Saturday, September 25, 2010

Whaling bites back

Apparently having no life, and having run clean out of Torikai shochu, I have spent too much of a cool, clear, harvest-moon evening reading comments on English language news reports concerning the Senkaku dispute. One theme which I have noticed is the number of folks who doubt Japan's version of the collision of Coast Guard and the Chinese fishing vessel because they claim Japan cannot be believed since one of its ships rammed a Green Peace vessel and then falsely reported that Green Peace had rammed it.

No matter the truth behind the claim, Japan's reputation as a bad guy in whaling is working against it. I don't know how serious or widespread the view is at present, but one has to wonder if whaling is really worth the damage it is doing to Japan's image, especially the whaling in the Antarctic.

Of course, Japan could just ignore any damage and continue in order to show its "strong will" to other countries.

*I have read that the Japanese Coast Guard has video to support it's claim of being rammed by the Chinese vessel, but I have not been able to find any videos online. I have not watched TV much in the last few weeks and have no idea if it was shown on the news.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:21 PM

    They have it, but apparently they will not release it. Apparently it shows that it was highly likely that the Chinese boat "rammed" the Japanese boat, but something to do with sea currents raise some doubt. Interestingly seems like a similar problem to when the Japanese Whaling ship plowed into Peter Bethune's ship - on video it looked clear as day that it was the Japanese boat's fault, but people who know more than me about such things suggested that it was not conclusive.

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  2. Jeffrey7:35 AM

    The other interesting "not for public consumption" issue, perhaps, is that the Chinese "fishing" captain is actually an officer in the People's Liberation Navy, or whatever it is that they call it.

    With regard to boats this size "ramming" one another, while currents and swells could push them into each other, ramming would suggest a bit of speed was involved. I would think a video, if it exists, would make it clear whether the contact was intentional or not.

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