THE BITTER test of wills between Japan and militant anti-whaling opponents has taken a new twist with the arrest of a leading environmental activist in Tokyo.
Peter Bethune, a member of the US-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, was taken into custody by Japan's coastguard when the whaling ship Shonan Maru 2docked in Tokyo Bay yesterday.
Mr Bethune had been held by the ship's crew last month after he apparently jumped aboard in an attempt to make a citizen's arrest. The New Zealander was captaining Sea Shepherd's high-tech boat the Ady Gilwhen it was sunk in a collision with the Shonan Maru 2in the Antarctic Ocean. Sea Shepherd says its boat was deliberately rammed.
Ultra-nationalists and pro-whaling supporters, some carrying signs branding Mr Bethune an “eco-terrorist”, shouted slogans as he was led away. He faces a charge of trespass and possible jail time if convicted.
Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson reacted angrily to the arrest, calling Mr Bethune the “first prisoner of war to be taken back to Japan since World War II”.
“The Japanese vessel destroyed a $2 million-dollar boat and almost killed him [Bethune] and his crew. Then they arrest him, even though he came knocking on their door. I find that interesting.”
Japan’s Fisheries Agency, which is responsible for Japan’s whaling programme, is refusing to discuss the case with the media. Speaking anonymously, one official said he hoped Mr Bethune is prosecuted. “His group is a danger to crews on the high seas, and they continuously attack our legal hunt in the southern oceans.”
Japan has grown increasingly frustrated with the activities of Sea Shepherd, which harasses its Antarctic whaling fleet every year in a bid to stop the cull. Last month Mr Watson warned that the latest confrontation and the Ady Gilsinking had turned the annual confrontation into a "real whale war".
Two Sea Shepherd activists who were arrested several years ago, after trying to sabotage a bloody annual cull of dolphins in Japan’s south, were subsequently released. Mr Watson said he hoped the authorities would take Mr Bethune to court this time.
“He will become a national hero in New Zealand and Australia. He went there to make a point – to confront the Japanese people about whaling, and tell a court about the fact that his ship has been destroyed. The longer they hold him, the more embarrassing it will be for the authorities.”
The arrest comes as two Greenpeace members also go on trial in Japan charged with trespass and theft of whale meat. Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki face jail after taking a 23kg box of whale meat from a warehouse in an attempt to prove embezzlement aboard Japan’s whaling fleet. The authorities have rejected the pair’s argument that the meat was borrowed to prove a point, not stolen.