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Slovenia 24 October 2016 Volume LXV No. 2 In this issue: • Japan’s Imperial Army • Japan’s Shameful Whaling History

ECO Previous issues: http://www.savedolphins.eii.org International Whaling Commission Annual Meeting

Japan’s Shameful Whaling History

For the past 70 years, since by pirate whaling ships roaming the of the economy. Japan launched its first pelagic high seas. The last of the blue, The pelagic whalers of Japan whaling fleet, the government has humpback and right whales were were thus free to kill any whale given free rein to Japanese whaling hunted to “commercial extinction” regardless of species or size at any companies to plunder the world’s by these ruthless whalers. time. whales. From the beginning, Japan The Japanese Imperial Army “During those years, several has refused to adopt international directed the whaling massacre in the international agreements, designed to agreements or actively allowed its 1930s. Professor George Small wrote prevent overexploitation of stocks of whalers to evade treaty obligations in The Blue Whale: “It is whales, were reached under the aegis that it did sign. evident…that the Japanese of the League of Nations. The Tens of thousands of government prior to 1940 had no agreements included the standard endangered whales, “protected” desire to impose any restraints on its prohibitions such as the killing of under international treaty, were pelagic whaling fleets. To have nearly extinct Right whales, suckling harpooned by Japanese whalers imposed any would have resulted in calves of any species, and females over seven decades, often by decreased production at a time when accompanied by a calf. Japanese owned whaling fleets Japanese military aggression was based in outlaw nations, and even placing severe demands on all sectors (Continued of page two) Japan’s Imperial Army Established Whaling Industry

Like other criminal acts of the Hideki Tojo, who went on to become minister, Shinzo Abe. Japanese Imperial Army in the prime minister and launch the attack From 1934 to 1942, tens of 1930’s and 1940’s, the Japanese on Pearl Harbor, and a brilliant, thousands of blue, fin, sei, humpback government is suppressing the fact ruthless, government bureaucrat, and right whales were ruthlessly that its pelagic (deep sea) whaling Nobusuke Kishi, who ran the slaughtered by the Japanese fleets in industry was created by the army financial side of the empire. Kishi the Antarctic waters and the Pacific for the sole purpose of financing the signed the declaration of war in for the edible oil, which was sold in invasion of China and the conquest 1941. Europe for hard currency. All of the of the rest of East Asia. Both Kishi and Tojo would be whale meat was thrown overboard Japan’s Manchurian Army, indicted as Class A war criminals because Japanese farmers, alarmed at established in 1931 after the after World War 11. Tojo was the threat of their meat industry, Japanese invasion of the northern executed for his role as wartime pushed through a ban on whale meat Chinese province of Manchuria, dictator, but Kishi, charged with imports. became an economic giant by looting Manchuria and China, The funds from the whaling seizing the industries and resources stealing private assets and massacre were used to purchase of the vast region. In 1934 it enslavement of thousands of civilians German and British arms, machine purchased Japan’s first whaling to work in mines and factories, was tools and other war material for the fleet from Norway. By 1940, released to help build an anti- expansion of the Japanese empire. Japan’s six whaling fleets were communist movement in Japan. He “All of the pelagic fleets sent to larger than the combined fleets of served as prime minister from 1957 the Antarctic were owned and all of the other nations in the world. to 1960, a period the government operated by Nippon Suisan Kabushiki The driving force behind the pumped millions of dollars into Kaisha Company, the main Manchurian Army’s empire – and Japan’s post-war whaling industry. shareholder of which was the its rapacious whaling industry – Nobusuke Kishi was also the were the warmongering General grandfather of Japan’s current prime (Continued on page four) 645

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(Japan’s Shameful Whale History Chilean waters, often pursuing the Sierra was mysteriously sunk in continued from front page) mothers and calves into the deepest Lisbon harbor by limpet mines reaches of the fjords, where the still attached to its hull by persons “Japan refused to sign or waters were stained with blood. unknown. abide by any of the agreements. The rapacious Japanese whalers A sister pirate whaler of the Moreover, Japan refused to in Chile didn’t limit their hunt to just Sierra, the Tonna, met an even more participate in the negotiations one endangered species; they also improbable fate. Because the Sierra leading to the agreements even knocked off 13 humpback and three had a narrow stern slipway, its when for her benefit the North right whales. Moreover, they killed owners had obtained a larger ship Pacific, her oldest whaling areas, over 1,600 fin and sei whales, and that could handle the huge fin was specifically excluded.” more than 1,500 sperm whales. All of whales found in the North Atlantic. After World War 11, the the meat and oil was shipped back to A former Japanese stern trawler, the Japanese government continued to Japan. The government conveniently Shunyo Maru, was remodeled as a give its whalers carte blanche. looked the other way. factory/catcher ship at the Although Japan reluctantly joined Perhaps the most egregious Hayashikane Shipbuilding yard in the International Whaling whaling crimes were practiced by Japan. Hayashikane was a major Commission in 1951, four years Japan’s Taiyo Fishery Co. It got into subsidiary of Taiyo. The ship after its creation, it immediately pirate whaling in 1968 in a joint originally built there in 1966. handed policymaking to the Japan venture with Norwegian whaling Renamed the Tonna and flying Whaling Association, an organization of the Whaling companies. The Japanese commissioner to the IWC until 1965 was the chairman of the JWA. From 1951 to 1964, the Japanese commissioner, acting on the order of Japan’s giant whaling companies (Nippon Suisan, Taiyo and Kyokuyo), blocked all attempts at the IWC to halt the destruction of the blue and humpback whales. Even Norway, which created the modern whaling industry and led the interests. A former Dutch catcher the flag of the Netherlands Antilles, assault on the Antarctic seas, was boat, the AM No. 4, was converted to Taiyo’s new pirate ship made an appalled by Japan’s intransigence a combination factory ship/ catcher initial foray in April 1978 off the and greed. boat by adding a huge freezer coast of West Africa, where it served Japan only agreed to an IWC compartment and a stern slipway for as the factory ship for the Sierra’s ban on hunting blue whales after its hauling whales aboard for slaughter. deadly harpoons. In just 42 days, seven fleets, deploying more than Renamed the Sierra, the pirate 102 sei whales were killed and the 100 catcher boats, could not find a whaling ship roamed the North and Tonna packed up 432 tons of frozen single blue whales in 1964. South Atlantic for a dozen years, meat. The two ships the sailed north However, the whalers knew that a flying flags of convenience such as to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands few remnant herds of this greatest of Bahamas, Somalia and Cyprus. to offload and resupply. There a all animals survived in the It killed thousands of whales massive new Norwegian harpoon sheltering fjords of southern Chile. outside IWC regulation, any of them gun was fitted on the bow of the So while the Japanese “protected” blue, humpback and right Tonna. government and whaling industry whales. The meat and oil was shipped While the Sierra remained in the piously proclaimed their adherence from various Atlantic ports to Japan port for repairs, the Tonna set off in to the blue whaling ban, the on Taiyo reefers. The Sierra’s deadly search of fin whales west of Spain government deviously licensed its rampage only stopped in July 1979 and Portugal. In less than a month, whalers to set up shore stations in when it was put out of action by the 38 of the giant whales – second only Chile, which was not a member of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society to blue whalers in size – were the IWC. For four years between ship, which rammed it outside the harpooned and butchered on the 1964 and 1968, the Japanese port of Oporto, Portugal. Seven broad rear deck of the ship. By 22 whalers killed 690 blue whales in months later, after undergoing repairs, July, the freezer compartments were 987

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jammed with 450 tons of meat; the panel shorted out in a blaze of and down by another Moby Dick. Tonna rode low in the water as it sparks, sending acrid smoke All of the crewmen were rescued turned south toward the Canary billowing through the passageway. unharmed later that night by a Islands. The Tonna’s crew desperately passing Greek freighter. Interviewed The captain of the Tonna, a tried to release the whale that was by authorities in Madeira, where they veteran Norwegian whaler named crippling the ship. But the electric were dropped off, they all said they Kristof Vesterheim, was a greedy winches were frozen, and the thick had been whaling “for the Japanese.” man. He and his officers were being steel cables that had dragged the The three expert Japanese flensers, paid a standard bonus of $2.50 for carcass on board were too thick to Isamu Shinkawa, Tatsuhide Saito and every ton of meat. When they cut through quickly, Captain Masakichi Shibata, had formerly spotted a huge fin whale dead Vesterheim shouted orders to cut up worked on Taiyo whaling ships. ahead, they decided to make some the carcass and throw it overboard. Taiyo operated many more pirate extra, easy money. The three Japanese flensers began whaling ships in the 1970s and The whale was harpooned and madly hacking at the bulk. 1980s, including the Cape Fisher, dragged to the rear of the ship, In a scene of supreme irony, the Susan, Teresa, Paulmy Star No. 3, where giant winches slowly pulled Tonna wallowed helplessly like a and the Sea Bird. All flew flags of the 66-foot carcass, weighing harpooned whale. convenience and were based in non- probably 70 tons, up the slipway. The waves inexorably swamped IWC countries. Ownership was The sea had been calm that day 200 the pirate whaler. At 7:40 p.m., the hidden behind dummy companies in miles off the coast of Portugal. But Tonna’s battery-operated emergency offshore havens. All had Japanese an afternoon squall blew out of the radio sent out a Mayday distress crewmen in key positions. All of the west, rocking the ship. signal. The crew of 42, made up whale meat was shipped to Taiyo in As wind and wave buffeted the mostly of South Africans, scrambled Japan. Tonna, the glistening dead whale into three life rafts. The Taiyo Fishery Co. changed slid to the port side of the deck, But in a scene straight out of its name to Maruha a few years ago. tilting it sharply. The convereted Herman Melville, Captain Notorious even within Japanese fishing vessel was unable to right Vesterheim, decided to go down with industry, it probably did so in an itself. Waves washed onto the deck his ship. Perhaps humiliated by his attempt to help cover up its crimes and into the open portholes and plight, he waved to the crew from the against the whales. hatches. Saltwater cascaded into the bridge as the Tonna sunk stern-first engine room. The electrical control into the ocean depths, tugged down

For any previous editions or additional copies of ECO contact editor Mark J. Palmer at [email protected] 121110

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(Japan’s Imperial Army Established Taking advantage of an expired Army became financially Whaling Industry continued from ban on hunting humpback whales, independent of Tokyo, able to act front page) the Japanese Antarctic fleets in 1941 without budgetary restraint, peer harpooned 2,394 of the endangered review or government interference. Manchurian Heavy Industries species -- the same humpback stock Tojo became its chief of staff, on his Corporation,” according to Prof. that Japan until recently was way to becoming prime minister of George Small in his award-winning planning to target in its “research” Japan.” history of the modern whaling whaling scheme. “Such extraordinary success industry, The Blue Whale. “This Under orders from the stimulated the Kwantung Army’s corporation was the principal Manchuria Army, Nippon Suisan appetite to seize more territory. China economic and industrial arm of the openly defied attempts to regulate was certainly more tempting than Japanese army in Manchuria. The the whaling industry in the 1930s. Siberia,” Seagrave explained. On 7 objective of the Nippon Suisan “During those years several July 1937, the Kwantung Army set Company, as stated in the 1941 international agreements, designed off a phony incident at the Marco Mainichi Yearbook, was the to prevent overexploitation of stocks Polo Bridge outside Peking. “An acquisition of foreign currency and of whales, were reached under the unidentified man shot at Japanese food supplies for the Japanese armed aegis of the League of Nations,” Dr. soldiers, allowing them to open fire forces.” Small wrote. “The agreements on the Chinese defenders. The In 1937, when Japan began to included standard prohibitions such incident quickly escalated to full ally itself with Nazi Germany, most as the killing of the nearly extinct invasion and a China War that of Japan’s whale oil production was Right whales, suckling calves of all bogged down nearly a million being sold to the German species, and females accompanied Japanese troops for eight years.” government, according to The by a calf. Japan refused to sign or The Japanese Imperial Army History of Modern Whaling, abide by any of the agreements even pillaged and plundered as it moved produced by Norwegian Whaling when for her benefit the North through China, with the December Association. Pacific, her oldest whaling area, was 1937 Rape of Nanking, the capital of After just three years in specifically excluded. The reason for the Chinese Nationalist government, business, Japan accounted for more the refusal to adopt even reflecting the army’s Three Alls than 11 percent of the pelagic rudimentary conservation practices Policy: “Burn All, Kill All, Seize whaling. “Foreign whalers were was the urgent demand placed on the All.” More than 250,000 non- seized with panic at Japan’s rapid Japanese economy by the country’s combatants were brutally murdered in progress: that the whale oil should war in Manchuria and China.” Nanking, and much of the have ended up in Germany was part Under the direction of Tojo and undefended city was torched. and parcel of the extensive trade Kishi, the Manchurian Army -- The whales, sadly, have suffered connections between the two called the Kwantung Army in Japan a “Three Alls” persecution at the countries, ushering in the military- -- plundered not just the whales. hands of Japan since 1934. political alliance of the Tokyo-Berlin Gold, artworks and other valuables Axis,” commented the Norwegian were looted from Manchuria, and history. resources such as iron, coal and In 1940, after war had broken timber were stripped for shipment to out in Europe and shipping to Japan. The most ardent Japanese Germany was too dangerous, imperialists seized control of thousands of tons of whale oil were Manchuria’s riches to finance the stockpiled in Manchuria; efforts conquest of all Asia. were made to ship some of it by rail “Real power in Manchuria was to Germany through the Soviet in the hands of the Kwantung Army Union. During the 1940-41 Antarctic and its underworld allies, overseen whaling season, Japan’s six fleets by General Tojo Hideki, head of the deployed 51 catcher boats. They secret police,” reported Sterling produced 622,413 barrels of whale Seagrave in his remarkable history oil. “In that season, Japan actually of Japan’s royal family, The Yamato accounted for 59 percent of the Dynasty. “Its economy was managed pelagic Antarctic production,” states top to bottom by the newly formed the Norwegian book. Nissan Zaibatsu. The Kwantung