Wackos at the Cove

 

 Taiji Front Lines

Chaos to Kushimoto

By Steven Thompson
March 13, 2012

The situation in Taiji has gone from End-of-the-Season Sayonara to Wacko-Fest Extravaganza at the Cove.

Make some popcorn, get a drink. It's only going to get more interesting in our quest to save the dolphins.

Yesterday, right-wing nationalists spit what looks like chocolate sauce all over a Cove Guardian's car. This has confirmed three things for me.

1. Right Wingers are silly
2. Japanese police need better planning
3. Cove Guardian strategy works

A few car loads of Japanese wannabe gangsters looked like drunken toddlers as they spit brown goo, displayed their middle fingers, and stuck out their tongues as they pushed around Taiji's finest boys in blue, one day after the more heavily armed prefectural police went home for the season.

The Taiji situation has gone beyond my imagination. If the nationalists had not come to show their tongues and fingers, nothing would have happened in Taiji and the Cove Guardians would have inevitably gone home till September.

But now that the Zaitokukai has sent the special Kansai Club to Taiji, any activist keen to get more involved will and should send resources to Sea Shepherd or Save Japan Dolphins, or they will go to Taiji and join the fun.

Can you say Zaitokukai and smile at the same time? Try it. Slowly. Zai--to--ku--kai...Zai--to--ku--kai.

It always ends with a falling diphthong sound mirroring the fall of nationalism in Japan after World War II. Right Wing groups are a shadow of their former selves. They would be more relevant wearing clown noses and spraying silly string in the air.  But they do piss people off. Yesterday they pissed off the 50 police focusing on Taiji.

Last season the police looked silly when they couldn't move a meditating Cove Guardian zen master. The police held a multi-day training seminar for a battalion of uniformed and undercover detectives. This season the Japanese police were overwhelmed by a ragtag group of Japanese bullies. There is only one way to go for next year: more preparation.

If the Taiji establishment decides to continue to murder dolphins, Cove Guardians will be back and better funded than ever before. This means that the security expenses to the local economy will soon outweigh the cost of the hunt. Who will look silly then?

Thank you Zaitokukai! 

The Japanese nationalists have made themselves part of the problem. The Cove Guardians are clearly part of the solution.

Erwin Rocks Japan, Engulfs Holland

Erwin Vermeulen found innocent Feb. 22, 2012

By Steven Thompson
2/25/2012
Japan

Good media coverage on Erwin rocks Japan, even if they do still use the whaling word and avoid any mention of dolphins. Thank you Japanese media.

Amazing coverage engages the entire population of the Netherlands. Her Majesty Beatrix is reported to have been made aware of the human rights issues in Erwin's case. And Erwin hasn't even started on the Amsterdam press circuit yet. That all starts in the next 24 hours. All dolphin lovers offer a sincere thanks to the Dutch media and the Dutch government.

Stories have spun wildly and happily out of control. There will never be a way to repair the image of the police oppressing an emaciated, honest, and non-violent Dutch citizen protecting the even weaker members of the seas, the beautiful dolphins.

An interview with a Dutch tourist in Spain today came out with the understanding that Erwin had received no hot meals and was forced to be in solitary confinement. Neither is true, but the way it was all handled by the accuser, his boss and the police give rise to endless exaggeration on a personal level. The story will continually mutate around the coffee tables of Amsterdam for years to come.

Thank you Dolphin Resort Hotel! Thank you Mr. Kitagawa! Thank you Taiji and Shingu and Wakayama police. You could have ended the circus earlier but chose not to.

Remember that meeting? You all voted to continue the charade as yes-men for the Governor of Wakayama and his deputy, the Mayor of Munchkin City, I mean Taiji.

Gauging the impact of the new media coverage and the acquittal is what I'm thinking about. How deeply will Sea Shepherd's win in court affect the outcome of the dolphin hunt?

This discussion will be in flux as meetings and more press conferences get held over the next week. The next press conference is in Amsterdam. Both sides are certain to spin it for themselves. But one thing is clear: times have changed.

People around the world are certainly more engaged, but no country is now more engaged than Holland. I get the feeling that the Sea Shepherd flags will safely be Dutch permanently. Thank you Madame Prosecutor.

Dutchman Erwin Vermeulen, paid any balance due to cover the stress of the Dutch government for Sea Shepherd support with his 64 Days of inhumane treatment in a Japanese jail for doing nothing more than loving dolphins. The witness was judged to have lied. No pushing occurred. Dutch people protect their own and now this includes Taiji dolphins. Thank you Judge.

As I noted a few days ago in the TAG Blog:

"The Dolphin Slave Resort owner, their young cry-wolf dolphin trainer Kitagawa, the Japanese police at three levels (Taiji, Shingu, Wakayama), and Ms. I-want-Erwin-in-jail-one-more-day Prosecutor, clearly, obviously, and very publicly screwed the pooch."

My feeling is that that cute little Japanese puppy was Japan. And that she didn't like it very much. The politicians and business people who deal in dolphin death look pretty incompetent to the Japanese establishment. And then there is the money.

Budget negotiation in Japan for next year's national subsidy on Cetacean meat and the massive Taiji police and Coast Guard presence, and the whole Institute for Cetacean Research folly will occur every day all the month of March for a decision by the beginning of April.

My dolphin drumbeat until the end of March is: No more money for the Taiji hunt. Try it: 9 beats--pat your knees or the table in front of you.

No-More-Money-For-The-Taiji-Hunt

Interview: Prison life in Japan for non-Japanese

Erwin Vermeulen from Holland is the only man in jail today fighting for the rights of dolphins to live. Erwin faces trial next week in Wakayama, Japan. On January 26, 2012, the Japanese government will put our friend on trial for allegedly pushing a dolphin trainer in Taiji, Japan.

He has already served 36 days in a Japanese jail, and faces up to two years. Some say more people will come to Taiji to accept being jailed for dolphins--a sort of Dolphin Disobedience. I compare Erwin to a modern Henry David Thoreau.

What is life like? Erwin has not been allowed any visitors besides a very competent team of three lawyers. To understand what Erwin faces, we have interviewed a man who spent two years in a Japanese jail. We will call him Jay. He claims he was innocent. I believe him and his friends and family believe him, but he still had to spend two years of his life in prison in Japan. This is an introduction to Jay's story. We hope that it will help you to better understand what Erwin faces.

An Interview with Jay: Prison Life in Japan for non-Japanese

Outside help and support came via letters or any money or reading materials I needed. There's not much else friends can do other than those three.

Daily life in jail is usually spent writing letters, reading and talking to others in your room (if he is not in a solitary cell). It's quite a monotonous routine every day. They have a tight schedule of serving 3 meals a day, delivering mail everyday and supplies once a week that you can buy if you have money. You are allowed to keep your supplies and books in the room with you. In jail you wash your own clothes in the sink with soap at designated times of the day. This is all done at the big prefecture jail though not at the small city jails but I'm assuming that big and more accommodating jail was where he was moved to.

Pre-trial can be stressful because of the language barrier and also because frequently the translator can easily make mistakes (SO IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO MAKE SURE YOUR TRANSLATOR UNDERSTANDS YOU AND WHAT YOU WANT).

Immediate post-trial involves being swiftly moved to your next destination (immigration or prison)

Doing time involves working everyday at some monotonous job standing all day with one 10 minute break and a lunch break eating in a cafeteria. Unless you get a solitary room you will be sleeping with a roomful of others (up to 13) on a futon. Personal item are kept in the room and television is turned on a few hours a night. Any medicine (this also applies to jail) needs to be specifically requested to the guards and if a serious illness arises then you will be taken to the doctor onsite. All taken in though Japanese prisons are quite safe compared to other countries. Rarely are there fights (stabbings are unheard of) and illicit drugs are never seen. It's basically like high school with a lot of psychological mind games and talking behind your back because your a foreigner (what the Japanese call ijime).

All I have is some resentment that comes back once in a while at the times I choose to hold my tongue when other inmates talked shit. I did learn how to be more patient though.

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Please ask if you want to know any more specifics. One place to ask is the Facebook site: Taiji Dolphin Action Group.

Whale heroes return to Australia tomorrow

Cetacean activists--Geoffrey Tuxworth, Simon Peterffy, and Glen Pendlebury are expected to return to a hero's welcome by mid-day tomorrow. Monday, Jan. 16th in Albany Australia will end their nine-day protest, engaging the dolphin loving world, frustrating the Japanese taxpayer supported whale killers, and expanding awareness of the international issue.

On Jan. 7th, in a daring pre-dawn action, these men successfully boarded the Japanese Cetacean slaughterhouse, the Shonen Maru 2, to protest the illegal Japanese whale killings and corrupt whale meat trade, banned by the International Whaling Commission in 1986.

Forest Rescue representative, Roland Davidson, confirmed by telephone that the three Forest Rescue activists are scheduled to be returned safely on the Australian customs vessel, Ocean Protector, tomorrow.

Davidson and Forest Rescue representatives--Michael Montgomery and Amy Flee, encourage Taiji dolphin activists to continue to oppose the dolphin hunt. Davidson questioned how the Japanese fishing industry could have the power over the Japanese police to jail non-violent dolphin activist, Erwin Vermeulen, for more than a month, without trial.