Diet Building, Hibiya Park, and Tokyo University

Walking the Path of the 1960's Japanese Student Protests

Argh, Okay, I know I'm totally late as usual. But honestly I have good excuses; I have had no break for the past two and a half weeks because of my final project and the school festival; but now I'm going to post a bunch of entries and pics (if my internet decides to hold out long enough to let me) and hopefully get caught up so here we go:

Okay, so the weekend of the 25th/26th of October while others were out at Halloween parties and going clubbing; I went to Hibiya Park and the Diet Building to take photographs for my final project for one of my classes. So typically me...

Anyways, one of my classes is basically loosely organized around post-WWII Japanese culture and media studies; and as a substitution for taking a final exam we could do a creative project. I wanted to do something with photography since I've been so obsessed with it lately; and so, I think because I'm from Berkeley, I came up with the idea of doing a photography project based on the 1960's Student Protests in Japan.

This period of Japanese history really does fascinate me; just because the student protests in Japan got to be so violent and so widespread; we at Berkeley think that our Free Speech movement was impressive; but at the peak of the 1960's student protests over 4.64 million students and workers were participating in these massive demonstrations with hundreds of thousands of people. Yet a lot of Japanese textbooks understate the true degree to which these protests affected that generation here in Japan; so I wanted to attempt to understand them a bit more by comparing photographs taken of the student protests in Japan in the 1960's, to photographs I took myself of the same areas.

Basically my project is already done and over with; I presented it this week and my class seemed to like it and think it was interesting so I'm happy. I had over 90 photographs within my presentation so obviously I can't put it up but I'll put up some of my better ones just to show you.

And then just to talk about the places I went to themselves; I went to the three most famous protest spots in Tokyo of the 1960's: the Diet Building, Hibiya Park, and Tokyo University. The Diet Building is basically where the equivalent of the Japanese parliament assembles and votes on laws being made each year. I first traveled there, as it was the spot for one of the most famous protests; the June 15, 1960 protest against the ANPO Security Treaty with the United States; where one Tokyo university female student was killed in a riot clash with the police. The building itself today is very sterile, isolated, quiet; only frequented by the occasional tourist and foreign student like myself. There's no trace of the history that took place there; it merely serves its purpose as a government building. Its actually quite intimidating; this huge sterile, clean building guarded by police 24/7. The police presence is really the only remnant of the protest age that I was able to see.

Then there's Hibiya Park; which is this beautiful Western-style park right next to the Imperial Palace and near the Diet Building. Its huge; and quite beautiful; with donated gifts and statues from all over the world; including a Liberty Bell reconstruction from the U.S. Hibiya Park is known especially as a popular protest spot; and just by luck on my way back from the Diet Building I heard shouting, followed the noise a few blocks and spotted a protest march on its way to Hibiya Park and was able to document it. Not only that; but the protest was being held by the same student organization that was behind the June 15, 1960 protest; the Zengakuren. Which is still very active today. So I basically played stalker and followed these student's march through downtown and to Hibiya Park as the police escorted them (and glared at me; the annoying blonde girl taking photos). I was told to stop a few times...but I really was quite horrible and instead just walked away until they couldn't see me anymore and then found another spot from which to take photos. I have no shame when it comes to a school project, apparently. So anyways I found a spot nestled up on a hill in the park where I could see the protest down below and stayed for a while; watching the protest go on even though I couldn't understand all of it. I managed to see the end of the protest end; with the students abrubtly putting away their helmets and masks and going home. Much more of a peaceful protest atmosphere today than the violent mass arrests that ended the 1960's protests.

Finally; I visited Tokyo University, probably one of the most famous and prestigious universities in Japan. In 1969 400 students occupied the main auditorium called Yasuda Auditorium and had a two day battle with tear gas grenades and home-made bombs with the police until they were finally arrested. The university was home to hundreds of incidents related to protest. The students there today look just like the ones in the photos from the 1960's; and yet there's no trace of the history that occurred there in any form of campus museum (they do have a campus museum but it only has a biology and chemistry exhibition) or information. Its just a neatly manicured lawn in front of the Auditorium now, instead of the bomb-strewn field it was in 1969. It was intimidating being there as well; though I felt more comfortable among college students than among the protesters in Hibiya or the Police guards at the Diet Building. Tokyo Univ reminded me a bit of Berkeley and made me miss it even more. I stayed there for a while taking pictures; I think more just because of how much I love the college university atmosphere than any need to take more photographs. It was a beautiful campus; looked much to me what Harvard or Yale might look like with red-brick buildings and an interesting mix of architectural styles.

The whole weekend that it took me to accomplish my goal of taking the photographs I needed was quite interesting; it was my first time really traveling around alone and yet I quite enjoyed it. I got to experience the atmosphere of some of the more historically vital places in Tokyo rather than just sight-see. I did a lot of people-watching and was just able to observe how similar or different people are today in these places than they were in the 1960's. Even though I don't think much of the class for which I was doing this project; I was glad that the class gave me the opportunity to try out my idea and visit these places, and see a bit more of what photography can do in showing an environment.

Okay, so that was that weekend. I'm sorry this one was serious; the next blog entry will be more interesting; promise. But just in case someone's interested I'll attach some of my photos.

And P.S. Mom and Dad don't worry I was fine the entire time I was there; I was in no danger at those places and was always in a big crowd; etc. =) I promise.

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