A Hellish Stereotype

Look at what we've done.

(Image from Sydney Morning Herald)

Whaling is only legal for scientific purposes in Japan, and unlike what many think, its not a collective positive response over there. Not all Japanese people are whale consumers or the supporters of hunting large whales.

According to the 2006 Gallup Poll by the Nippon Research Centre, over 95% of inhabitants in Japan had NOT eaten whale meet for a long time. Its eaten rarely, therefore it could immediately show some evidence that it is for a scientific  matter that the whales are hunted. I am not defending what has been done by the Japanese hunters, it’s a terrible thing to hunt down such gorgeous mammals, however the stereotype seems to expand over the Japanese people as well. There are many groups in Japan that see Whaling as a traditional, but there is an equal amount that see hunting and killing as unthinkable and illegal. Whaling is not apart of the Japanese culture, and anybody who has lived there will immediately understand that.

What Australians forget is that us too have engaged in Whaling activities in the past. It has been alleged that between 1820-30s the whaling industry was at a large peak in Australia off the south-east coast of new South Wales. A lot of coastal whaling outposts were established alongside the coastal areas in this time as well.

Over the course of time of sailing to the Antarctic Oceans, over 40,000 humpback whales were killed. Commercial whaling didn’t actually stop until the recent 1978 where 16000 sperm whales were killed from 1952 up to that point. The Anti-whaling policy began in 1979, it took over 150 years for this to be adopted by the Australian people, and an environmentalist approach began in Australia as a result.

The stereotype against the Japanese people is terrible and unjust, especially from the Australian people who have engaged in whaling for well over 100 years before this point as well.