ABSTRACT
Just like their English equivalent, kusa no ne undo or 'grassroots movements' in Japan have a long history of civil disobedience, dissent and citizen protests that originated in the bottom-up approach of citizens engaging in the socio-political dimensions of modern nation-states. The indiscriminate bombing campaigns in North Vietnam that were triggered in August 1964 by the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, in which United States naval vessels controversially claimed to have been attacked by North Vietnamese patrol boats, sparked off a global grassroots opposition movement. The period of social inertia and antipathy was punctuated in March 2011 by the triple catastrophe of the Tohoku earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima nuclear accident. Detailed discussion is beyond the scope of this chapter; suffice to say that Beheiren kept a detailed record of all deserters and it is available online. There is also a video interview that shows Oda Makoto, Kaiko Takeshi and the Intrepid Four.
