by Michelle Frey
June 8, 2010
The Tokyo Two trial has just come to end in Japan today with the prosecutor asking the judge to sentence Junichi and Toru to 18 months in jail. This would be the longest jail term for any Greenpeace activist in the organisation’s forty-year history.
Junichi sent this email out to all of our supporters for World Oceans Day.
Dear Friend,
I am happy to be able to send this message from Tokyo to you today and thank you for your support.
Greenpeace has been peacefully protesting for environmental protection for decades. What started in one man’s front room in Vancouver, before I was even born, is now a global force for good.
You’re helping to keep that history and tradition alive. But as my colleague Toru Suzuki and I know all too well, speaking up for our fragile earth can pose serious risks.
June 8th is World Oceans Day. We can celebrate the fact that we know so much more about our Blue Planet than ever before. We have sent submarines to the deepest canyons and sailed every part of the world, discovering new species and ecosystems – and how they are connected. We have seen how overfishing just one species can have devastating effects on an entire ecosystem and we understand the urgent need to protect our oceans. With your help we have been taking direct action and campaigning to save our seas.
In Japan we have been working to end whaling since our office opened 20 years ago. Japanese whaling is one of the most extreme examples of the needless waste of ocean life. Two years ago along with my colleague Toru, we took action to turn the tide on whaling here at home in Japan. And for the last two years we have paid the price for that peaceful protest. We were arrested and held without charge for 23 days – tied to chairs while we were interrogated, without our lawyers present. We have been charged with theft and trespass for taking action to secure the evidence of organized theft and embezzlement at the highest levels.
I know what I did was right. Our prosecution is political and our human rights have been abused. Despite that, and despite countless protests worldwide, Toru and I may still go to jail, for up to ten years.
We’re in court again on World Oceans Day – for the final part of our trial. So, I reach out to you, my fellow Rainbow Warrior, to make sure that your voice is heard loud and clear here in Tokyo. Please take action.
Top Image: A sketch of Junichi Sato, Tadano Yasushi (lawyer) and Toru Suzuki (left to right) in court. © Greenpeace/ Molly Intersimone
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