and have stood by our commitment towards pacifism and have honored our constitution which renounces war," Goro Tsunaga, 68, told Xinhua.

Brandishing two placards, one depicting Abe as Germany's infamous wartime Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler, and the other simply stating that the (war-renouncing) Article 9 of Japan's constitution should be upheld, he added: "If these war bills become law, Japan's constitution is meaningless. The law itself becomes meaningless. Democracy becomes meaningless and therefore we may as well erase the past 70 years of peace and tranquility that we've worked so hard to achieve and maintain in this country. "

"It's almost beyond my comprehension what Abe is attempting to do to this country and I say (to you) now, we, the Japanese people, do not support Abe, his cabinet or the entire administration," said Tsunaga.

"We resolutely insist that the bills be scrapped and the constitution defended, for the sake of my wife, my kids, my grandchildren and all my kinfolk in Japan. We reject all of this. We reject war. We reject Abe," Tsunaga proclaimed, his voice clearly audible above the beating drums and united rally cries from thousands of individuals and civic group members, all simultaneously denouncing Abe and his war bills.

Tsunaga's sentiments echo around the nation, as evidenced by a plethora of opinion polls taken by major media outlets as well as private institutions and research groups, all confirming that more than half of this peace-loving island's population of 127 million citizens are opposed to Abe's plans to expand the scope of the SDF and want liberty and a government bound by its constitution restored in Japan. Endi