The "Media Part" website said that the young Japanese poet Shindo Matsushita, who has become a well-known figure in the marches in support of the Gaza Strip, is on a hunger strike to demand a complete ceasefire and an end to the massacre in Gaza, and he talks about the history of the Palestinians in the Rising Sun Archipelago.

The site noted - in a report by Johan Florey - that "many Japanese see in the bombing of the Gaza Strip a history repeating itself, like the history of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that we lived through in our bodies. I want to dream of a world in which war no longer exists," according to Shindo.

The website said that Shindo (27 years old)'s commitment to combating colonialism goes back to a family history of discrimination, because he was born into the Burakumin community, which represented the "outcasts" in Japan, who worked in the leather trade, slaughterhouses, and funeral administration, and were without land.

Even today, despite the abolition of this system a long time ago - as the author says - the heirs of these communities still suffer from discrimination related to work and marriage because of their roots. Shindo says, “I think that since my childhood, I have been thinking about these questions related to belonging to a landless community.” ".

Shindo's taste in arts and literature led him to Palestinian culture, and he was drawn to stories of life during wartime as well as stories of the Nakba, which tells the story of peoples who were discriminated against and expelled from their lands.

His curiosity also led him to Auschwitz and then to Hebron in the occupied West Bank, which marked a milestone in his life, where he discovered “checkpoints” but also “warm hospitality,” and met people who pushed him to return to Hebron and Jenin last summer.

Shindo: My body is getting weaker but I want to keep going, I want this genocide to stop

When the first Israeli bombing of Gaza began, Shindo was overcome with despair, as he said, “I can no longer live, and this part of the world that is dear to me is suffering greatly,” so he began his first hunger strike, and ended it when he collapsed near the Israeli embassy in Tokyo, before deciding to begin. In a second strike just over two weeks ago.

He adds, "My body is weakening, but I want to continue. I want this genocide to stop," noting that he is "ashamed of his government." "There are similarities between Israel and Japan, in their tyrannical positions, such that public opinion and people's feelings do not matter."

Little by little - as the site says - citizens began to join the ranks of the demonstrations, and took their places alongside activists like Shindo and his friends, some of whom are Palestinians originally from Gaza and have resided in Japan for several years.

The writer concluded by talking about Oki Kanu, singer of the Oki Dub Aino band, about Gaza, when he said, “We can only sympathize with the Palestinians,” and added, “Just as they were expelled from their lands, subjected to discrimination, and turned to poverty and violence, the Ainu people lived the same story.”

Source: Mediapart