Letter from Embassy of Japan

  Here is the letter we received from the Embassy of Japan, in D.C. It is a cookie cutter letter and I know a few others (including 10 year old William DeBord, who spent a week in Taiji with his mom Carrie, as Cove Guardians) have received the same one. I guess after studying some of the e-mails, faxes, and phone calls, they knew to just hit every point and be done with it. Its pretty sad when you think of it, there are thousands of people around the world sending faxes, e-mails, letters, and phone calls in to this place daily, and all they can do is send a few cookie cutter letters back.



 I  (Chasity) got nothing out of this letter. It was kinda neat that I got a reply other then some auto reply saying they received my email. It seemed like Mr. Naktsuka felt he had to dumb things up for me a little (pointing out that there are diverse cultures in the world, the geology lesson on Japan, ect.). But, when it comes down to it, the only valid point Mr Nakatsuka had, was saying that people are greatly distant from the source of their animal protein and witnessing kills in industrial slaughterhouses is just as off-putting.

 I have pretty much already tore this letter apart between my previous post. But let me just hit a few points again.

  Japan is not suitable for agricultural development.....
     Well what are you going to do when there is no more fish and marine mammals in the oceans? It is the Government of Japans job to see that it is doing whatever it has to do to develop its land to met the needs of its current and future population.

 Fishing is carefully managed so as not to deplete the stock.....
      You can not issue permits and say that is carefully managed. You issue permits to kill dolphins every year, but do  not make available how many dolphins were actually killed and how many were taken into captivity.

 Mercury in seafood including dolphin meat, which is from natural sources, should not be confused with high level industrial mercury.....
        Either Mr. Nakatsuka needs to educate himself on this matter, or its an outright lie by him. Maybe he (or the Government of Japan) feels he can try to lie to us "outsiders" like he does his own people! But I'm not buying it. There is far to much research studies to prove otherwise.

 False Labeling food in Japan is illegal......
        Illegal or not, its happening and there is concrete proof of that as well. The Japanese Government should really look into it, although most feel like they wouldn't have to look to far for who is behind it all.

 Improve killing methods....minimum suffering to the animals.....
        A dolphin being held down, having a metal spike drove into his head, then a wooded nail hammered into that hole, and thrashing around for 15 minutes before it dies.....IS NOT MINIMUM SUFFERING.....try again!

We do hope that you take the opportunity to further expand your understanding of Japanese culture, which is very different from that of the United States....
       First off....thanks for implying since I am an American I couldn't possibly understand another countries culture, that was nice of you! Second, what I understand is that not only is the Japanese government lying to their own people, they are trying to pass the same lies off to the rest of the world. Thankfully, for not only the people of Japan but the world, the people who are fighting this horrific battle do know the truth! We will stand together, and we will NOT stop till dolphins can swim free in Japan waters, without the fear of being killed or captured by anyone.



Please do not let up on sending letters, e-mails, faxes, and phone calls to every agency you can. I know that it doesn't always seem like its helping. I know that it gets discouraging when we send all these letters, yet dolphins are still caught and killed. But please remember something, what you are doing IS making a diffrence. You may not see it, but it is. Also, as you start to stumble and wonder if your letter really matters....think of all the AMAZING Cove Gaurdians. They have stood at the cove everyday since Sept. They have seen these horrific event take place right before their eyes. They have been broken and discourged, yet they keep on! We must keep going!

~For the Dolphins~