Like everyone else in Japan, I was completely oblivious to the war mongering coming from Australia. Yes, it seems that the new Labor Government have been urged to send warships, but thankfully “Australia won’t go to war with Japan” [link removed, Google it].
War? There’s been no talk of war!
Australia’s Ambassador to Japan, Murray McLean, said starting a war with Japan was “absurd” and an option he “wouldn’t even contemplate”.
“The reason that we’re not proposing to use defence resources is that we are not proposing to go to war with Japan” he told reporters in Adelaide. Let me make that absolutely clear, this government will not be going to war with Japan. We will use diplomacy to the best of our ability.”
Of course, this is all about Japan’s latest whaling expedition which should see them catch over a thousand whales from waters off the coast of the Australian Antarctic Territory.Â
Shh! Don’t tell the Japanese!Â
I’m not going to write about whaling because the foreign media have got that topic covered. What I find surprising is that despite the publicity this whale hunt has been getting overseas, including talk of “war”, it seems to be missing from the Japanese media. I do think the Japanese public would actually take an interest if the news cared to bring it to their attention. Unfortunately, as we’ve seen so many times before, the media only conveys selected news.
If you like, you can find me on Twitter at @nick_ramsay. I'd love to hear from you!
Yes WAR is on the horizon and us Aussies will take to our rubber duckies and throw beer cans at those b#st#rds!! (Not full ones because we will obviously drink them first!!!)
Shame on those Whale eating Wingnuts!!! I told a group of Japanese mothers about the fact that you CAN eat Dolphin in Japan and sure enough, they were aghast that I would say such a thing!! (You have to keep in mind that we had just watched a bunch of cute Dolphins do their thing in the Nagoya Port Aquarium pool !!)
We then watched a Killer Whale go round and I found it amazing how the show continuously spoke about protection of the “Sea Animals” and how Japan is at the forefront of “Sea conservation” haa haa haa!!
For the record; you can eat Dolphin in Numazu Port down in Shizuoka and even my wife (Who is Japanese) was shocked!
I have to say that writing this make me feel a little guilty as I have eaten Whale and it was yuuuuuuuuumy!!!!!!!
As Nick said in this post, the Japanese public really do not know what is going on outside their borders and believe that Whale hunting is truly for science and nothing more. The fact that whale meat can be bought almost anywhere in Japan is kinda confusing though!!!
Hey I got it!!! We must all be scientists and our thoughts and opinions are needed to help preserve the Whales!!!!!!!!!
Keith
Australia won’t go to war against Japan because they would lose international face. As it is, Australia is in a war of words with six other nations to illegally take over huge sections of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean (which is completely banned by the Antarctic Treaty of 1959) in an effort to start raping that virgin land of natural resources.
Japan is going to kill 1000 whales, including the no-longer-so-incredibly-endangered humpback whales, in the guise of science in order to resupply the local shelves with whale meat, and almost everyone who pay attention to international news knows about this. Oddly enough, Australia is being silent about Iceland and Norway’s expeditions for whales (the only other two nations to hunt whale), but this is probably because these two nations are not going near the natural resources that Australia wants to claim as their own.
I don’t agree with hunting whales, eating dolphins, or killing things in order for humans to survive. Heck, what’s the difference between killing 500,000 chickens after forcing them to live in small, over-crowded cages while wallowing in their own feces for an entire year, and killing one single whale that’s lived free for 20+ years only to be hunted down, ripped apart, and eaten by upwards of 40,000 people at a premium price?
I dunno … maybe you can ask the half-a-million chickens that are slaughtered daily in America 😕
Suffice to say, we humans will kill things and eat them. So long as we don’t waste the resources, then we can sleep better at night. If we were killing animals just for the heck of it (anyone remember the buffalo hunts that used to take place across the American plains?) then we need to put a stop to it.
Rather than bitch and moan about what Japan is doing, perhaps Australia could shut the heck up and deal with their own illegal activities first. Heck, it’d be nice if they apologized to all the aboriginals they so effectively killed off with their policies. It makes Canada’s inhumane treatment of First Nations people seem like the freakin’ lottery by comparison.
[/rant] 😕
You can read more of my rant about Australia’s idiocy on my site.
Keith and Jason, love the comments guys! Here are two posts on a great blog called Ampontan which you might be interested in:
Straight talk on whaling
Who bought off the IWC?
If Oz and Japan DO go to war, Canada will be happy to join in. That is of course, if you guys share a bit of that beer and if nobody opens the screen door to the submarine.
“half-a-million chickens that are slaughtered daily”
In my part of the world the number is ten times of that.
I read somewhere that the appetite for whale meat is fading in Japan. Is this true.
Yes. It’s not readily available and very few people eat it these days. A few decades ago, it was served as part of a child’s school lunch, but like I said, it’s rare these days.