BY BEVERLY BERNARDO

VANCOUVER - Chanting "Defend Diaoyutai from Japanese Militarism" in both Chinese and English, 4,000 people - many of Chinese descent, marched through the streets here September 22. The protesters were angry over a July decision by the Japanese government to assert a zone of 200 nautical miles around its territory that includes Diaoyutai. Beijing claims sovereignty over the islands.

Following this decision, the Japan Youth Federation, a right- wing group, built a lighthouse on one island and adorned it with a Japanese flag. On October 5 Japanese foreign minister Yukihiko Ikeda emphasized that Japan was not giving up ownership.

The Chinese ambassador to Tokyo, Xu Duxin, condemned this action at a meeting of the Japanese foreign ministry in early September. "Chinese people are outraged and want to issue a strong protest," he declared.

According to the New York Times, "the main reason the islands have suddenly become the focus of such attention is that surveys have suggested there may be huge petroleum reserves in nearby waters."

The action's organizers - Vancouver Alliance Against Japanese Invasion of Diaoyutai Islands - have been demonstrating for Chinese sovereignty over the islands, and the ethnic pride and dignity of all Chinese people.

On September 18 more than 8,000 people marched through the streets of Hong Kong to protest the building of the lighthouse. In the first week of October, the governing Liberal Democratic Party of Japan released an election manifesto asserting Tokyo's claim to the Diaoyutai.

While the Chinese government has discouraged protest demonstrations in China, protests involving thousands of people have also taken place in Taiwan, which has been ruled by a U.S.- backed government opposed to the Chinese revolution. In Macao - a Portuguese colony scheduled to be returned to China in 1999 - some 20,000 students rallied for "special lessons on `Japanese militarism and expansion,'" according to The Toronto Globe and Mail.

The actions by Tokyo to establish its claim to the uninhabited islands coincided with the 65th anniversary of the Japanese military invasion of Manchuria in Northeastern China. During Tokyo's colonial war against the Chinese people, more than 30 million people died. Within just six weeks during the Nanking massacre, 300,000 people were brutally slaughtered.

"The Japanese military had three rules," explained Jack Ho, a member of the Union of Needletrades Industrial and Textile Employees Union at Aero Garment, "Kill everyone, burn everything, and take everything."

The Japanese rulers have stepped-up their military drive. It's reflected, demonstrators say, by examples like the Japanese Sea Patrol chasing away Chinese fishing boats, as well as the conflict over the Diaoyutai Islands. They point to the fact that Japanese prime minister Ryutaro Hashimoto recently paid tribute to the Yasukuni Shrine, a memorial to Japanese war criminals - despite protests from other Asian governments. An article in the Wall Street Journal reported how "right-wing groups dressed in storm-trooper outfits, regularly stroll unchecked through Japan's cities in armored trucks blaring slogans and nationalistic songs."

Before the Sino-Japanese War in 1895 China's sovereignty over the Diaoyutai Islands had been under the jurisdiction of the Taiwan province. After China lost the war, the Qing dynasty government ceded Taiwan and the Diaoyutai to Japan in an unequal treaty. After Japan's defeat in World War II, Taiwan was returned to China. But in 1972, the U.S. government handed over the Diaoyutai to Japan. China has never accepted this action by Washington.  
 
 
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