29 January 2007
We love Japan, but not high seas whaling
Posted by Melanie, on the Esperanza
Making Sushi on the Esperanza
© Greenpeace/Beltra
Yesterday was Sunday, and traditionally, someone offers to cook dinner so the cooks can have at least half a day off.
Last night the campaigners on board (me from the US office, Karli from Greenpeace International and Sakyo from Greenpeace Japan) cooked a Japanese dinner for the crew. We started at 1pm and it took the entire five hours to get all of the food ready for the crew by 6pm. We had a pretty ambitious menu: nori maki (seaweed wrapped rolls of sushi rice and vegetables), onigiri (triangular-shaped rice balls with a pickled umeboshi plum in the middle and a seaweed wrapper), miso soup and two kinds of shiratame (sticky rice balls) for dessert: one with sweet adzuki beans called oshiruko, the second served with soybean powder called kinako. We had a lot of fun, and of course the best was learning from Sakyo how to make rice, the nori maki sushi rolls, miso soup and shiratame. I love Japanese food, and at home I frequently make nori maki and miso soup, but I learned last night that I've been using a lot of non-traditional (read: wrong!) ways of cooking Japanese food. Sakyo was very polite and diplomatic about my and Karli's non-traditional ways of cooking Japanese food, calling it "interesting."
But there was another reason we wanted to make a Japanese dinner for the crew, and that's because the campaign to stop high seas whaling is more than just this ship's expedition to the Southern Ocean. At the same time, our Greenpeace colleagues in Japan are running a targeted campaign to unravel the misconceptions being told to the Japanese public by their government. For years, Greenpeace and the pro-whale/anti-whaling movement has been characterized by the Japanese government as "anti-Japanese," playing to the nationalistic sentiment of the Japanese public. This is flat out false, our campaign is and has always targeted those responsible for high seas whaling: the Fisheries Agency of Japan and companies with a financial interest in high seas whaling, NOT the Japanese public.
In fact, our campaign is on-side with the majority of the Japanese public. Greenpeace Japan commissioned an independent opinion poll and found out that two-thirds of the Japanese public do not support high seas whaling. The poll also found that 95 percent of the Japanese public has never or rarely eaten whale meat. Contrary to what the Japanese government may say, whaling and eating whale meat are not a traditional part of Japanese culture. It was introduced by General MacArthur after World War II to deal with the starvation ravaging the country. As Sakyo tells us, older Japanese in their 50s, 60s and 70s may have eaten whale meat, but younger generations of Japanese don't touch the stuff.
The most important message we are trying to get across to the Japanese public is that we love Japan, but we don't love Japanese high seas whaling. So last night's dinner, besides being a nice thing to do for the cooks on a Sunday, was a way to bring a part of Japanese culture that we love to the messroom of the Esperanza.
- Melanie
Comments
What surprised me is the lack of blogging activity on this particular subject. Is it because people dont care? Maybe they sit back and wait for Greenpeace to go and sort it out?
Check my post here.
http://web-to-print.zetaprints.com/2007/01/29/web-to-print-against-whaling/
Cheers,
Max
Posted by: max at January 29, 2007 3:45 PM
Sounds great. Ohayo Sakyo! Next time I'm in Tokyo I hope for some private miso soup lessons -- I know the way I make it here in Sweden is blatantly wrong, - and by wrong I mean of course very interesting (eg. out of a packet, mixed with boiling water!)
Take care guys.
Posted by: Adele at January 29, 2007 9:41 PM
There is a nationalistic element about it, but I think that is built on top of a more fundamental belief that there's no ethical difference between eating whale and eating various other animals. Thus arguments that whaling is wrong are perceived to be in conflict with common ethical views held amongst (probably) the majority of Japanese.
To be successful in Japan, I think this more fundamental question about whether it is OK to regard whales as food or not is the issue that you need to address. Of course, I'm not Japanese though. I merely live here and speak the language, so my be fooling myself if I think I understand this.
By the way, I was interested to note you specifically refer to "high seas whaling". So obviously this means Greenpeace doesn't like the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, but what about coastal whaling in Japan's EEZ? Is Greenpeace still opposed to that as well?
One other point I would make is that at the end of November, the 4,403 tonnes of whale meat recorded as being in stock represented 0.33% of the entire stockpile of marine products (total 1,324,247 tonnes)
http://www.maff.go.jp/toukei/sokuhou/data/reizou2006-11/reizou2006-11.htm
If my maths is correct, 4,403 tonnes is equivalent to 35 grams of whale meat per Japanese person. Enough for a single meal? Not really. If you've got 5% of the people who do eat whale meat, they eat on average about 1,200 grams of it each year (assuming 8000 tonnes of total consumption). Frankly, I see Greenpeace's poll result about the number of people eating whale meat as a misnomer. People can't eat something if there isn't enough available.
As for traditional culture, you guys are correct in that whale meat really only went nationwide post world war two, but I'd like to hear your views on those various coastal areas of Japan which do have a much much longer history of whaling. Is it "stiff cheese" for those communities and their heritage?
I'm from New Zealand originally. Around 10% to 15% of the population regard themselves as being Maori. However I think the majority of the rest of the population still regard Maori culture as a part of New Zealand culture (not all, some people like to discriminate). In this respect I think it is not wrong to claim that whaling culture is a part of Japanese culture.
Posted by: david at January 30, 2007 7:33 AM
I must agree with most of the points posted by David on the love boat idea. I don't love Japan, I don't hate them either - I just wish the Japanese people (the 95% who do not eat whale meat) would care enough about the whales to ask their leaders to change policy. I also agree with another of the above posts most people don't care about much that does not directly affect them and are happy to let Greenpeace and Al Gore sort out our problems. I try to do my bit (I am the guy with the madmermaids T-shirts) but I felt totally humbled when I visited the Esperanza and met with a some of the crew, you guys on the front line have my total admiration. Thank you Freddy for showing me around it was awesome. I came back the next day with my wife and family to wave you off but the departure was put back 24 hours so we missed it. As I said I'm not so hot on the love boat campaign but I do see how it is important to get the Japanese people on board. What you do on the Esperanza on the other hand is awesome saving whales and getting the news coverage that is so important to get people motivated to do something. To the crew.. best of luck and stay safe.
Regards John
Posted by: John Setchell at January 30, 2007 11:32 AM
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