SMSL to join World War II Japanese Invasion Day Remembrance Ceremony

Action Alert

SMSL to join World War II Japanese Invasion Day Remembrance Ceremony

This Sunday 1st September 2013

This Sunday 1st September, SMSL will lead Kuantan residents and supporters from other parts of Malaysia to take part in the annual commemoration ceremony to be held at the Nilai Memorial Park*.

SMSL’s action is to remind Malaysians of those who fought a heroic battle and those who fell victims to Japan’s ruthless act of imperialism.  Many people today still remember the atrocities and the cruelty inflicted by the Japanese army in Malaysia from September 1st 1941 for three years and 8 months during WWII.

Post war, Japanese imperialism continues through its economic expansion.  Mitsubishi set up a polluting rare earth processing plant in Bukit Merah in Perak. It has been linked to deformities in babies and many pre-matured deaths in the surrounding villages.  The plant was eventually shutdown. Until today its toxic radioactive waste still scattered in unknown illegal dumps in the surrounding areas posing a serious health hazard to unsuspecting locals.

Sadly the Japanese seemed not to have heed lessons learnt from history.  Three major corporations - namely Sojitz Corporation, Japan Oil, Gas, and Metals National Corp (JOGMEC) and the Japanese bank Mitsubishi UFC Corporation all helped propped up the controversial Lynas rare earth processing plant near Kuantan - Details available at the bottom of this alert.

SMSL’s participation in the memorial services is to both remember our fallen heroes and victims of Japan’s imperialism as well as to remind Malaysians to continue to fight ruthless imperialism of any kind to protect our lives and our country.

Activities of the Day:

1030am: remembrance ceremony for fallen war heroes at the Nilai Memorial Park

1040am: remembrance ceremony for anti-Japanese occupation fallen heroes

1100am: Recounting the history of occupation by 2 Taiwanese war experts at the nearby Xiao En Centre (http://www.nilaimemorialpark.com/memorial.phtml?v=c)

1.00pm: memorial services ends

*Nilai Memorial Park is located at the 38th km on the KL-Seremban highway

(http://www.nilaimemorialpark.com/park.phtml?v=c&sec=55&artid=200507140009)

For further information, contact: SMSL hotline on 012-9823302

 

Connections Between Lynas Corporation and Japan

About Lynas Corporation

Lynas owns the richest known deposit of Rare Earths, also known as Lanthanides, in the world at Mount Weld, near Laverton in Western Australia. Lynas concentrates the ore mined at Mount Weld in a Concentration Plant approximately 1.5km from the mine. The ore concentrate contain radioactive thorium and uranium.

The concentrate produced by the Concentration Plant is shipped in sea containers and transported by road and ship to the east coast of Malaysia to the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) within the Gebeng Industrial Estate near Kuantan in the state of Pahang in Malaysia, to process the Mount Weld concentrate through to separated Rare Earths products.

The processing and refining of rare earth is highly hazardous involving using a huge quantity of highly concentrated acids at very high temperature.  It produces huge amounts of fumes and gases, highly corrosive waste water and a massive amount of toxic radioactive waste.  To date, Lynas has yet to find a safe permanent solution to tackle its radioactive waste and pollution problems.

The Lynas project has sparked Malaysia’s biggest ever environmental campaign.  Stop Lynas campaigners and supporters have vowed to fight till the end to Stop Lynas.

The Japanese Connections

1. November 24, 2010, Sojitz Corporation and Lynas Corporation entered into a strategic alliance agreement concerning the supply of rare earths products to Japan and the expansion of Lynas rare earths project.
   See http://www.sojitz.com/en/news/2010/20101124.html
2. Wednesday, 30 March 2011, through the facilitation of Sojitz Corporation, Japanese government backed Japan Oil, Gas, and Metals National Corp (JOGMEC) provided a loan and share placement for $US325 million ($A314 million).  In exchange Lynas entered into a 10-year rare earth off take arrangement with Sojitz, supplying to an equivalent of 30% of the Japanese market.  Sojitz will act as the key supplier and distributor of Lynas’ rare earth oxides in Japan.
   See http://www.miningnews.net/storyview.asp?storyID=2383852&section=Search&sectionsource=s88

3.      In July 2011, Japanese bank Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group took a 9.99 per cent stake in Lynas Corporation through its equity stake in the US bank Morgan Stanley.  Mitsubishi's 9.99 per cent stake in Lynas is mainly a technical result of its decision to switch $US1.7 billion ($1.59bn) worth of convertible bonds into an equity stake in Morgan Stanley last week. Mitsubishi also holds around 4.8 million Lynas shares in its own right, amounting to 0.3 per cent of the company.  In total Mitsubishi owns close to 11 per cent stake of Lynas Corporation.

see http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/japans-mitsubishi-ufj-financial-group-buys-324m-stake-in-lynas-corp/story-e6frg9df-1226087801986