The general media narrative equates conservationists with civility, and their opponents are most frequently portrayed as rednecks. It’s easy to unconsciously slip into this dichotomy, so I found this thread on the bottom of an ABC article on the detention of two men who boarded the Yushin Maru No. 2 disturbing. If they weren’t greens, you would have to call the commenters rednecks. Racism, nationalist chauvinism, threats of force and sheer ignorance of the subtleties of the situation, legal and otherwise, were on plain display.
“Since WWII, Japanese tended to behave like who and always claim they are the right person for the right conduct,” says one commenter called Helen. Someone called Grommo helpfully informs us “the whalers are all members of the yakuza controlled fishermens/seamens union and ultranationalist bodies…Criminal gangsters are poaching in Australian waters, with the express purpose of killing endangered sentient and self aware mammals. They have stated they are willing to kill humans…”
BizBob wants to send the navy out to confiscate the Japanese ships and break them up for scrap.
The treatment of the Japanese as something less than human isn’t just limited to the commenters. I had to plough through a large number of news reports to even find the name of the Japanese whaling ship, while the Sea Shepherds’ ship the Steve Irwin is named in virtually every report. It seemed like simple even-handedness and respect to me that you’d use both ships’ names if you were going to mention either.
It’s hard to feel sympathetic for the Japanese – their whole whaling operation is based on a big lie, that it is scientific. But that doesn’t justify thrill-seeking exhibitionists in doing anything they like. The captain of a ship at sea is virtually a law unto himself. If you board his ship without permission, then you put yourself at his mercy. He might exceed his authority if he hung your by the yardarm, but I don’t think detaining you onboard and only putting you off into the hands of the civil authorities at the next port he calls at in the course of his business is unreasonable. If the Japanese had decent public relations skills that’s probably what they would say and do, rather than trying to negotiate some sort of exchange with conditions.
They might also have a closer look at Australia’s claim to these Antarctic waters. Much has been made in the past of the doctrine of Terra Nullius. The declaration of Australia’s economic interest in the Antarctic Ocean sounds to me very much like a case of Aqua Nullius. I’d like to know how anyone justifies it in today’s world.