Beheiren was a Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese activist group that existed from 1965 to 1974. As a coalition

Coalition

A coalition is a pact or treaty among individuals or groups, during which they cooperate in joint action, each in their own self-interest, joining forces together for a common cause. This alliance may be temporary or a matter of convenience. A coalition thus differs from a more formal covenant...

 of a few hundred anti-war groups it protested Japanese assistance to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 during the Vietnam War

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

.

Accomplishments

They claim to have helped 20 U.S. soldiers to desert, in some cases providing them with false passports and other paperwork and helping them escape to Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 via the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

.http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2002/2002-February/003886.html They also used shareholder activism

Activist shareholder

An activist shareholder uses an equity stake in a corporation to put public pressure on its management. The goals of activist shareholders range from financial to non-financial...

 techniques — buying single shares of Mitsubishi

Mitsubishi

The Mitsubishi Group , Mitsubishi Group of Companies, or Mitsubishi Companies is a Japanese multinational conglomerate company that consists of a range of autonomous businesses which share the Mitsubishi brand, trademark and legacy...

 stock so that they could address shareholders meetings about the company's support for the American war effort.http://www.meijigakuin.ac.jp/~ascj/2004/2004.10.htm The group also assisted American soldiers who were publishing and distributing underground papers and pamphlets in Japan.

Members

Members included Makoto Oda

Makoto Oda

was a Japanese novelist, peace activist, academic and Time Asian Hero.-Early life and career:Oda was born in Osaka in 1932 and graduated from the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Letters program, majoring in classical Greek philosophy and literature...

 (Representative), Yuichi Yoshikawa (Secretary-General), Michitoshi Takabatake, Amon Miyamoto

Amon Miyamoto

Amon Miyamoto is a Japanese stage director and choreographer.-Biography:Beginning his career in theater as an actor and choreographer, Amon Miyamoto went to study in London and New York for two years...

, Ichiyo Muto, Shinobu Yoshioka, Takeshi Kaiko, Yoshiyuki Tsurumi and Shunsuke Tsurumi

Shunsuke Tsurumi

is a Japanese historian and philosopher. Graduating from Harvard University in 1942, he taught at Kyoto University. In 1946, he started the magazine "Shiso-no Kagaku" . He was a member of the anti-Vietnam War group Beheiren....

.

Stance in Cold War Rivalries

Like many New Left

New Left

The New Left was a term used mainly in the United Kingdom and United States in reference to activists, educators, agitators and others in the 1960s and 1970s who sought to implement a broad range of reforms, in contrast to earlier leftist or Marxist movements that had taken a more vanguardist...

groups, Beheiren took a stance independent of the Soviet Union and the communist bloc.