In the Vietnam War, not only did the U.S. government send its own active combat units into South Vietnam, it also established military bases in allied countries such as South Korea, the Philippines and Japan. U.S. military bases in Japan served as hubs for the U.S. to directly transport its war machine to Vietnam from the 1960s. This sparked off strong anti-war movements in Japan from 1965, and among the pioneering ones were those organised by Beheiren group, followed by the Haneda protests, the activities of people in Oizumi, etc. Anti-war protests and donations raised for the Vietnamese attracted Japanese from various backgrounds, ranging from intellectuals and artists to workers and farmers. In 1972 the U.S. military, which was getting bogged down in the quagmire of the Vietnam War, planned to send M48 Patton tanks from Japanese military bases to Vietnam. However, hundreds of people in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture (Japan), sat in front of the M48s at a military base in this prefecture for more than 100 days to protest against this action. The song “Stop! Tank” was composed in this circumstances.
In 1973 Kumiko Yokoi, a 29-year-old Japanese singer who had a happy family with a two-year-old son, decided to come to Vietnam with the encouragement of her husband Hidetaka Tomoyori. She wanted to use her songs together with the Vietnamese people to raise their voice against the war. Yokoi performed in Hà Nội for two weeks between the end of November and December 1973. She even went to an artillery battlefield in Quảng Bình province to perform for soldiers there. Her performance of “Stop! Tank” was recorded and broadcast repeatedly by VOV (the Voice of Vietnam) and Hà Nội Radio. After her return from Vietnam, she performed this song all over Japan and in some other countries.
Yokoi returned to Vietnam after the war ended. She learnt that the pain of war was still intense since too many people had fallen victim to bombs and mines and Agent Orange. So she performed at many events to raise money for victims of Agent Orange. In May 2005 she was awarded the Medal of Honor for International Peace and Friendship by then Vietnamese Vice President Nguyễn Thị Bình. She was one of the 1,000 women nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize under the 1,000 women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005 project.
On March 16, 2018, Yokoi presented her photo and the disc she had released in 1974 to the War Remnants Museum. The disc comprises 14 songs including the famous “Stop! Tank,” which served as a message of peace and opposition to the Vietnam War in the Land of the Rising Sun.
Kumiko Yokoi sings to soldiers at an artillery battlefield in Quảng Bình province in 1973. Photo courtesy of Yokoi.