Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969)
Updated:
How The Global Peace Campaign Began
Dear friends for peace,
I'm Yumi Kikuchi, cofounder of the Global Peace Campaign.
Other founders of the Global Peace Campaign are:
Norie Huddle of Butterfly and the Best Game
(http://www.bestgame.org)
Tom Atlee of the Co-Intelligence Institute
(http://www.co-intelligence.org/tomatleebio.html) and
Paul Swann of the Y2K WASH Campaign
(http://www.ratical.org/ratville/y2kNuke070599.html)
(http://www.onewithlife.com)
However, they are no longer active in this campaign.
Right after the 9/11 incident, I wanted to prevent the bombing of Afghanistan and so I appealed for donations to place a peace advertisement in the New York Times, which would say, "If we (America) kill one innocent person, we become the terrorist."
Placing a large ad in newspaper like the New York TImes cannot be done without large sums of money so we started campaigning for donations. Slowly national and international support grew. The biggest support came from Osho (Bow) Yamada, founder of Kobe Genkimura. He and his staff raised most of the funds for the ad and helped me with their e-newsletter Open Japan Boomerang to spread the news far and wide. (Actually we produced more than one advertisment)
In the end the response was fabulous! Over the course of the initial campaign we collected 24,247,857 Japanese Yen or approximately US$200,000.
With the money we ended up placing four peace ads in major US papers: The New York TImes, The Los Angeles Times. The Washington Post, one ad in an Italian Paper (La Stampa) and ten ads in an Arabic magazine in Persia (Javanan). (Go to the GPC in the Media to see the ads)
On top of that I paid for one billboard in Hollywood, (With the money I made from the sales of the Japanese version of Addicted To War) to promote our opinion with the rest of the money we raised. (Check out this picture of the billboard!) The donations we received were gathered from 16 countries with the use of the internet.
During the course of the campaign, Open Japan Boomerang readership grew to about 20,000 members and we were able to create many events, books and films using the network of people we now had.
Among our achievements we translated ‘Addicted To War‘ into Japanese and it became a bestseller on Amazon Japan. (I should mention that the Global Peace Campaign (GPC) helped fund the first printing of Addicted to War in the USA.)
Another book that we produced in Japanese is ‘Dennis Kucinich - A Peace President for America.‘ This will be the text book for the new campaign we will launch to create a Ministry of Peace in Japan: JUMP - Japan United for Ministry of Peace.
GPC also translated two films into Japanese, in DVD and VHS format, and we continue to promote them.
1. The War Against the 3rd World, a film compilation by Frank Dorrel (Japanese version and title: Who is the Terrorist?)
2. 911 In Plane Site (Japanese version and title: 911 - Hunt the Boeing)
Both are very informative and eye opening and I highly recommend you to see them.
Our work to bring about global peace continues. Currently, I am invited to speak on peace related issues and show the above films several times a week and sometimes on weekends.
Let us make peace on our lovely planet earth a reality. Please join us in our efforts!
Yumi Kikuchi
PS. Reproduced below is the original letter that I used to introduce myself in September 2001, when I started campaigning for funds for our newspaper advertisments.
My letter of introduction from September 2001
I am currently operating Harmonics Life Center out of our two hundred-year old house in the mountains of Kamogawa, Chiba prefecture. The Center hosts various workshops on natural healing and natural foods led by wonderful guests from overseas. I have four children, two are still babies, and the other two living in London. My husband, Gen Morita is a natural healer, as well as a former musician.
Since we have young children, we cannot move around too freely, so we try to do everything in this area as much as possible using computer.
Two days following the terrorist attacks in the United Sates, I received a mail from Tom Atley of Oregon. He is a good friend of mine who worked together for the Y2K issue. Tom sent me the letter by Greg Nees addressed to President Bush, along with a comment that said, "This is a very calm letter. How about collecting donations from ex-servicemen and printing it in the paper? " I immediately replied to Tom's mail, letting him know of my desire to start an action, and to send donation. I contacted Greg to ask for his permission to translate and circulate his letter in Japan. Greg responded by saying that "If that letter can be used for the purpose of stopping war, please use it in any way you would like."
I then contacted Norie Huddle in the U.S., Paul Swann in England to ask their support for the Global Peace Campaign. I have been working on "Best Game" with Norie for the past twelve years, and I had gone to the G8 summit in Berlin with Paul during the Y2K crisis. I also contacted friends in Australia, New Zealand and Germany. Norie contacted her friend in Belgium, Paul contacted his friends in England. On September 15, 2001, the Global Peace Campaign was officially founded in the Internet.
In Japan, Mr. Nishida of Tokyo Broadcasting Service introduced me to Bow Yamada of Kobe Genkimura, and he then established the network within Japan with amazing speed.
We are currently in contact with the Public Media Center in San Francisco regarding the actual production of the ad. We are currently waiting for their estimate and the best timing for the ad. While we cannot tell when we can place an ad in the NY Times and Washington Post because they have so many articles right now, we will place our ad in either of the paper as soon as we can secure a spot.
The price for ad in the NY Times is $140,000 (17 million yen) per page. We do not know of the price for Washington Post yet. In addition to this cost, there is the ad production cost to consider, so we are looking at around 20 million yen. Of course, it would be best if we do not have to spend this much money, so we are sending this letter out to all sorts of newspapers throughout the United States. However, at present, it is difficult for voices calling for peace and truth to be printed in major newspapers, and we have not been able to have the letter published yet.
I received a call from the editor of "You Magazine," a Japanese language newspaper in Seattle, who expressed his desire to print the letter in their paper. While this is still being considered, I hope that the letter will reach as many Americans and citizens of all nations residing in the United States through any form of media as possible.
Another great news is that Asahi, TBS, and Kyodo may broadcast the news about this campaign. The TV crews from TBS are coming here tonight. Since the state of the world is volatile right now, I don't know if the news will be aired, but I am grateful that there are people in the media who are willing to pick up citizens movement for peace.
I would like to apologize to everyone who is trying to contact me. I am receiving so many telephone calls and e-mails, I have not been able to respond to all. I would really appreciate if I could have some help on babysitting and housework until this campaign is over. Yet, I know I can only do what I can, so I will try my best.
There has not been any time like this moment in which I am so grateful for all the domestic and international network of people I have come to know through my involvement in environmental work and Y2K issues. I feel that all the experience I had until now was in preparation for this campaign.
Just as the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh maintained balance through focusing in breathing under any circumstance, I would like to walk the path of global peace with all the people around the world who wish for peace, one step at a time, while making sure that I do not overlook the simple things of everyday life.
In love and peace,
Yumi Kikuchi
"Do unto others what you wish to experience."The words of Neil Donald Walsch, author of the ‘Conversations with God’ book series.