Paul Watson's World War II Rhetoric up to March 2010

I haven't had as much time the past few years to keep up with this issue, but given recent events and an entry from the Japan Probe on SSCS' use of World War II imagery to foment racism and an article from The Australian on the same, I decided to put up the material I have on Watson's constant reliance on World War II to stir Anzac Nationalism and revive old hatreds for a war most of his followers parents weren't even alive for.

This style of rhetoric is certainly not lost on the faithful either.

http://www.planetoceanalliance.org/forum/showthread.php/7115-Australian-Government-Forget-The-Centaur-amp-Whaling 

It's worth noting this was originally the Official Sea Shepherd forum, until Paul Watson cut them off after the FBI acted on a plan by some member to assault a Japanese Consulate in Florida. Screenshot of the same thread at the time of the original posting when it was still the Official SSCS Forum.

We start with a long rant by Watson on "Imperial Japan" which was posted to his now-defunct Myspace prior to filming the 2nd Season of Whale Wars. The rest are from SSCS' own website with hyperlinks provided.


Screenshot of original rant on myspace

I am beginning to understand that the underlying reason that Japan continues to subsidize and slaughter whales is that they simply can't get past the fact that they had their collective asses kicked when they lost the Pacific war in 1945. The entire nation apparently still carries a chip on their shoulders from that day in August 1945 when Emperor Hirohito's voice crackled through every radio set in Japan to say, "the war has gone not necessarily to our advantage."Over the last sixty-give years, the Japanese with the stoic determination of the ancient samurai have successfully retaliated with a relentless economic machine that has pushed this tiny nation into the forefront of economic influence in world affairs. A large population in a relatively tiny landmass with few resources has little alternative but to search out and exploit resources beyond its borders. And Japan does it with ruthless efficiency.It was this kind of pressure that led Japan to invade China and to set in motion the machinations that led to World War II with Britain, the Netherlands, Australia, France and the United States amongst others.And now sixty-five years later we have the same allied nations on side with defending the great whales with Japan intent upon ruthless slaughter of these same whales in the supposedly protected waters of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. For Japan, it's not about the money or a necessity to provide whale meat as an essential staple of the Japanese diet. Quite simply it's about pride. The Japanese kill whales because they know it pisses everyone off. The whales are dying for the sin of Japanese pride. They have become the scapegoats for Japanese frustrations for never having gained the world domination that they have striven towards for more than a century.When the Australians at Mawson Hut on the Adelie Coast asked the captain of the Japanese whaling vessel Shonan Maru #2 what his business was in Australian Territorial waters, he arrogantly replies, "Japan does not recognize any territorial claims to Antarctica by Australia." Of course Japan did not recognize Australian sovereignty of Australians over Australia itself in 1942. But back then Australian leaders had a stronger backbone and considerably more self respect. Today it's all about selling of Tasmanian forests and bowing before the Japanese yen.The whaling industry has not made a profit in years. It survives only because of hand-outs from the Japanese tax-payers in the form of massive subsidies. It survives because the criminal Yakusa[sic] control the Union that provides to crews to these whaling ships and the same Yakusa[sic] carry considerable influence with many politicians. It survives because the Japanese fishing industry is afraid that if they back down on whaling, they will be forced to back down on over fishing Bluefin tuna or many other species that are being depleted due to the insatiable appetite of the Japanese people for seafood. It survives because Japan is trying to maintain an economic presence in Antarctica in order to get a piece of the Antarctic resource pie when the Antarctic Treaty comes up for renewal. But most of all whaling continues to survive because the Japanese demand the right to do whatever they want, wherever they want, whenever they want. It's all about spitting in the face of the gaijin, the word they use for foreigners. It translates as barbarian and that is exactly what the Japanese whalers think of us who are Westerners. It is of course ironic that we are being called barbarians by people who fire exploding harpoons into gentle sentient creatures and watch as the whales die in agonizing pain for anywhere from ten minutes to an hour.The Japanese government has over reacted to the opposition to their illegal whaling activities in a very irrational manner. They refuse to speak with any of us who oppose whaling and consistently dismiss us as eco-terrorists, violent criminals and even racists. Apparently it is considered racism in Japan to oppose whaling because whaling is according to the Japanese government a traditional Japanese activity and to be anti-whaling is to be anti Japanese and thus racists. We could say the same thing if we decided to use the same kind of language by saying that because we love and defend whales and this is a traditional value for us then the Japanese are being racist for condemning our traditional values of preferring whales alive instead of dead.The Japanese also say that Westerners eat beef, pork and chicken so it is hypocritical and racist to oppose Japanese food preferences. Of course the reality is that no cow, pig or chicken is killed as cruelly as the whales are slain. There is no abattoir in the Western world that would allow such agonizing pain to be inflicted on an animal. The Japanese are also major consumers of beef, pork, and chicken. MacDonalds[sic] and KC[sic] Chicken can easily be found in Tokyo or Osaka. In fact beef, pork and chicken are preferred foods over whale meat by the majority of the Japanese people. They are even famous for raising cows in a very resource wasteful manner and marketing it at high prices under the name of Kobe beef. Whale meat is not considered a regular part of the diet of any Japanese person. The fact is that this has nothing to do with subsistence necessity and everything to do with flying the red ball on the white background in Southern Ocean waters. It is about challenging the claim of Australia over sovereignty of the Australian Antarctic Territory. It's about being a people who remain bitter and vengeful for the loss of the horrific war they started when they invaded China and raped Nanking and beheaded Australian, Canadian, British, American and Dutch soldiers. It's about writing their contempt for the West in the cold waters of the Southern Ocean with the hottest of blood.The slaughter of endangered whales is a display of the same kind of jingoistic fanaticism that saw Japanese troops destroy Darwin, Australia, mount a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor and torture prisoners of war throughout the Pacific from Philippines to Okinawa. I wonder what the victims of Japanese imperialism would have thought if they were alive today! Would they have supported the timid politicians that bow respectfully to the Japanese as they attempt to appease the whalers like Neville Chamberlain did with Adolf Hitler? Or would the victims of the Bataan death march, or the casualties along the Kododa Trail or the battle of the Coral Sea have applauded our efforts to defend the whales in the Southern Ocean from the ruthless harpoons of these Japanese poachers?I do not pretend to know what those brave defenders of freedom and democracy from the Great War in the Pacific would have thought but I am convinced that they would be more supportive of our active opposition on the high seas than they would of the so called diplomatic efforts that have achieved absolutely nothing in the last twenty-three years. They would certainly have understood our passion.Japanese imperialism has continued to flourish. The system just changed strategies. Instead o tanks and battleships, zeros and Kamikaze pilots, Japan switched to economic and ecological domination with far better results.Today Japan invades outside her borders with drift nets, long lines, and harpoons with destructive waves of nature destroying charges that have diminished the resources of the world's oceans. Because of the Japanese fisheries, the Bluefin tuna may be extinct within five years. Japanese fishing fleets are scouring the seas sucking life from beneath the waves to feed the insatiable appetite of one hundred million people demanding sushi and sashimi. Life in the sea cannot sustain the ever increasing exploitation of marine resources. There is simply not enough fish, whales, dolphins or any other form of life in the sea to feed the ever expanding populations of humanity.The oceans are dying and Japan is one of the nations leading this blind orgy of marine destruction. We are not just saving whales down here from Japanese harpoons. We are fighting a mentality that is intent upon escalating destruction to marine eco-systems. For if we cannot enforce a simple agreement to protect endangered whales in an established whale sanctuary, how can we ever hope to uphold and enforce any international conservation treaties and laws?The screams of harpooned whales herald the destruction of our oceans and if the oceans die - we die!It is as simple as that.Why are we down here defending whales? The answer is simply self defense. The tide of global marine destruction must be stopped.

What does the deliberate sinking of the Sea Shepherd ship Ady Gil have in common with the deliberate sinking of the Australian hospital ship Centaur in 1943?
...
Brisbane resident Barry McCosker, whose father and uncle were Centaur survivors, said he was "flabbergasted" that the Japanese still weren't taking responsibility in 2010. "They can't deny it was them," but he said. "I know we won't get any apology”
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Ady Gil Captain Pete Bethune will most likely not receive an apology either for the destruction of his vessel. Japan refuses to cooperate with investigations by Australian and New Zealand maritime authorities.
Japan’s method of operations has not changed since 1943. 

http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/editorial-100122-1.html

"There are some in the Australian government who argue that Japan does not recognize Australian authority and therefore nothing can be done. Australians should rejoice that representatives of their government in 1942 did not give in so easily when the Japanese refused to recognize the sovereignty of Australia. If they had, there would be Japanese whaling bases in Australia today."

http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/news-081219-1.html

Whaling is “tradition” in Japan that began at the same time that torture for scientific research became a tradition. They began doing lethal so-called scientific research on human beings just before and during World War II and in 1946 with the help of General Douglas MacArthur they set up their Antarctic whaling fleets to begin their pogrom of cetacide in the Southern Oceans.

http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/editorial-091119-1.html

Our campaign logo has been modeled on the artwork that once adorned the fighter planes of the legendary Flying Tigers that fought the Japanese invaders of China during World War II.

http://www.seashepherd.org/matilda/background.html

The very idea of lethal research leaves a bad taste and conjures up memories of Dr. Mengle and the infamous medical research conducted on Jews and Gypsies in Germany or upon Chinese and Australians during World War II by the Japanese associates of the Nazi monsters who tortured, maimed, terrorized and killed so many millions.

http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/editorial-090203-1.html

The average soldier in the trenches in World War I or in the field in the Second World War were not professional soldiers - they were volunteers or they were drafted, they were amateurs.

http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/editorial-090217-1.html

"By being willing to open up an Australian port to a Japanese whaler to refuel, they have sent a signal of acceptance of the Japanese exploitation of whales in the Australian Antarctic Territory," said Captain Watson. "Imagine the port of Hobart being used by a Japanese submarine in World War II for refueling. Japan does not recognize the Australian claim to the Antarctic territory but then again, Japan did not recognize Australian sovereignty at all sixty years ago."

http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/news-051223-1.html

During World War II, the Japanese had Tokyo Rose and the Germans had Lord Haha. Today, the Japanese are employing Glen Inwood, who we like to call Ginza Glen, as their chief propagandists to justify their cruelty and slaughter.

http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/editorial-070223-1.html

During World War II, the Japanese were masters at distorting the truth with their propaganda. Tokyo Rose spread information like a farmer spreads manure. The American, British and Australian people were demonized as barbarians and were enslaved, tortured and murdered. And as they murdered, raped and pillaged they spewed the nonsense that it was the Japanese who were being victimized by the rest of the world and were fighting a war of self defense when the reality was it was a war of imperialism.
Japan's horrific slaughter of the world's most gentle and intelligent creatures - the whales, is just another example of barbaric violence being deployed and justified in the name of Japanese honour and culture.

http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/editorial-070223-1.html

The title of the e-mail that I released was "Tora, Tora, Tora." And Campbell has interpreted this to mean that he believes Sea Shepherd intends to attack the Japanese. Yet, the title was posted to focus on the physical aggression of Japan in its unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor. We were warning of the possibility of a Japanese attack on Sea Shepherd. They have already attacked and physically assaulted Greenpeace activists.  

http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/news-051224-1a.html

I do not believe that it is wrong to be emotional about the slaughter of a magnificent sentient being. This kind of attitude is what allowed for the atrocities against human beings in the second world war. When emotions are denied then all sorts of horrors become allowable. 

http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/editorial-091210-2.html

"The West is trying to impose its unilateral standards on us. I regard this as cultural imperialism," said Masayuki Komatsu whose strident ultranationalist rhetoric echoes the anti-western slogans of Japanese fascists convicted of war crimes and executed after World War II. 

http://www.cdnn.info/news/eco/e060725.html

Deceit from all layers of the Japanese Government has been part of policy ever since the end of the war. Rampant trade protection was hidden behind the guise of strict customs rules. Military atrocities during World War II were airbrushed from school history texts. Japan's racial and cultural homogeneity has been protected by anti-immigration policies.

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/whale-watch/japan-must-stop-taking-the-minke/2008/01/20/1200764074897.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

"There are some in the Australian government who argue that Japan does not recognize Australian authority and therefore nothing can be done. Australians should rejoice that representatives of their government in 1942 did not give in so easily when the Japanese refused to recognize the sovereignty of Australia. If they had, there would be Japanese whaling bases in Australia today."

http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/news-081219-1.html

Whaling is “tradition” in Japan that began at the same time that torture for scientific research became a tradition. They began doing lethal so-called scientific research on human beings just before and during World War II and in 1946 with the help of General Douglas MacArthur they set up their Antarctic whaling fleets to begin their pogrom of cetacide in the Southern Oceans.

http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/editorial-091119-1.html

Our campaign logo has been modeled on the artwork that once adorned the fighter planes of the legendary Flying Tigers that fought the Japanese invaders of China during World War II.

http://www.seashepherd.org/matilda/background.html

The very idea of lethal research leaves a bad taste and conjures up memories of Dr. Mengle and the infamous medical research conducted on Jews and Gypsies in Germany or upon Chinese and Australians during World War II by the Japanese associates of the Nazi monsters who tortured, maimed, terrorized and killed so many millions.

http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/editorial-090203-1.html

The average soldier in the trenches in World War I or in the field in the Second World War were not professional soldiers - they were volunteers or they were drafted, they were amateurs.

http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/editorial-090217-1.html

"By being willing to open up an Australian port to a Japanese whaler to refuel, they have sent a signal of acceptance of the Japanese exploitation of whales in the Australian Antarctic Territory," said Captain Watson. "Imagine the port of Hobart being used by a Japanese submarine in World War II for refueling. Japan does not recognize the Australian claim to the Antarctic territory but then again, Japan did not recognize Australian sovereignty at all sixty years ago."

http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/news-051223-1.html

During World War II, the Japanese had Tokyo Rose and the Germans had Lord Haha. Today, the Japanese are employing Glen Inwood, who we like to call Ginza Glen, as their chief propagandists to justify their cruelty and slaughter.

http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/editorial-070223-1.html

During World War II, the Japanese were masters at distorting the truth with their propaganda. Tokyo Rose spread information like a farmer spreads manure. The American, British and Australian people were demonized as barbarians and were enslaved, tortured and murdered. And as they murdered, raped and pillaged they spewed the nonsense that it was the Japanese who were being victimized by the rest of the world and were fighting a war of self defense when the reality was it was a war of imperialism.
Japan's horrific slaughter of the world's most gentle and intelligent creatures - the whales, is just another example of barbaric violence being deployed and justified in the name of Japanese honour and culture.

http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/editorial-070223-1.html

The title of the e-mail that I released was "Tora, Tora, Tora." And Campbell has interpreted this to mean that he believes Sea Shepherd intends to attack the Japanese. Yet, the title was posted to focus on the physical aggression of Japan in its unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor. We were warning of the possibility of a Japanese attack on Sea Shepherd. They have already attacked and physically assaulted Greenpeace activists.  

http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/news-051224-1a.html

I do not believe that it is wrong to be emotional about the slaughter of a magnificent sentient being. This kind of attitude is what allowed for the atrocities against human beings in the second world war. When emotions are denied then all sorts of horrors become allowable. 

http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/editorial-091210-2.html

"The West is trying to impose its unilateral standards on us. I regard this as cultural imperialism," said Masayuki Komatsu whose strident ultranationalist rhetoric echoes the anti-western slogans of Japanese fascists convicted of war crimes and executed after World War II. 

http://www.cdnn.info/news/eco/e060725.html

Deceit from all layers of the Japanese Government has been part of policy ever since the end of the war. Rampant trade protection was hidden behind the guise of strict customs rules. Military atrocities during World War II were airbrushed from school history texts. Japan's racial and cultural homogeneity has been protected by anti-immigration policies.

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/whale-watch/japan-must-stop-taking-the-minke/2008/01/20/1200764074897.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

The last time a Kiwi was taken prisoner to Japan was in their great war of imperialism when they attempted to enslave both Australia and New Zealand. They have now returned to plunder Australian and New Zealand waters and once again they are arrogantly flaunting the law and taking prisoners.

http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/news-100215-4.html

Captain Peter Bethune continues to be held prisoner on the Japanese vessel Shonan Maru #2 and is being taken back to Japan. He will be the first New Zealand citizen since World War II to be transported as a prisoner from the Southern Ocean to Japan.

http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/news-100223-1.html

And it has become more than just the issue of whaling that keeps Japan hot tempered over the controversy. It is a letting-off of steam from Japan’s long held feelings of anger, humiliation, and loss of pride for the defeat of Japan by allied forces in 1945. What we are seeing now is the same die-hard stubbornness that had Japanese soldiers fighting on in Pacific islands, decades after the war was over.

http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/editorial-100224-1.html

This is like comparing a county jail cell to a Nazi concentration camp. I’m sure the German prison guards probably said, “what’s the fuss, you have people in prison also?”
...
The Nazi’s used Jewish slave girls for entertainment while murdering their parents and children. The sheer lack of empathy and incredible ignorance of the Japanese fishermen in Taiji is astounding. They seem to lack any sense of moral shame. Brothels beside gas chambers is very much like swim with dolphin pools alongside a cove running red with the blood of dolphins.

http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/editorial-100310-2.html

The Japanese whaling ship Shonan Maru 2 arrived in Tokyo today with the first New Zealand prisoner of war to be transported to Japan as a political prisoner since World War II.
As soon as his foot touched Japanese soil, Captain Bethune reestablished himself as a national hero in New Zealand and an international hero in Australia, France, Britain, the United States, and every other country whose citizens deplore the continued illegal whaling activities of the Japanese whaling fleet.

http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/news-100312-1.html