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A letter from a Japanese citizen
Award-winning Australian actress, Isabel Lucas, signed the Greenpeace petition launched by The Daily Telegraph. It's one of hundreds of actions taken by celebrities and citizens alike that have attacked whaling, not the whalers.
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Mr. Sato,
I am contacting you for the first time. I am a forty-year-old Japanese woman living in Melbourne, Australia. My husband is an Australian citizen who was born in New Zealand.
I arrived in Australia in 1991 and spent most of my time in Cairns, a tourist region in Queensland. While it has only been about two years since I moved to Melbourne, I have been exposed to news about anti-whaling efforts during these two years and first came upon your website this year.
In Cairns, I worked as a tourist guide and used to tell Japanese tourists visiting the Great Barrier Reef at certain times of the year that they could see whales if they were lucky. I’m embarrassed to admit this but the concept of whaling did not once cross my mind at the time. I did not once discuss this issue with other Australian guides, my husband, or clients.
Over the past two years, I’ve lived in Melbourne, which is located near the Antarctic Ocean and I’ve been able to watch more news programming on television due to my position as a homemaker, such that I’ve become interested in the anti-whaling movement for the first time in my life.
I get the sense from watching television that protests against Japanese whaling are being covered especially harshly this year. Once we got into December, news programs were presenting anti-whaling pieces on a daily basis that, to put it bluntly, seemed to attack Japanese people, which caused me to adopt considerable anti-Australian feelings and which even led me to lash out with emotional fervor against my own husband. We had our first ever discussion about whaling since we got married, and my husband said to me, “Regardless of the fact that you’re Japanese, I am absolutely against whaling. Nobody is against it for reasons of discrimination against the Japanese. The Japanese government and whaling industries, among others, have been whaling for many years under the pretext of science.”
In this connection, I began to research various facts via the Internet. This is because the fact that we are not taught certain things due to government policy is not an adequate excuse in this day and age when the Internet has been developed for our benefit. Lack of knowledge is indeed a formidable state of affairs. In Japanese, the only websites that I could find other than that of Greenpeace Japan were ones operated by pro-whaling supporters. If someone could only understand Japanese and only read information that was likely manipulated by government institutions and other such bodies, they might be inclined to believe that “white people are ganging up on and discriminating against Japanese people” or that “they are trampling on Japanese culture.” Such people are prone to swallowing such propaganda put out by the Japanese government and fishermen’s unions.
I read your article that was printed in an Australian newspaper called the Herald Sun and also heard you speak out in English against whaling on what I believe was channel 10.
To be honest, I was feeling discouraged in the face of a continuous onslaught of coverage slamming Japanese whaling day after day. That is when your article, written as it was by a Japanese activist striving hard to fight whaling, came out and gave me hope that this year might be headed in a better direction after all. Moreover, while one might wonder whether press restraints shaped by diplomatic policies of the government apply here in Australia as well, I came to believe that this society is in fact eminently democratic, free, and fair, as evidenced by published articles that do not simply bash Japan and contributions by newspaper
columnists that lend support to Japan’s position.
Unfortunately, an incident that has angered Australians occurred in which two members of Sea Shepherd forced their way aboard a Japanese whaling vessel and were detained by Japanese crewmembers. Greenpeace is a completely different organization from that of Sea Shepherd, and your pacifist approach to activism has been repeatedly referred to in the local media. Even here in Australia, there is a tendency to mistakenly conflate one of these organizations with the other.
The Australian government has been careful to remind the Australian people through the news to avoid allowing this issue to become an exercise in bashing the Japanese. I believe that comments issued by Australian government ministers involved in this matter have been quite measured to date out of a sincere desire to avoid offending Japanese sensibilities. In contrast, a Japanese official* was given momentary coverage by the local news and was seen stating with a forced smile that "we would like to return these two individuals at the earliest opportunity. This is because we do not wish to keep them in custody" (*I
apologize but, while his face is one I have frequently seen on NHK, I cannot recall his name and job title. It might perhaps be the Chief Cabinet Secretary, who holds press conferences while standing on a stage bedecked in the Japanese flag.) In speaking in this manner, I did not get the sense at all that he was worried for the safety of the two Sea Shepherd activists or that he was demonstrating any goodwill towards Australia.
The other day, my husband and I went to eat sushi at a shopping center food court as we often do. It may be just me but I felt that the number of customers was far lower than I was used to seeing. What is unfortunate is that many Japanese restaurants and sushi restaurants are actually operated by Chinese proprietors. One often hears suggestions voiced here to the effect that we have no choice in stopping Japanese whaling but to launch a boycott of Japanese goods in hopes that this will make the Japanese government pay attention. However, since this would be disruptive for Australians working for Japanese automakers and other companies and their families as well, it would not be such a simple matter to implement this idea.
This year, actions undertaken by young American actresses, Australian actresses, surfers, and others and your article published in the newspaper have helped to dispel the notion that there is ill will against the Japanese and to convince some of us albeit in small numbers that the Japanese government and whaling industries (I apologize for not having a formal name for the latter) have been withholding the truth from the Japanese people as a way to protect their own interests and highlighting only positive points for the media. However, in this critical year, I feel that unless we Japanese act appropriately, we may be forcefully crushed by other nations. If we do not take advantage of the opportunity that this year represents, I fear that we will, at the very least, be unable to stop Antarctic whaling while retaining our pride as Japanese people. (While I unequivocally oppose whaling, a friend of mine who was born in Fukuoka asserts that whale meat is a part of our culinary culture and suggests that we should cease distant-water whaling and focus on only capturing whales off the Japanese coast.)
Would it be possible for Greenpeace Japan to make more appearances in
the Australian media? I think one needs to take action in order to be taken seriously by the people here.
I should note that I really did finally gain some sincere interest in the anti-whaling movement very recently and apologize if I sound somewhat incoherent. In any case, I feel obliged to do my part in whatever way that I can.
Sincerely,
Terri
I am contacting you for the first time. I am a forty-year-old Japanese woman living in Melbourne, Australia. My husband is an Australian citizen who was born in New Zealand.
I arrived in Australia in 1991 and spent most of my time in Cairns, a tourist region in Queensland. While it has only been about two years since I moved to Melbourne, I have been exposed to news about anti-whaling efforts during these two years and first came upon your website this year.
In Cairns, I worked as a tourist guide and used to tell Japanese tourists visiting the Great Barrier Reef at certain times of the year that they could see whales if they were lucky. I’m embarrassed to admit this but the concept of whaling did not once cross my mind at the time. I did not once discuss this issue with other Australian guides, my husband, or clients.
Over the past two years, I’ve lived in Melbourne, which is located near the Antarctic Ocean and I’ve been able to watch more news programming on television due to my position as a homemaker, such that I’ve become interested in the anti-whaling movement for the first time in my life.
I get the sense from watching television that protests against Japanese whaling are being covered especially harshly this year. Once we got into December, news programs were presenting anti-whaling pieces on a daily basis that, to put it bluntly, seemed to attack Japanese people, which caused me to adopt considerable anti-Australian feelings and which even led me to lash out with emotional fervor against my own husband. We had our first ever discussion about whaling since we got married, and my husband said to me, “Regardless of the fact that you’re Japanese, I am absolutely against whaling. Nobody is against it for reasons of discrimination against the Japanese. The Japanese government and whaling industries, among others, have been whaling for many years under the pretext of science.”
In this connection, I began to research various facts via the Internet. This is because the fact that we are not taught certain things due to government policy is not an adequate excuse in this day and age when the Internet has been developed for our benefit. Lack of knowledge is indeed a formidable state of affairs. In Japanese, the only websites that I could find other than that of Greenpeace Japan were ones operated by pro-whaling supporters. If someone could only understand Japanese and only read information that was likely manipulated by government institutions and other such bodies, they might be inclined to believe that “white people are ganging up on and discriminating against Japanese people” or that “they are trampling on Japanese culture.” Such people are prone to swallowing such propaganda put out by the Japanese government and fishermen’s unions.
I read your article that was printed in an Australian newspaper called the Herald Sun and also heard you speak out in English against whaling on what I believe was channel 10.
To be honest, I was feeling discouraged in the face of a continuous onslaught of coverage slamming Japanese whaling day after day. That is when your article, written as it was by a Japanese activist striving hard to fight whaling, came out and gave me hope that this year might be headed in a better direction after all. Moreover, while one might wonder whether press restraints shaped by diplomatic policies of the government apply here in Australia as well, I came to believe that this society is in fact eminently democratic, free, and fair, as evidenced by published articles that do not simply bash Japan and contributions by newspaper
columnists that lend support to Japan’s position.
Unfortunately, an incident that has angered Australians occurred in which two members of Sea Shepherd forced their way aboard a Japanese whaling vessel and were detained by Japanese crewmembers. Greenpeace is a completely different organization from that of Sea Shepherd, and your pacifist approach to activism has been repeatedly referred to in the local media. Even here in Australia, there is a tendency to mistakenly conflate one of these organizations with the other.
The Australian government has been careful to remind the Australian people through the news to avoid allowing this issue to become an exercise in bashing the Japanese. I believe that comments issued by Australian government ministers involved in this matter have been quite measured to date out of a sincere desire to avoid offending Japanese sensibilities. In contrast, a Japanese official* was given momentary coverage by the local news and was seen stating with a forced smile that "we would like to return these two individuals at the earliest opportunity. This is because we do not wish to keep them in custody" (*I
apologize but, while his face is one I have frequently seen on NHK, I cannot recall his name and job title. It might perhaps be the Chief Cabinet Secretary, who holds press conferences while standing on a stage bedecked in the Japanese flag.) In speaking in this manner, I did not get the sense at all that he was worried for the safety of the two Sea Shepherd activists or that he was demonstrating any goodwill towards Australia.
The other day, my husband and I went to eat sushi at a shopping center food court as we often do. It may be just me but I felt that the number of customers was far lower than I was used to seeing. What is unfortunate is that many Japanese restaurants and sushi restaurants are actually operated by Chinese proprietors. One often hears suggestions voiced here to the effect that we have no choice in stopping Japanese whaling but to launch a boycott of Japanese goods in hopes that this will make the Japanese government pay attention. However, since this would be disruptive for Australians working for Japanese automakers and other companies and their families as well, it would not be such a simple matter to implement this idea.
This year, actions undertaken by young American actresses, Australian actresses, surfers, and others and your article published in the newspaper have helped to dispel the notion that there is ill will against the Japanese and to convince some of us albeit in small numbers that the Japanese government and whaling industries (I apologize for not having a formal name for the latter) have been withholding the truth from the Japanese people as a way to protect their own interests and highlighting only positive points for the media. However, in this critical year, I feel that unless we Japanese act appropriately, we may be forcefully crushed by other nations. If we do not take advantage of the opportunity that this year represents, I fear that we will, at the very least, be unable to stop Antarctic whaling while retaining our pride as Japanese people. (While I unequivocally oppose whaling, a friend of mine who was born in Fukuoka asserts that whale meat is a part of our culinary culture and suggests that we should cease distant-water whaling and focus on only capturing whales off the Japanese coast.)
Would it be possible for Greenpeace Japan to make more appearances in
the Australian media? I think one needs to take action in order to be taken seriously by the people here.
I should note that I really did finally gain some sincere interest in the anti-whaling movement very recently and apologize if I sound somewhat incoherent. In any case, I feel obliged to do my part in whatever way that I can.
Sincerely,
Terri
