John Mancuso & Kazuhiro Imamura (今村和宏), Conspiracy Theorists

Mancuso

This double interview was published in the February 2006 edition of Tokyo Journal under the title "Conspiracy - Yes, Theory - No"

Suspicions about the events of September 11 are often dismissed as ‘conspiracy theories,’ a term that conveniently tags them as absurd notions unworthy of serious consideration. Likewise, those who campaign against the accepted story of that momentous day are routinely derided as ‘conspiracy theorists,’ which has almost become a synonym for eccentrics with overactive imaginations.

But if the mainstream media and the establishment it serves thinks that it can so easily dismiss debate on an issue of such vital importance, then they are reckoning without the rational and dedicated intelligences of people like Kazuhiro Imamura and John Mancuso, two Tokyo-based academics, who play an active and prominent role in the growing Truth and Peace Movement, both within Japan and internationally, that is seeking to find out what really happened on that day of infamy when over 2,000 innocent people died and the New York skyline changed forever.

“It’s not a theory,” Mancuso, a frank, outspoken New Yorker, who teaches at Tokyo’s Hitotsubashi University, insists. “What we have here is a real conspiracy. September 11 was the opening salvo against normal citizens. Right after it the US government enacted draconian laws in order to stifle freedom of speech and to arrest people going about their normal everyday business.”

The laws Mancuso refers to are those embodied in the so-called Patriot Act, passed on the tide of paranoia and emotion that swept the country in the aftermath of 9-11.

“The Patriot Act essentially destroys the American constitution and the Bill of Rights,” Mancuso contends. “It allows government officials and police authorities to actually enter your house without a warrant, without telling you anything. They can tap your phones without letting you know. They can go into your house when you are not there, confiscate things and not even tell you about it.”

Imamura, a social sciences professor at the same university, strongly agrees. He also shares Mancuso’s conviction that the events of 9-11 were the result of a very real conspiracy perpetuated by the US government or elements within the US establishment, designed to not only limit political freedom, but also create support for the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, in order to maintain the astronomically high military spending that benefits the military-industrial complex.

The main barrier activists like Imamura and Mancuso face is the magnitude of the crime that they claim has been committed by those in authority. The allegations are so shocking that it is impossible for most people to accept them all at once.

“If we give the conclusions that we have reached to people who don’t know anything about this, it is very difficult,” Imamura admits. “It sounds like we are talking about a conspiracy theory, instead of a real conspiracy. So, all we can do is to raise questions – why, why, why! Why is it possible? This is the reason we like the documentary ‘In Plane Site.’ This video doesn’t say anything about the conclusions, but simply raises many many questions. That’s good.”

Imamura 

9-11 AND JAPAN

Some might wonder what an event like 9-11 has to do with Japan. After all, isn’t the Patriot Act and the occupation of Iraq mainly an American problem? Not if recent events in Japan are anything to go by. In addition to Japanese troops being sent overseas for the first time since 1945 to provide a token presence in Iraq, Imamura also points out that Japan recently passed its own version of the Patriot Act, and the government is also proposing new laws that will make it more difficult to plan political demonstrations.

“A series of emergency laws were passed in 2004,” he says. “The nature of these laws is to impose marshal law and work closely with the US military, not only in the case of a real emergency but also in case that the United States goes to war – not just in Asia – but also in Iran or in the Middle East or other parts of the World.”

Although members of several Truth and Peace groups, like Global Peace Campaign, Imamura and Mancuso’s work is mainly project-based, focusing on specific issues and events like the passing of these laws.

“For example, when this series of emergency laws were being passed in 2004, we worked against this very intensively for 6 months,” Imamura recalls.

Although unable to stop the new laws, Imamura believes that the campaign was nevertheless extremely successful because it raised awareness, not least among the members of the Japanese parliament who actually passed it. While the Truth and Peace movement in other countries often plays an antagonistic role to politics and the media, in Japan it takes on duties that the media and politicians neglect.

“Actually many members of the parliament were simply not aware that these laws could be so dangerous,” Imamura says. “We worked very intensely in the parliament, talking with the members and also with their secretaries. For this series of emergency laws there were 800 pages of laws and nobody had read that. Every member maybe read 20 pages of a digest version, but we actually read everything and pointed out the problems and we lectured. It’s ridiculous that we should have to do this.”

NORTH KOREA

The rationale behind the laws is the same one that led the Japanese parliament to recently agree to finance an extremely expensive missile defense program – namely fear of North Korea.

“We’re talking about something that will cost in excess of 1.2 billion dollars,” Mancuso complains. “Why don’t they just give 1.2 billion dollars to North Korea? Let them use it to build schools and infrastructure and create some kind of prosperity there instead of constantly knocking them down.”

Imamura sees the constant harping on the threat from North Korea as pure myth.

“North Korea is a fiction,” he insists. “North Korea exists, but the danger of North Korea is a fiction. North Korea can be dangerous in the future, in 10 or 20 years if the economy goes well, but the economy is so bad now the power of North Korea is nothing. From the point of view of military equipment, the North Korean government can’t do anything.”

“But like Al Qaeda and Iran, that’s what the American government wants,” Mancuso agrees. “The American government wants us to be afraid – like, ‘Here’s the bogeyman!’ We’ve got these myths and our leaders are telling us to fear these people, hate these people. I don’t hate them. I don’t fear them. But why am told to fear them all the time? Because someone down the line is going to be making lots of money from it.”

TRUE PATRIOT

Coming to these views from the perspective presented by the mainstream media, Imamura and Mancuso may seem like typical Leftist troublemakers or cynics, preprogrammed to automatically disagree with everything patriotic, nationalist, or capitalist. Like the term ‘conspiracy theorist,’ this perception is constantly reinforced by the media and used to dismiss such valid dissent. Mancuso and Imamura, however, assert that they and others like them are the true patriots and economic realists.

“We recently invited Scott Ritter to the Japanese parliament for a series of interviews with the media,” Imamura mentions the former US military intelligence officer and chief UN arms inspector who is now one of the most vocal critics of the Bush administration. “He is an ex-marine, and he is very patriotic and right wing. He said he was totally against the Bush policy because he was patriotic. Being against American government policy doesn’t mean being against America or the American people.”

Mancuso also gives the example of his own father, a former Bush loyalist and right wing Republican who now believes that the US government planned and carried out the 9-11 attacks.

As for accusations of being against American business, Imamura qualifies this.

“We are against one part of American industry,” he says. “That which is connected with the American government. Actually, a great part of American industry suffers from this American policy, for example tourism.”

The Truth and Peace Movement is clearly more than just a gang of left-wing intellectuals and malcontents. Increasing public cynicism about the way the political class and special interest groups are bypassing the wishes of voters, makes such anti-establishment groups – be they from the left or the right – increasingly powerful. The Internet also gives them the perfect medium to bypass the thought control of the mainstream media and develop their political consciousness.

“From the beginning of time, governments have manufactured chaos, from Nero’s burning of Rome onwards,” Mancuso asserts. “Governments manufacture problems in order to help themselves It’s the classic ‘problem – solution’ model. They create the ‘problem,’ then they offer the ‘solution.”

In the age of the Internet, however, this method of controlling the political agenda may prove to be fatally flawed, meaning that the ‘solution’ to the ‘problem’ of 9-11 may not be the one the government wants.

“It really is a house of cards,” Mancuso point out. “The whole damn thing is now falling apart because people are analyzing the video tapes. We have groups in America, and groups in Japan that are really looking at this, and really asking the hard questions, and the Bush administration just wants to avoid it.”

So what is the next step? Mancuso believes in spreading the word.

“Tell all of your friends,” he advocates. “Tell your friends to tell your friends to tell your friends! Walk around the street. Make photocopies of this article. Hand it out. Get a lot of people involved, the more the better.”

Imamura adds that a particularly effective way is to target the feedback apparatus of the mainstream media.

“Say something to the media,” he says. “If they neglect to report the truth, call, fax, or email. When they get positive feedback they don’t do anything, but if just one person calls with a negative message, this will be transmitted to the top.”

The establishment may continue to mock, ignore, or dismiss the claims of the Truth and Peace Movement, but, at the same time, have no doubt, they are paying very close attention to it as well.