Issue and Opponent: During the 1950s, there were protests against the American military bases in Japan. Strong nationalism and an active and emerging Leftist movement were instrumental in these anti-U.S. sentiments and demonstrations. At this time, President Nobuske announced that Japan would ratify the security treaty with the United States, thus granting its military base to remain on Japanese soil.
Dilemma Action: To protest against this, more than 100 leftist groups and activists organized actions against Nobuske’s administration on the issue of the treaty ratification and formed the People’s Council to Stop the Revised Security Treaty. The groups that formed the coalition included the Federation of Japanese Women’s Organizations, the Association of Japanese Literary Persons, the YMCA, and many other professional associations, artistic and cultural groups, and academics. Everyone feared the treaty ratification would cause more intervention by the United States and a nuclear war. They were also concerned about the fascist tendencies of Nobuske. On United Action Day, thousands of protesters peacefully gathered on November 27th, 1959 outside the Japanese Diet (the parliament building) to present an anti-treaty petition to the President. After handing over the petition, protesters spontaneously entered the parliament building and spent hours singing and dancing. Nobuske was in a dilemma. He and his ministers had described the protesters as angry and aggressive. Now the same coalition members were singing and dancing and cheering harmlessly. Entering the parliament building spontaneously might have broken security regulations but arresting a bunch of peaceful, singing, and dancing youths would make the world wonder about Nobuske’s claims of the danger that protesters presented. On the other hand, by not taking any action the President looked weak and lost some legitimacy before his supporters.
Outcome: The outcome of the protest, however, did not end in the withdrawal of the treaty. Nobuske still went ahead with the plan, and the treaty was ratified. The dance-sing-petition action was part of a larger campaign against the treaty ratification and included several other DAs such as sit-ins on a minor scale.