Campaign Memo
TAKE ACTION
Tell the Government of Japan: If defending whales is a crime, arrest me.
Dear friends,
We wanted to let you know, before we tell the press, that we will not
be sending a ship to the whaling grounds in the Southern Ocean this
year. Instead, we will be directing all of our efforts toward work IN
JAPAN, where we believe whaling will be ended forever, and where two
of our activists face prison for exposing corruption and scandal in
the whaling industry.
Turning the political prosecution of these two activists in Japan
against the whaling factions in Tokyo will become the central focus of
a mass mobilisation campaign against the Japanese Government's whale
hunt in the Southern Ocean Whaling Sanctuary.
Want to be a part of that mobilisation? Are you ready to go to jail in
Japan for your role in saving whales?
Because if the Japanese Government believes that criticising its
"scientific whaling" programme is a crime, then you and I are as
complicit as our two activists, Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki, who are
being put on trial after exposing a corruption scandal in the whaling
industry.
As far as I'm concerned, if the Japanese Government is going to start
rounding up political prisoners for the crime of wanting to save the
whales, they can start with me. And I suspect they are going to have
to arrest a whole heap of us.
Tell the Government of Japan that if defending whales is a crime, you
too should be under arrest.
On May 15th 2008, Greenpeace Japan used undercover investigators and
the testimony of informers to expose the smuggling of large amounts of
prime cut whale meat from the whaling ship Nisshin Maru, disguised as
personal baggage, and labelled "cardboard" or "salted stuff" and
addressed to the private homes of crewmembers. Greenpeace activists
Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki intercepted one box, and discovered it
contained whale meat valued at up to US$3,000. It was one of four such
boxes sent to the same address. They took it to the Tokyo public
prosecutor as evidence of embezzlement.
Our public press conference drew national attention in Japan, and a
promise by the public prosecutor to "fully investigate" the charges.
Instead, Junichi and Toru were arrested for stealing the box of whale
meat, and the scandal investigation was dropped by the Tokyo public
prosecutor's office the same day; it was clear that the two events
were connected, just as it is clear that both were politically
motivated. Although Junichi and Toru had provided full cooperation to
the police, it took some five weeks to make the arrests, and when they
did, 40 officers raided the Greenpeace Japan office, with the media
tipped off by police beforehand. The Greenpeace activists learned of
their imminent arrest from the TV news the same day the embezzlement
case was dropped.
On December 10th the world will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the
adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To coincide
with that we're taking a delegation of people to Japan to declare the
arrest of Junichi and Toru an act of political censorship, and to tell
the authorities that we, too, are complicit in working to save the
whales. We'd like to take a lot of you along on that mission -- in
person and virtually. We'll be in touch with more about that soon.
We know that the decision not to send a ship to the Southern Ocean, as
we have nine times since 1989, will be disappointing to many.
As important as actions to protect individual whales are, we see our
work to build domestic resistance to whaling in Japan as our most
essential mission right now -- we believe that by challenging the
whaling interests on their own turf, and exposing the corruption and
waste of the publicly funded whaling programme to the Japanese
taxpayer, along with the deception that has been visited on the
Japanese public in calling it a "scientific programme," we will end
whaling forever.
Over the past year, as a direct result of Greenpeace work in Japan,
whaling has fallen under increasing scrutiny in the popular and
business press in Japan, and the diplomatic efforts of Australia and
the US have made it a subject of increasing irritation for the
Japanese department of Foreign Affairs and the office of the Prime
Minister.
We have already dealt a severe blow to the whalers this year by
outlawing their supply ship, Oriental Bluebird, which they need to
transport half their planned catch home. This was a result of work
done not in the Southern Ocean, but in Panama, where the Oriental
Bluebird was flagged.
Under international law Japan now should not use the Oriental
Bluebird. So, from Panama, we may have cut their quota in half
already.
We see the reaction of whaling interests as conforming perfectly to
the way the most successful Greenpeace campaigns play out: 'First they
ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you. Then you
win.' We have not won yet, but whaling in Japan is now clearly moving
toward the endgame -- and we are moving our campaign to the place
where we believe that endgame will be played out -- in Tokyo.
Greenpeace has sailed to the Southern Ocean in defence of the whales
nine times. In 2006 the cable from a harpoon fired over the heads of
activists pulled one crew member into the freezing waters of the
Antarctic. The whalers rammed our ships twice, hit one of our crew
members with a metal pole and used high powered water cannon against
us. Despite this, they came in 82 whales short of their quota. In 2007
the whaling season was cut short by a fire onboard the Nisshin Maru,
and Greenpeace provided emergency assistance to the whalers. In 2008
the whalers ran from the Greenpeace ship Esperanza for 14 consecutive
days, saving the lives of more than 100 whales.
This year, we believe that by concentrating all of our effort and
resources on stopping whaling in Japan, we can do more than save
individual whales, and actually end whaling in the Southern Ocean
forever.
Thank you for your support, and we look forward to you joining us in
telling the Japanese Government that if defending whales is a criminal
act, there aren't enough jail cells in Japan to hold us all.
We have lots more plans in the pipeline and will keep you informed and
involved at this critical time for Junichi, Toru and the Whales.
For the whales,
Sara Holden
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