FCCJ screening on Kimigayo policy

[Eija Niskanen]

Dear KineJapanners,

The Foreign Correspondents' Club is showing a documentary on February
8 about the teachers who have refused to stand during the playing of
Kimigayo, and are resisting other policies that they say force both
educators and students to mindlessly obey authority. If you'd like to
see the film, you must reserve through Karen Severns: kjs30 at gol.com


http://www.fccj.or.jp/node/7160
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 6:30 pm

Special documentary screening followed by a Q&A session with director
Toshikuni Doi and subjects Kimiko Nezu and Nobuo Dohi

TRUE TO MYSELF ("Watashi" wo Ikiru)
Japan, 2010  138 minutes

Home economics teacher Kimiko Nezu received her final verdict from the
Supreme Court yesterday, and it was not a victory. Nezu has endured a
series of high-profile court cases, been suspended, forcibly
transferred and punished 10 times in her campaign against what she -
and many other teachers - consider to be unfair policies that force
both educators and students to mindlessly obey authority. This
includes standing during the 40 seconds of the Japanese national
anthem.

Nezu appeared at the FCCJ with the film "Against Coercion" in 2007;
she is returning with a new documentary that delves more deeply into
her backstory, teaching policies and protracted human rights campaign,
as well as those of two other brave crusaders for educators' rights:
Miwako Sato, a music teacher who was punished for wearing a blue
ribbon to express her opposition to the compulsory display of the
Hinomaru (national flag) during her school's graduation ceremony; and
high school principal Nobuo Dohi, who protested the silencing of
faculty members at teacher meetings, giving all power to the
principal, who is expected to comply unquestioningly with the Board of
Education's policies and directives.

For more on the film (in Japanese), see:
www.doi-toshikuni.net/j/ikiru/


-- 
Eija Niskanen
080-3479-8475
Kichijoji Honcho 4-12-6
Musashino-shi
Tokyo 180-0004