The world first heard of Taiji in 2009, when Louis Psihoyos’ documentary The Cove depicted the tiny Japanese village’s annual dolphin capture and slaughter in gruesome detail.
The now-infamous film, which went on to win the 2010 Oscar for Best Documentary, had an enormous impact on international public opinion regarding Japan, creating an Us vs. Them mentality, pitting environmentalists against traditionalists, and allowing no space for a dialogue to develop.
Encouraged by social media-savvy activists, protestors began pouring into Taiji every September during hunting season for the next 8 years. Yet their efforts did not put an end to the dolphin cull — or to whaling, although most Japanese eat neither dolphin nor whale meat.
After the release of The Cove, the swarming presence of angry outsiders, and their verbal attacks on the fishermen (who had been vilified in the film) compounded the travails of locals and exacerbated any chance at detente.
With the rallying cry on both sides reduced to a too-simple pro- or anti-whaling stance, the situation soon devolved into cultural warfare.
Onto this battleground stepped New York-based Megumi Sasaki, who followed the protests in Taiji for 6 years, and produced what is perhaps the first unbiased, nuanced portrait of the ongoing schism.
She was not concerned with recreating the tense drama of The Cove to provide a Japan-defending “corrective,” but rather, with capturing the current reality on both sides of the yawning divide. Sasaki’s A Whale of a Tale does not issue a call to action, but rather, to understanding.
The film’s release couldn’t come at a better time: Just a week ago, as a new season was set to begin in Taiji, the Sea Shepherd anti-whaling group suddenly announced that it was suspending its protests against Japan after more than a decade, including those in Taiji.
Prior to the Japan rollout of A Whale of a Tale, Sasaki screened a sneak preview of the film at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Tokyo, followed by a Q&A session that also featured one of the film’s voices of reason, Jay Alabaster.
About the film:
A Whale of a Tale reminds us of the salient facts — many of which have been lost in the ugly scuffle between the fishermen and the activists.
Organized whaling began in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, south of Nara, in 1606. For the fishermen, hunting is not only a way of life, but their very identity. Catching whales, dolphins and other fish has supported their families and fueled the town’s economy for 400 years.
For the activists, whales and dolphins are not fish but intelligent mammals, and they equate hunting them with the slave trade, fox hunting or bullfighting, all cultural practices that have been abolished or mitigated in modern times.
As the fall hunting season begins in 2010, activists and news crews pour in from abroad, wielding binoculars and cameras (sometimes violently) as they livestream footage of “atrocities” committed in Taiji cove, overwhelming the locals and the town’s infrastructure. Vans with right-wingers harass them via loudspeakers, as others look on it sheer dismay.
The film introduces us to the local whalers and several of the global protesters who have returned each year, including Ric O’Barry, the outspoken “star” of The Cove.
But Sasaki’s wisest decision is to focus the film on the activities of two mediators who provide illuminating perspectives: American journalist and researcher Jay Alabaster, who moved to Taiji in 2013 and has devoted years to befriending and earning the trust of locals; and Atsushi Nakahira, a nationalist who taught himself English so he could communicate with the protestors. An unexpected peacemaker, he eventually succeeds in bringing the two sides together for a public debate.
If A Whale of a Tale doesn’t quite turn us all into neutral observers, it moves us closer.
Sasaki’s lasting achievement is that the film recasts the ugly ideological impasse as one of globalism vs. localism — something we can all understand, irrespective of background. Still, one of the documentary’s conclusions is that Japan would likely have banned whaling by now if foreign protests had not been so relentless and aggressive.
The Q&A:
Megumi Sasaki: “When I saw The Cove, I felt like I needed to make a film. It stuck in my throat like a little fish bone, as the Japanese expression goes. Documentary can be very powerful and influential. It’s usually used to expose the wrongdoings of those in power: the government or the big corporations. But when the camera is pointed at the fishermen in a little village by a big Hollywood powerhouse, I didn’t feel that was fair at all. I thought their voices should be represented somehow. My intention was not to make a pro-whaling movie. Whether it’s right or wrong, I wanted to leave the answer to the audience.
“This is the third year in a row that we’ve seen very few protesters in Taiji. This is directly the result of local police efforts. They have been taking down passport numbers, and when the activists try to come back to Japan, they are refused entry. A lot of activists were there from the Dolphin Project and Sea Shepherd, but both groups have been having a hard time for the last few years. But it doesn’t mean that their activism has slowed down. They’ve had big demonstrations in front of Japanese embassies and consulates overseas, so they just changed their strategies.”
Jay Alabaster: “Groups like Sea Shepherd are run like a business. They put their resources where they think they can get the most attention. So if they’re pulling out, then it’s because the attention they can get there has decreased a little.
“The protesters are media professionals. They’re very good at what they do, they have a lot of experience. If you’re going to have a debate, I think something should be said on the Japanese side. I’m working now on something — hopefully we’ll have it soon — a way for the fishermen to express themselves in English, to say where they’re coming from. I don’t know if you’ve been on Facebook, but there’s a pocket of it that is filled with hatred and meanness. If we can have a little bit more exchange of opinions, an online Q&A in English or a weekly blog with the fishermen, it could really help, for starters.”
Sasaki: “One thing I found out about the meaning of tradition is that it’s very different between Japan and the West. For Japanese, tradition is extremely important. They believe that whatever has continued for a long time has to continue in the future, too. Tradition is valued heavily in Japan. In the West, just because it’s continued for a long time doesn’t mean it’s good, like slavery. If it doesn’t fit in today’s society, it should be abolished. That’s the Western way of thinking.”
Alabaster: “The efforts of the whaling industry to survive and make itself relevant in Japan have been greatly aided by the Sea Shepherd. Everyone has their motivations, but if you went to any little town in America and without speaking English, told them to stop using guns, you would get exactly the same reaction.”
Sasaki: “For the people in Taiji, living with whales and whaling is their identity. It’s not just about food or economic activities, it’s their identity and their pride. I don’t think either side is right or wrong, it’s just a different approach … [but] it’s no longer an environmental movement, it’s now become an animal rights movement, which is way more powerful and active. I don’t think it will die down.”
Profile:
New York City-based Megumi Sasaki directed the multi-award-winning documentary Herb & Dorothy (2008), about legendary New York art collectors Herb and Dorothy Vogel, and the follow-up, Herb & Dorothy 50X50 (2013), both of which were enormously successful in Japan as well as overseas, and continue to screen on TV and in theaters, museums and art fairs around the globe. Prior to founding Fine Line Media in 2002 to create TV and theatrical documentaries, Sasaki was an anchor, reporter and news director for NHK Television, as well as a freelance news director/field producer for many other channels.
Where it’s on:
A Whale of a Tale had its world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival in late 2016, followed by other festival appearances. It opens in Japan on September 9.
This "documentary" sounds as if it was funded by Japan. I don’t hear much that is neutral.
Here is the first hilarious error: "For the activists, whales and dolphins are not fish but intelligent mammals." Um, the activists did not create the names and catagories of animals which are accepted and used throughout the world by science, scientists did. Whales and dolphins are marine mammals. That is not fake news from activists, but a real facts of science.
And here is a big tip that this film is anything but neutral:
"activists and news crews pour in from abroad, wielding binoculars and cameras (sometimes violently) as they livestream footage of “atrocities” committed in Taiji cove." Wearing binoculars and holding a camera is called "violent" but calling the cruel killing of dolphins is not *really* an atrocity since the filmaker puts quotes around the word, as if the activists are watching happy, playing dolphins and calling it an atrocity. Here is the definition of atrocity from Webster: an extremely cruel act, typically one involving physical violence or injury. That definition is a factual description to what the men and women do to dolphins in Taiji.
And this line is, well, simply a big lie about The Cove: "But when the camera is pointed at the fishermen in a little village by a big Hollywood powerhouse, I didn’t feel that was fair at all." My God, Rick O’Barry made this film on a shoe string! It was most definitely NOT funded by some Hollywood producer or a billionairre.
And this is just absurd: "Still, one of the documentary’s conclusions is that Japan would likely have banned whaling by now if foreign protests had not been so relentless and aggressive."
This suggests that Japan, a major world power, cannot think for itself, but only in defense of what another country says. It’s also like saying that in the U.S., southern plantation owners would have likely and happily given up their slaves if those relentless northerners would have just stopped pestering them about the cruelty of slavery.
This film sounds like anything but neutral. It sounds like a counter documentary, filled with the myths that those who make a great deal of money SELLING dolphins to the captive dolphin industry want the world to believe. Does Sasaki even COVER the money trail in her film? Not that much money is made from the murder of the dolphins for meat. Japan already has stockpiles of dolphin meat. The big money is made from picking out the "pretty, young" dolphins to sell to agents for aquariums. That is the true reason for the continued slaughter of dolphins in the infamous Taiji cove. And THAT, is not a 400 year old tradition, but a much more recent business: Herd dolphins into a cove, keep and sell the pretty ones, murder the rest, and make a ton of money.
To me and many others who are opposed to these mass killings and money making from selling dolphins to live in captivity for life, are not opposed to it because it happens in Japan. We don’t care where it happens. This is not about Japan to us. We protest captivity in our own countries also. And we protest the killing of cetaceans everywhere, including the killing of whales in the U.S. So please understand, this is for us an issue of compassion for all beings–the right of cetaceans to live free in the oceans, to not be either killed to captured for money.
I too picked up on the comment re dolphins and whales being seen not as fish but as intelligent mammals, well even the 2 year olds I teach know that fact, I make sure that they do! How can you call this tradition when the real reason this is occurring is because of the captive industry. These yes intelligent mammals are brutually caught and inhumanely slaughtered if they do not make the grade for the captive trade, lets get real here this is commercialism NOT tradition! Also I have steadfastly watched all the live feeds from Taiji if anyone is harrassed it is the cove monitors not the other way around, Im sorry but the world IS watching and will continue to watch and to condemn, the next generation are not as gulliable as the last!!!
What a load of crap, it’s just going to be a film about their traditions and beliefs, all made out like this is how it’s always been and how wonderful it is and how awful we all are for wanting it to end. They’ll conveniently leave out the horrific capture and slaughter methods and the fact they dump the babies back in the oceans to die slowly as their not worth going onto the quota, and the disgusting conditions they keep their captives in or the amount they earn for selling them to the captive industry etc etc. They should show The Cove alongside it so the japanese people can make their own minds up – but heaven forbid ey.
In 1606 did the fishermen in Taiji, Wakayama Catch whales and dolphins then sell them to the Russian, Arabs, Americans, Turks, etc.etc for profit
It’s about profit not tradition..do they think we’re stupid. Even Japanese people protest the unneccesary slaughter of these animals
Aren’t we supposed to evolve as human beings and manage our natural resources wisely now there are so many humans living on our planet? It is is good to look at both sides of west vs Japanese philosophy but how does this help preseves our whales and dolphins? How does it equate with recent research that shows how important whales and dolphins are to the ocean.
These whales help to fertilize our oceans with their iron rich waste, and help to circulate the layers of water found in the ocean aiding in its oxygenation to support other marine life. The ocean is deoxygenating, it needs fertilizing and stirring by the ceteceans, the meat is now high in toxins, and thus are worth more to the planet than their demise. History aside, traditions aside, how do we preserve our oceans and its inhabitants? How do we conserve the single largest producer of oxygen?
Absolutely agree with everything you say. Would add that Jay Alabaster is as phoney as the film- he has been posting on FB pretending to be new to it whilst forgetting to mention he’s had an account for years. Claiming to be neutral whilst gathering comments from anti-caps to pad out his forthcoming book. I guess there’ll be no neutrality in that- after all he has lived in Taiji for four years. He also eats whale meat and dog meat, and according to the Japan Times he has ‘no intention of saying whether whaling is right or wrong’.
How neutral is Jay Alabaster likely to be? As he posts pictures of a whalemeat meal on his FB page I’d say that it is highly unlikely to be a balanced view on Taiji.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/01/20/national/american-researcher-aims-give-taiji-balanced-image/#.WbVG4oXTWEc
Jay Alabaster and his whalemeat lunch.
I have seen this film at the NYC premiere and it is anything but neutral. The film ignores science, the plight of the dolphins that are cruelly slaughtered and the captives that have ruined lives. There is zero conversation on the ethics of the hunt and captivity. A balanced documentary would have addressed this and discussed the research that has shown how inhumane this is. When the director was asked this question, she said that she had ignored this topic because there was plenty of media addressing science. So she leaves it out completely and paints the activists as crazed lunatics and the fishernen as simple fisherman trying to feed themselves. This is not balanced, nor nuanced. Sadly, Alabaster is a shill for the Fisherman’s Union.
Do you really think that so many people would be motivated to protest if the actions at Taiji were humane and acceptable? Just do the right thing, stop this appalling and unnecessary crime against dolphins and pilot whales. You are better than this, please.
The Japanese should watch the 2 movies before take any conclusion. But certainly, it will be observed that dolphins are victims of abuse and atrocity, exterminating entire family of dolphins. There is not respect or mercy but only the greed by a small group of Taiji. There is no tradition in this bloody hunting inside The Cove in Taiji.
What a load of crap! What the Taiji hunters are doing has nothing to do with tradition. It is all about obscene products based on the extermination and torture of entire cetacean families. Sea World and other marine parks didn’t exist in 1606 and nether did motirised boats. Nor many Japanese eat dolphins these days and the bodies of the creatures they so sadistically kill end up as pet food or land fill. Get your facts right.
The Cove exposes the horrors of dolphin capture and brutal killing of the dolphins deemed "less suitable for entertainment." The babies are stolen, orphaned, and driven out to sea to die. Dolphgins are starved in the sea pens to break their spirits. These practices are not part of a long held "tradition," but something that has only come about within the past century.
how could you possible defend a killing performed by sticking a large pole down a dolphins blowhole to kill it after you have catpured and chosen the pretty ones in the family for sale?
"Balanced" is completely misleading.
What is true is that the industry of captivity, not a cultural phenomena, but an economic gold mine, is what continues to add fuel to the killing of dolphins as a justification.
That tax payer money is spent on supporting whaling and the relationship the Japanese government has with cetaceans is wrong. That they spend money to advertise cetacean meat to a new demographic is testimony to waning appetite.
Because they are considered "marine resources" is their way of circumventing any goal of immediate insensibility, a first world nation requirement. The slaughters are cruel and inherently inhumane.
So, while the slaughters are horrible, the captive business is the driver. The filmaker refuses to address this, or the sentience of cetaceans, their intense family structure, that they are migrating dolphins. Really any science at all is failed to mention.
This is so obviously not solely about economics in terms of keeping TAIJI employed. Those bangers hunt the tuna that run on the killing off season. That alone supports the industry, the Fisheries Union, the Ministry of Fisheries, the government of Japan, food resources. Having said that, tuna fishing to extinction, overfishing is a problem for Japan, too.
Bottom line, not "balanced" and does nothing to repel the tenets of the Cove movie. This is not truth, but whitewash, diversion and selective presentation.
What a disgraceful piece of propaganda. Utter nonsense