Japanese Riot Videos

[Mulboyne]

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The 1959/60 Mitsui Miike coal mine labour riots. "the most intense labor-management conflict in postwar Japan".

YouTube has a number of documentary clips of civil unrest in postwar Japan. See the next post in this thread for more examples.

[Mulboyne]

These video clips appear to come from the same documentary as the one above. Although they are all in Japanese with no subtitles, it is fairly easy to see what is happening.

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1967 student riots at Haneda Airport aimed at preventing Eisaku Sato travelling to Vietnam. These years were a key one for student radicalism. In 1969, even Todai students, supported by Nihon U, barricaded themselves into the University's clock tower and had a showdown with the authorities. No one was allowed to graduate at the end of that academic year and entrance examinations for newly enrolling students had to be cancelled.

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Early in 1968, there were mass protests at the entry of the US nuclear-powered carrier Enterprise into the Sasebo naval base in Nagasaki

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Shinjuku station was a major site for student demonstrations. This incident occurred later in 1968 after an estimated 290,000 people took part in an International Anti-War Day march. Rioters took over the station.

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The same year, there was a campaign against the U.S. Army hospital at Camp Oji which resulted in incidents like this. There's an assault on a koban in this clip.

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1969 was the peak year for Anpo Riots - demonstrations against the US-Japan Security Treaty.

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In 1973, pressure on oil prices had pushed more commuters towards an already crowded public transport service. Japan National Railways staff were on a work-to-rule which led to further delays. Passenger anger boiled over on several occasions.

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This 1985 clip reports an attack on the JNR network by a group supporting the worker's opposition to JNR privatization. Signal cables were cut simultaneously all around the country and Asakusabashi Station was trashed.

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Narita Airport provided the backdrop for a series of demonstrations which brought together student radicals, anti-war protesters and local residents. The airport had been scheduled for completion in 1971 but the government had not concluded all the necessary resettlement disputes by this date. Consequently, they began forcibly expropriating land which led to violent confrontations.

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The first terminal building was completed in 1972 but the first runway took several more years due to constant fights with the Sanrizuka-Shibayama Union who filed lawsuits, staged sit-ins and used guerilla tactics to disrupt construction.

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In 1978, a group armed with Molotov cocktails broke through security and occupied the control tower, destroying the interior. This delayed the opening of the airport for two months.

[Charles]

That first B&W film of the Mitsui Miike riots is truly exceptional. But the next one, now THAT is how to riot:

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1967 student riots at Haneda Airport..

Now this is a classic Japanese rioting technique. The students march in a phalanx reinforced by bamboo rods or pipes. They march right into the police lines and run them down, nothing can stop them. Well, nothing human. They stupidly get bottled up on a bridge and a bus runs them right off the bridge. But when the phalanx is broken, the pipes prove useful as levers to overturn the police buses, or as clubs.

I've been telling people about this phalanx method for years, I remember seeing Jerry Rubin on TV demonstrating this at the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention, he said they'd brought over riot organizers from Japan to teach the phalanx methods. But this is the first film I've seen of the technique in actual use.

[baka tono]

Japanese Gone Wild I like it.

[Marvin Feltcher]

Sorry!

[dimwit]

And just think. Now all these student protesters are in their 60's taking their geritol vacations to Hawaii and pissing on airport staff for flight delays. They should be placed of a terrorist watch lists just out of shear spite.

[AssKissinger]

This stuff reminds me of Korea.

[Mulboyne]

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3 minutes 30 seconds into this video, "Won't Get Fooled Again" by The Who starts playing. It's interesting that, despite the scale of civil disobedience at the time, the documentary producers couldn't come up with a Japanese song to capture the zeitgeist. Domestic popular music has never really been about rebellion and protest songs.

It's quite cheap programming these days for TV companies to dig out old footage and match it with the hits of the time. I'm wondering what songs NHK will use in years to come for their review of 1995 with the Kobe earthquake and Aum Shinrikyo attacks. Globe and Amuro Namie?

[Mulboyne]

...These years were a key one for student radicalism. in 1969, even Todai students, supported by Nihon U, barricaded themselves into the University's clock tower and had a showdown with the authorities.

Here's a clip of that.

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[Mulboyne]

Blogger Marxy has released a song about Michiko Kanba who was the first student to die in the 1960 anpo riots. It's the last track on his new EP.

Kanba died in the riot which features from 7mins 30 secs into the video clip below. It also features the Diet sit-down and a US delegation being helicoptered to safety away from rioters.

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[Mulboyne]

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Most of this newsreel is not related to Japan but the opening segment is on the lead-up to the first postwar elections.

[canman]

I love the way when they are talking about Japan, the music is pretty ominous. But when we switch to MacArthur, suddenly, its jaunty and happy music.

[Mulboyne]

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Osaka in 1990. Police clash with homeless and day labourers.

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Uyoku vs Police in February 2007. Lots of noise and some scuffles towards the end.