Hunting Whales to Preserve Them?

（Photo by Dalli58 )

When Japanese whaling ships return to Southern Ocean every year, they bring the international attention in addition to their whaling tools. Year after year, they take away a number of whales and leave the scenes of blood floating on the ocean. This bloody conduct has already drawn condemnations from all over the world, especially from New Zealand and Australia. But this ritual still carries on because whaling is a very controversial international issue. Rather than ecology, more and more people now regard it as a political issue, which can only be done via political ways. Not completely comprehending what drives Japanese to finish annual “ritual” and how Australia has appointed itself as a Southern Oceanic guardian, Adrian Peace argues the irreconcilable cultural perspectives of Japan prevents them from being consistent with Australian in this article, and how those cultural differences resulted in their political standpoint in whaling.

Australia uses the media such as TV, newspaper and radio to spread the idea that whales belong to them. Whales are considered as vulnerable and intelligent specie. Thus, their choice of coming back to the same place, like the southern ocean where Australia is located, is considered a self-induced behavior. In the moral sense, it is a behavior like the weak going for the asylum that drives the Australia to think they possess the whales. Under these situations, it causes the Australian to have responsibilities. Every year reposts of crowds gathering for whales rescues are easily seen on TV and newspaper, including the remote and little-inhabited islands. It is in their nature to preserve and rescue whales. Moreover, whales watch tours are elaborated to a high moral level that the tourists are not just paying to watch some marine animals, but rather they pay to get close to whales, human-like specie. Their money is used to help preserve them. This strategy extends role of “Protector of Whales” from Australian to tourists from all over the world.

After all, the whales become a symbol that should be approached with proper manners and humanities. Thus whatever actions would cause harm to them would be heavily criticized as barbaric, or cruel. However, Japan is one of the exceptions. For this pro-whaling side, people argue that it is one of Japanese honorable rituals to kill whales and eat their meat. Other than that, Arne Kalland argues that whale meat solved Northern Japanese famine in early 20 century, which makes it a common item on the menu and dinner able. Moreover, in Japanese character, the word for whales is kujira, which indicates it’s just a fish rather than a mammal. So in their view, fish is kill-able without bearing any sins. Even their dominant religion-Buddhism does not restrict the idea of eating fish, let alone some western condemnation thousands of miles away. It is worth noting that as the world increasingly criticized Japanese’s whaling as a source of food, Japanese established Institute for Cetanean Research cover up their whaling, an alternative in response to the world. The ICR was especially established for whales’ scientific research, justifying their hunting of whales. Although IRC’s function does remain controversial among the western critics, its research results are announced every year in the media. With these detailed work, the critics fail to make harsh comments as they did before, and thus they are gradually losing credibility in this case.

The author admits that although he tries hard to map out the cultural factors, there are actually more factors from other categories should be put into consideration. Historical factors that some traditions were brought back to life are forgotten. Economic factors that some markets are wiped out are prosperous. Also, factors of times and locations are influential. In expansion, ever since Australia closed its last whaling station in 1978, it strived to become the most powerful anti-whaling country in the world. In 1982 when IWC made an announcement to defer whaling, Japan was then forced to quit commercial whaling, however it established whales research program, called ICRW, which allowed whaling (“The Whaling Dispute In The South Pacific: A Japanese Perspective”) As whaling continually remains a controversial issue, this whaling war would never come to an end.

Works Cited

"The Whaling Dispute In The South Pacific: A Japanese Perspective." Journal Of East Asia & International Law 4.2 (2011): 449-456. Academic Search Complete. Web. 12 Feb. 2012.

Peace, Adrian. "The Whaling War: Conflicting Cultural Perspectives (Respond To This Article At." Anthropology Today 26.3 (2010): 5-9. Academic Search Complete. Web. 12 Feb. 2012.