Whales and Japan - Japan Deprived of Culture -

     Not only eating whales but utilizing them comes from Japanese traditional culture. Japan was deprived of its own culture under the name of the preservation of whales without the confirmation that whales are endangered or not. Until the discovery of crude oil, the superpowers had been struggling to capture the considerable number of whales only for whale oil. Their bodies, except for oil, were simply discarded. They went out far away from their countries for whales, whereas Japanese people just caught whales migrating up north off the coast of Japan. Besides, only a small part of their bodies are  thrown away in Japan. The rate of utilizatiion is 100%. Japan started whaling in the Antarctic Ocean for food after the end of the Great East Asian War and abandoned it a few decades ago. It actually lead to the decrease of whales, so Japan is investigating the number of whales now. While the number of whales increases, the fish catch decrease. It's reportedly because of the huge appetite of whales. Fishermen working around the Antarctic Ocean would know the facts.

     If you need analogies it means depriving western people of beef, French people of foie gras (it's  animal abuse), Koreans of dogs, Chinese of cats and dogs, the Inuit of whales and Americans of turkey.

     And, one more question, why does the Sea Shepherd attack only Japan out of several whaling countries, like Norway, South Korea and Iceland?

     Any question is welcome, if it's reasonable.

     See also; http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/24/opinion/24iht-edbowring.html?scp=2&sq=whales&st=cse (added on 24th)

(Vocabulary)

fish catch  漁獲量

foie gras〈フランス語〉〔ガチョウの肝臓〕 フォアグラ

analogy  [C] 類似性 

Comments

[KUMO]

How sincere comment it is!
I'd like to write such a beautiful article.

[アンデイ]

This might answer your question about the Sea shepard.

"Sea Shepherd
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has promoted more global awareness to Japan’s whaling program. Founded in 1977 for the purpose of enforcing international environmental laws, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has played many roles in curbing international whaling. In the past, ships operated by the society have rammed and even sunk vessels suspected to be illegally whaling. The society also regularly distracts whalers through several means, such as sabotage, in order to temporarily halt the whaling. The society has been confronting Japanese whalers since 2005, but has only recently made international headlines due to several audacious maneuvers. On January 15, 2008, the society threw glass bottles laden with butyric acid onto the decks of Japanese whalers. Afterwards, two members of the society boarded the whalers in order to interrupt the whaling and were detained. Although no one was hurt and the two members were eventually released, these maneuvers slowed the progress of the whaling and, more importantly, brought heavy media coverage to the topic."

source
http://www.macalester.edu/environmentalstudies/students/projects/citizenscience2008/japanwhaling/backlash.html