 Found a word you're not familiar with? Double-click that word to bring up a dictionary reference to it. The dictionary page includes an audio sound file with which to actually hear the word said. |
Further implications
It seems inevitable that Japan will ultimately cease whaling. Many critics have considered it remarkable that the practice continues despite the international censure Japan has received and the commercial failure that attempts to sell whale meat to Japanese consumers remains.
Indeed one explanation offered for the Japanese Government's continued support for scientific and now commercial whaling is precisely that it has been condemned by much of the rest of the world.
The wide-spread consumption of whale-meat in Japan was a post World War II phenomenon, fostered by the American occupation forces to supply food for a starving people. Despite these historic circumstances, many of Japan's current leaders, some of whom where children in the 1940s and 50s, look back on this period with nostalgia. The practice of eating whale meat is regarded with a sentimental attachment in Japan despite its relatively recent and forced nature as a generally consumed food source.
Japan's skewed view of its history during World War II has been widely remarked upon. History textbook controversies primarily concern attempts to downplay Japan's imperialist ambitions toward its Asian neighbours during World War II. Much of the Japanese population is unlikely to have an objective or reasonably complete view of the nature of its nation's involvement in World War II. The consumption of whale meat after the War is caught up in this apparently general misrepresentation of the country's history during this period.
Despite this artificially induced sentimentality regarding whale-meat consumption, the meat is not popular among young Japanese consumers and its consumption is in serious decline. Thus, it seems likely that the practice of hunting whales will stop. In addition to nostalgia and misrepresentation, the continued hunting of whales appears to be being fostered rather than discouraged by international criticism and prohibitions. Successive Japanese governments have condemned the position of the anti-whaling community as hypocritical and biased. Many Japanese leaders have seen attacks on whaling as an attack on Japanese culture and an unwarranted intrusion by other nations into what they see as a purely domestic matter.
It may even be the case that Japanese whaling would end more rapidly if the rest of the world were to cease condemning it so vehemently.