和歌山県太地町イルカ漁 キャロライン ケネディ と オノ ヨーコ
＊これは、2014年のJapan Times に掲載されていた記事をもとに書いたものです。
当時の覚書としてそのままアップします。
ここから⇓
このトピックをアフリカ人の同僚に話したところ、ものすごく興味を持ってくれました。
彼女も議論したかったことで、イルカ漁は反対と言っています。
記事の内容は、和歌山県の太地（たいじ）町で行われているイルカ漁。
入り江にイルカを追い込み、殺すわけです。
食用の肉となるイルカと、水族館に売られていくイルカ。
その光景を盗み撮りした映画が「The cove」というもので、公開されると、オスカー賞最優秀長編ドキュメンタリー賞を受賞。
世界中から、イルカ漁に対する批判が集まりました。
2013年１１月に就任した、キャロラインケネディ駐日大使が、この件に深い懸念を抱いている、ということが書かれているのが、下記の記事です。
キャロライン大使同様、オノヨーコさんもコメントを寄せています。
それが２つ目の記事。
彼女はイルカ漁をやめるべきだという、意見というより、お願いの記事を書いています。
理由は「日本の評判が悪くなる」から。
オノヨーコさんの言葉を2つにまとめると、このようになります。
1つ目は、大国と呼ばれる、中国、インド、ロシアが虎視眈々と日本の国力が弱くなることを狙っているという現実。
2つ目は、イルカ漁を継続する日本人を、将来を担う世界中の子供は嫌悪するのではないかという懸念。
日本が何年もかけ築き上げた海外からの信頼が、１日で崩れ去ってしまうできごとなのです。
また、福島原発から漏れる放射能の件でも日本の対応が注目されています。
そんな時に、更なる日本バッシングを引き起こしてほしくないというオノヨーコさんの切なる願いが伝わる記事です。
イルカ漁を止めることは賢明な選択ではないか、オノヨーコさんは訴えているのです。
Kennedy tweets concern over Taiji dolphin hunt Japan Times Jan 19, 2014
U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy has tweeted her concern at the “inhumaneness” of a Wakayama Prefecture village’s traditional dolphin hunt.
“Deeply concerned by inhumaneness of drive hunt dolphin killing. USG (U.S. Government) opposes drive hunt fisheries,” she tweeted Friday.
Kennedy, the lone surviving child of assassinated U.S. President John F. Kennedy, took up the diplomatic post in November.
Every year the fishermen of Taiji corral hundreds of dolphins in a secluded bay, select a few dozen for sale to aquariums and marine parks and then stab the rest to death for meat.
This year, fishermen and divers in the village have caught at least 25 dolphins in a process to select captives before the mass slaughter, environmentalists said Saturday.
Activists from the militant environmental group Sea Shepherd streamed live footage of Taiji’s dolphin slaughter, which drew worldwide attention in 2010 when it became the subject of the Academy Award-winning documentary “The Cove.”
The selection appeared to continue Sunday, and volunteers working with Sea Shepherd believe the slaughter will begin Monday.
The town’s fishermen defend the hunt as a cultural tradition, and “The Cove” was met by protests from right-wing activists when it was screened here in 2010.
Sea Shepherd said in a statement Saturday: “Those taken captive are forced to watch as the remaining members of their family are brutally killed for human consumption.”
The Taiji Fisheries Cooperative Association, which is in charge of the dolphin hunt, was not immediately available for comment.
Yoko Ono joins U.S. call to halt Taiji dolphin cull Japan Times Jan 20, 2014
The widow of John Lennon on Monday joined a rare U.S. request to stop the annual dolphin cull in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, days after the U.S. ambassador to Japan waded into the row.
Yoko Ono published an open letter to the people of Taiji, the small town made famous by the Oscar-winning film “The Cove,” which documents the annual bloodbath, urging them to halt the cull for the “future of Japan.”
Ono said the hunt, in which scores of dolphins are corralled into a cove to select the prettiest for sale to aquariums and butcher the rest for meat, was damaging the reputation of Japan.
It “will give an excuse for big countries and their children in China, India and Russia to speak ill of Japan,” she wrote.
“I am sure that it is not easy, but please consider the safety of the future of Japan, surrounded by many powerful countries which are always looking for the chance to weaken the power of our country.
“At this very politically sensitive time, (the hunt) will make the children of the world hate the Japanese.
“For many, many years and decades we have worked hard to receive true understanding of the Japanese from the world,” she said.
“But what we enjoy now, can be destroyed literally in one day. I beg of you to consider our precarious situation after the nuclear disaster (which could very well affect the rest of the world, as well).”
The reference was to the triple core meltdown at the poorly protected Fukushima No. 1 power plant following the March 2011 mega-quake and tsunami.
The letter, which was posted on her “Imagine Peace” website and addressed to “Japanese fishermen of Taiji,” bore her signature and was dated Jan. 20. At the foot, it said: “cc Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe.”
Ono’s plea came just days after U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy tweeted her disapproval.
“Deeply concerned by inhumaneness of drive hunt dolphin killing. USG (US Government) opposes drive hunt fisheries,” wrote Kennedy, the only surviving child of assassinated President John F. Kennedy, on Jan. 17.
Her comments were welcomed Monday by fugitive eco-activist Paul Watson, who said he hoped it would help convince Tokyo to put a halt to the practice.
“Hopefully this would put additional pressure to convince the Japanese government that this really has no place in the 21st century,” he said.
Watson, founder of the radical Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, is now in the United States, where he arrived last year saying he wanted to challenge a court injunction.
Japanese authorities are seeking his extradition and describe the methods Sea Shepherd uses against its whaling ships — for example, blocking boats’ propellers — as “terrorist” acts.
Watson was arrested in May last year in Frankfurt on a warrant from Costa Rica, where he is wanted on charges stemming from a high-seas confrontation over shark finning in 2002.
The Canadian-born activist fled Germany but arrived in California on Oct. 28, more than a year later.
Sea Shepherd says around 250 dolphins have been corralled in the cove so far, and that some have been removed, but it is not clear how many have been killed.
Meanwhile, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga on Monday defended Taiji’s annual hunt, stating that dolphin fishing in Japan is carried out appropriately in accordance with the law.
“Dolphin fishing is a form of traditional fishing in our country,” he said, responding to a question about Kennedy’s criticism. “We will explain Japan’s position to the American side.”
1 What is your opinion about killing dolphin killing and whaling?
2 Do you think it is good to keep practicing “cultural traditions” even though it is seen as a taboo in the rest of world?
3 Do you know any other situation like this of other countries that gets negative views in Japan?
