Posts Tagged ‘whales’

Sea Shepherd’s Paul Watson – Interview With an Eco-Terrorist

Photojournalist Yoichi Watanabe and a studio audience of Japanese school children interview Paul Watson, the leader of the radical animal rights group Sea Shepherd:

The video about 15 minutes long. Here is a summary of its contents, followed by a few comments of my own.

Summary

Watson is introduced as a man who the FBI has called an eco-terrorist. His organization of modern day pirates has carried out unforgivable acts of violence against Japanese whaling ships in the Southern Ocean. Sea Shepherd has been obstructing the work of the whaling fleet, even though Japan’s actions are in compliance with international rules.

Before going into greater detail, Watanabe introduces some basic information about Japan’s history of eating whale meat:

Back in the old days, Japanese people didn’t eat beef or pork. Whale meat was seen as a valuable food source.

Japan’s culture of eating whale meat survived into the modern era. It is still served in some school lunches today.

Humans caused whale populations to decline, so international rules were created to protect whale stocks. Japan’s whaling program follows those rules.

However, some countries with no cultural tradition of eating whale meat think it is bad to kill whales. They want Japan to stop. Japan has been trying to defend a culinary tradition that has existed for hundreds of years.

The disagreements between Japan and other countries led to the emergence of Sea Shepherd, a violent extremist group.

The narrator describes the various vehicles that Sea Shepherd has at its disposal. This includes high tech speedboats, a helicopter, and a large boat, which is sometimes used to ram Japanese ships.

Paul Watson is the man in charge of it all. He thinks his organization has the authority to act as police on the high seas, and he thinks that the Japanese whalers are criminals.

Watson’s past actions includes sinking several whaling ships in the 1980′s. His actions have led the FBI to brand him an “eco-terrorist” and Japan has issued an international warrant for his arrest.

Yoichi Watanabe wants to know why Paul Watson thinks it is just to use violence. He wants to know why Sea Shepherd throws bottles of acid at Japanese whaling ships and injures Japanese whalers. He wants to know why Watson denies that Sea Shepherd is using violence.

The popularity of the “Whale Wars” TV series has helped make Watson a hero in some parts of the world. A lot of people don’t seem to care about the Japanese arrest warrant. They like Watson and they support Sea Shepherd.

On the TV show, Watson and his organization are shown as heroes fighting against the evil Japanese murderers. In one famous scene, Watson declares that he had been shot by the Japanese. His bulletproof vest and SS badge supposedly stopped the bullet and saved his life.

Thanks to the shocking claims made on it television program, Sea Shepherd’s income has skyrocketed. But was the assassination attempt real?

A Japanese whaler says it didn’t happen. There was no gunfire. The “muzzle flash” photo that Sea Shepherd had posted on its website was a clock. Watson’s was lying.

They set up an interview Watson. Because of the Japanese arrest warrant, he cannot come to Tokyo to speak to them in person. Instead, they use a live video link. Watanabe and the Japanese audience are joined by Masaaki Sasaki of the Sankei Shimbun, a reporter who is knowledgeable about Sea Shepherd.

Question 1: Is it justifiable to tell lies in the pursuit of your goal?

Watanabe mentions the questionable nature of Watson’s claim to have been shot by the Japanese. Watson claims he never made such a claim. That claim may have come from the show’s producers (Animal Planet). He doesn’t know who fired the shot.

[While Watson is answering, we are shown a clip from the show, in which Watson says that the Japanese ("they") shot him.]

Question 2: Ever since your TV program began to air in 2005, you’ve seen a huge increase in contributions. Do you think it is okay to use a dishonest TV program to raise money?

Watson acknowledges that the television program has been an success, but he resents being called a liar. He says that he has not lied.

Question 3: In your 2002 book Earthforce: An Earth Warrior’s Guide to Strategy, you write that activists should use dramatic tricks to confuse your enemies and use claims of victimization to increase public support for their causes. Isn’t that what you are doing now?

Watson says he wrote that activists should not cause harm to other people. He says it is a book of strategy. It’s kind of like Miyamoto Musahi, only Watson advocates non-violence.

A schoolgirl asks Question 4: We saw video footage of you throwing bottles of acid at Japanese whaling ships. Isn’t that an act of violence?

Watson says his group doesn’t use acid. They throw rotten butter at the whalers.

[As Watson says this, we are shown an image of one of the bottles that was thrown at the Japanese whalers. The word "ACID" is clearly visible on its label.]

He says that Coca-Cola is more acidic than the rotten butter used by Sea Shepherd. It smells really bad (the kids laugh at this line).

Question 5: In the video clips, we can see Sea Shepherd ships ramming Japanese whaling ships. We can also see Sea Shepherd members throwing bottles of chemicals at the Japanese whalers. How do you explain this?

Watson says that Sea Shepherd hasn’t rammed any whaling vessels. They were hit by the whalers. The whalers are trying to murder them, but Sea Shepherd isn’t trying to hurt anyone. Sea Shepherd wants to protect the whales.

Question 6: What about the Japanese crew members who were injured and hospitalized?

Watson says that it’s not true. Nobody was injured by Sea Shepherd. It’s a lie.

Question 7: And What about the Icelandic whaling ships you sank in 1986?

Watson says Sea Shepherd sunk those ships. He challenged Icelandic authorities to arrest him, but they never did.

He says that Sea Shepherd has never hurt anyone in its 35 years of activism. Watson is confident that they have done nothing wrong. He defiantly challenges those who seek to arrest Sea Shepherd members.

Question 8: So you have never used violence?

Watson defines violence as acts that hurt or kill. By this definition, Sea Shepherd does not use violence. The real violence is taking place when intelligent whales are being killed. Staining the seas with blood is violence.

A little boy asks Question 9: If you think it’s bad to kill whales, what do you think of killing cows? In Australia, lots of cows are being killed and eaten.

Watson says he doesn’t eat beef, and neither do his crew members.

Another boy follows up with Question 10: So you don’t eat beef. Is that enough? Why aren’t you trying to protect cows?

Watson says that they are the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Cows do not live in the sea.

Question 11: Why don’t you come to Japan and spread your message?

Watson responds by asking Watanabe to visit Sea Shepherd in the Southern Ocean. After being asked again, Watson says he’d come for a visit if Japan stops whaling.

After the interview, Watanabe makes some closing remarks to the audience. He says that every country has its own unique history and culture, but all agree that violence and dishonesty are wrong. He thinks that the world will judge Watson’s words and deeds.

Comments

Japanese-speakers will no doubt notice that Watson is continually referred to as “the accused” (容疑者). I suppose that it’s not improper to use that term, since Japan has issued a warrant for his arrest. However, I kind of got the impression that they were tying to say it as much as possible so they could emphasize the fact that Watson stands accused of a crime.

This is not an unedited interview. At the very least, cuts were made to speed up the Japanese-to-English and English-to-Japanese translations. Watson’s original English answers were dubbed over with a Japanese voice. Some questions and answers may have been cut, and it could have been put together in a way that deliberately made Watson look bad. His answers, however, were consistent the things he’s being saying for years. I doubt they would have needed to do much editing to make Watson look like a lying douche.

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Taiji dolphin hunt halted because of ‘The Cove’?

While checking Google News a few moments ago, I discovered some shocking news: the Taiji dolphin hunt has been halted. According to the headlines, “The Cove,” a documentary that highlighted the cruel and inhumane manner in which Japanese fishermen hunt and kill cute/intelligent dolphins, has been a wild success:

The reports are, of course, unfounded. There is absolutely no evidence that the Taiji dolphin hunt has been stopped because of the actions of foreigners who love dolphins. For the past few days the Japanese media has been reporting that bad weather and rough seas have prevented the hunt from going through as planned.

Here’s a clip from NTV news in which that very fact is reported ["団体はクジラの追い込み漁も視察する予定だったが、天候が悪く、漁は行われなかった。"], along with a few seconds of Ric O’Barry telling the media that Taiji should sell fruit instead of dolphins:

Stay tuned to this blog tomorrow: I’ll try to post about a slightly more detailed Japanese news report on the Taiji dolphin hunt controversy.

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• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
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The Cove on Japanese TV

The town of Taiji began its dolphin hunt yesterday. Taiji is now infamous in America and Australia because of “The Cove,” a documentary created by animal rights activists who feel its dolphin hunt is barbarous and cruel.

Former dolphin trainer Ric O’Barry brought some foreign journalists to Taiji yesterday, an action that got some attention from the Japanese news media. Here’s the report that aired on TBS’s “The News” yesterday (subtitled in English):

The report is sympathetic to Taiji’s fishermen. Emphasis is placed on Taiji’s long tradition of whaling and an explanation from a local government representative is given more air time than the statements made by Ric O’Barry. Short clips of the documentary are shown, but they aren’t as graphic as the bloody scenes shown in official trailers.

O’Barry appears to be addressing his comments at the foreign journalists he brought along to cover the event. The Japanese news camera is just one of several filming his statements. The clip of him speaking includes something about how he concerned about the sales of dolphin meat. Based on previous things he has said in the international press, I’m guessing it was only the tail end of an explanation about the dangerous levels of mercury found in dolphin meat. It is possible that he wasn’t clear enough in mentioning the mercury, or TBS could have edited out that part of his statements.

In the last week, I have seen a few Japanese press reports about the documentary and have noticed something strange. The film is written as “The Cove” in English. Apparently the makers of this film, a documentary that is supposed to be calling on Japan to end Taiji’s dolphin hunting, didn’t even make an official Japanese title for their film. If they were serious about actually getting the message out to Japanese people, you’d think they would make an easily understandable Japanese language title for the film and distribute Japanese press releases that informed media outlets of that title. I’m also puzzled that these people haven’t realized that t-shirt slogans written in Japanese might be more helpful than something written in English. If they are actually making great efforts to reach a Japanese audience, it’s not showing.

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
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Praying for the souls of dead whales at a Japanese temple

A fascinating clip from an N-H-K documentary that contains a description of a temple in Japan that has honored the souls of dead whales by giving them posthumous Buddhist names and entering them into a registry (much as one might do for humans who have passed away):

Other whaling news you might be interested in: A whaling town in Japan has hauled in its first catch of the season, as is a village in America. It also looks like Europe will surpass Japan in whaling this year.

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)

Reporting on whale meat theft

Last month, Greenpeace held a press conference in Japan announcing that its members had entered a delivery company’s distribution center in Tokyo on April 15th and intentionally walked out of the center with a package that did not belong to them. There’s a word for this in English: stealing.

Those involved in the theft were arrested yesterday for the crime they told the world they committed. The Japan Times/The Guardian reported their arrest with the following headline:

The use of single quotation marks implies that the Greenpeace members may have been arrested for something that was not a theft. Why? Greenpeace claims it grabbed the packages because they contained whale meat that Japanese whalers had embezzled and stolen.

Japanese authorities have investigated the matter and determined that they cannot prove the whalers did anything illegal. The whaling ship captain claims the meat was given to crew members as a souvenir, and apparently such an activity is legal in Japan. Stealing packages from delivery centers, however, is not legal in Japan.

Some people may think that the Greenpeace members justly stole the package to bring attention to the unjust killing of whales and sale of whale meat. That’s fine, but theft in the name of justice is still theft, and they shouldn’t be surprised if people who freely confess to taking things that don’t belong to them are arrested and charged with theft. Greenpeace does not have the legal authority to seize property it believes is stolen.

Why can’t the Japan Times clearly report a theft as a theft?

{note: News sites such as Earthtimes & the Yomiuri Shinbun have not used single quotes in their headlines.]

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd Snubs Japan?

Australia’s Prime Minister is going to visit China soon, and some people think he may be deliberately skipping a visit to Japan, reports the Sydney Morning Herald:

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has brushed aside suggestions he is putting Australia’s relationship with Japan at risk because he will bypass Tokyo on his forthcoming world tour.

Mr Rudd, a well-known Sinophile, will spend four days in China during his imminent multi-country tour, that takes in the United States, Britain, Belgium and Romania as well.

The prime minister will leave his first visit to Japan as leader until July, when he heads to Tokyo to attend the G8 summit.

The opposition has seized on a report quoting anonymous sources suggesting Japan is irritated because Mr Rudd appears to be favouring Beijing at the expense of Tokyo.

The Japanese embassy in Canberra was not immediately available for comment.

Since the G8 summit is this summer, it might seem a bit excessive to visit Japan twice within a few months, but that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been some tension between Japan and Australia recently. Australia is one of the leaders of the anti-whaling movement, so it is often clashing with Japan over the issue. Although the Australian government recently agreed to investigate the activities of the radical animal rights activist group Sea Shepherd, Japanese internet anger towards Australia (among those who care about whaling) is still relatively strong.

Below are a couple video clips about Australia and whaling that have been popular on YouTube Japan in recent weeks.



[Clip 1] A segment from an Australian TV show [The Chaser's War On Everything] in which a comedian goes around trying to kill Japanese people for research:

[Clip 2] A pro-whaling video that attacks Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace:

Video clips comparing Australia’s kangaroo culls to Japan’s whaling have also been popular on YouTube, which may have led the Japanese media to devote coverage to the latest cull. Prime Minister Rudd has denied claims of hypocrisy, and the cull will probably go ahead as scheduled, assuming that authorities can break through the human shield activists are setting up.