Keynote speaker: Jonathan Manthorpe Vancouver Sun International Affairs columnist The Shifting Patterns Of Power & Influence In Asia: How They May Affect Japan’s “Normal Country” Debate Other presenters: Takeo Yamashiro, Shakuhachi music for peace Ellen [...]]]> Friday, February 29, 2008 No-host bar 6-7 PM Dinner 7 PM
Pink Pearl Restaurant 1132 E. Hastings St. Vancouver

Keynote speaker: Jonathan Manthorpe
Vancouver Sun International Affairs columnist
The Shifting Patterns Of Power & Influence In Asia:
How They May Affect Japan’s “Normal Country” Debate

Other presenters:
Takeo Yamashiro, Shakuhachi music for peace
Ellen Woodsworth, “Peace constitution” for the world
Eiichiro Ochiai, Current debate on “the peace constitution” in Japan

Tickets: $55 per ticket; $500 per table of 10; Student ticket @$30 available if reserved before February 15

For more information, contact 778-855-5344 or 604-875-1921 arc@peacephilosophy.com or visit www.vsa9.com
RSVP by Feb. 23, 2008

This is a fundraiser for Article 9 World Peace Conference to be held in Japan in May ’08, and for other activities to broaden the movement.
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
Canadian Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (CWILPF); Peace Philosophy Centre; Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizens’ Human Right Committee (GVJCCAHRC); Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art (Centre A); Asian Studies Department, Langara College; Simons Centre for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Research, Liu Institute for Global Issues, University of British Columbia; BC Association for Learning & Preserving the History of WWII in Asia (BC ALPHA); Global Article 9 Conference to Abolish War

Article 9 of Japanese Constitution:
“Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes. In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.”

* Vancouver Save Article 9 (VSA9) www.vsa9.com:
The VSA9 was established in May, 2005 with the purpose, together with several thousand such organizations in Japan, of making contributions to the movement to stop the Japanese government from changing Article 9. The VSA9 attempts to persuade people of many nations to adopt such an article in their constitutions. Currently having over 160 members -Canadians, Japanese, and other nationals. VSA9 is carrying out various campaigns – collecting signatures for a petition to the Japanese government, and sending peace messages to the world.

Jonathan Manthorpe:
Mr. Manthorpe has been The Vancouver Sun’s International Affairs columnist since 1998 and a foreign correspondent for 30 years. He was posted in Africa and Europe. He was a political correspondent for the Globe and Mail and then a daily columnist for the Toronto Star. He grew up in Toronto and trained as a journalist in Britain.

He came to Vancouver in 1998 after five years as the Southam News Asia correspondent based in Hong Kong from where he travelled and wrote on events throughout East, Southeast and　South　Asia. He has won the Mitchener Award for journalism and several international prizes for his writing. In 2003 Mr. Manthorpe was appointed a member of the Canada Japan Forum which advised two prime ministers on bilateral relations. He is an external director of the McRae Institute at Capilano College.