April 12, 2012

To the editor:

Last November I was asked as a representative of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 21 to attend two labor rallies in Chiba City and Tokyo, Japan. The invite was from Doro Chiba, the rail workers union there, which had carried out a solidarity protest against ITOCHU, one of the owners of the EGT terminal in Longview, Wash. Japanese workers are facing the same problems we are here in the U.S., including privatization and efforts to contract out union jobs.

While there I met Akiko Hoshino, the spouse of Fumiaki Hoshino, one of the longest detained political prisoners in the world. He helped organize a protest Nov. 14, 1971, against the “Okinawa Reversion Agreement,” which allowed the U.S. to base nuclear weapons in Okinawa. A policeman and a woman trade unionist were killed during the protest. Hoshino was framed up and charged with murder in those deaths.

The Japanese prison system is oppressive and most friends cannot visit him. He is innocent and there is no physical evidence whatsoever linking him to the deaths.

The only “evidence of guilt” were statements of six demonstrators made in closed police interrogation rooms. Five of these witnesses later recanted on the grounds they were coerced by cops and prosecutors. Others refused to testify in open court. Also, the police “lost” the videotape of the demonstration.

On top of that, the Supreme Court in Japan admitted Fumiaki was wearing “light blue clothes” during the 1971 protest, instead of “biscuit colored clothes” as was reported in the frame-up story.

For 35 years plus the Japanese government has imprisoned an innocent man.

This injustice reminds us of so many other frame-up cases and of the injustice done to Trayvon Martin here. Working people throughout the world need to stand up and demand, “Free Fumiaki Hoshino.”

Dan Coffman
ILWU Local 21 President
Longview, Wash.  
 
 
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