Beheiren

Beheiren ("Be"tonamu ni "Hei"wa o Shimin "Ren"go" — Citizen's League for Peace in Vietnam) was a Japanese activist group that existed from 1965 to 1974. As a coalition of a few hundred anti-war groups it protested Japanese assistance to the United States during the Vietnam War.

Accomplishments

They claim to have helped 20 U.S. soldiers to desert, in some cases providing them with false passports and other paperwork and helping them escape to Sweden via the Soviet Union. [http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2002/2002-February/003886.html] They also used shareholder activism techniques — buying single shares of Mitsubishi stock so that they could address shareholders meetings about the company's support for the American war effort. [http://www.meijigakuin.ac.jp/~ascj/2004/2004.10.htm] The group also assisted American soldiers who were publishing and distributing underground papers and pamphlets in Japan.

Members

Members included Makoto Oda (Representative), Yuichi Yoshikawa (Secretary-General), Michitoshi Takabatake, Amon Miyamoto, Ichiyo Muto, Shinobu Yoshioka, Takeshi Kaiko, Yoshiyuki Tsurumi and Shunsuke Tsurumi.

Controversy after the Vietnam War

Like many New Left groups, Beheiren had taken a stance independent of the Soviet Union and the communist bloc. However, In 1993, The conservative national newspaper Sankei Shimbun reported that Oda and Yoshikawa were 'KGB agents.' This evaluation was based on previously classified Soviet documents showing that Yoshikawa had requested a small sum of money from the Soviet government. In the document, Yuri Andropov, the Chairmen of the KGB, recommended the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union “Exploit the KGB's secret contact with the leaders of the Japanese committee 'Peace to Vietnam,' assist the committee to continue its activities including material support when needed to expand its propaganda activity and to accomplish illegal transportation of American military deserters from Japan to third countries.”

References

*Koenker, Diane P., and Ronald D. Bachman (ed.), "Revelations from the Russian archives : Documents in English Translation," Washington, D.C. : Library of Congress, 1997.