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牛や豚の殺される場面を、ビデオに取って放映しないのは、食肉業界が儲からなくなるからですよ 牛や豚を食わなかった日本人に、売りつけて儲けたい人種は、牛の殺されるところを映像に取ったりしないんです 卑劣なのはアメリカ人も同じでしょうが ＜ 1872年、明治天皇が前例を破り牛肉を食べました。これは、かなり効いたようで日本中に肉食の波が広まり始めます。「士農工商、老若男女、賢愚貧富おしなべて、牛肉食わねば開けぬ奴（文明開化しない奴）」と書く本が出版され、僧侶は肉食妻帯を始めました。＞ だと、明治天皇が牛肉を食べる前は、僧侶は妻帯しなかったのかすら 前出のニューヨークタイムズの文ピコします Japanese Town Mulls Future Without Whaling Industry AYUKAWAHAMA, Japan ― At first glance, it seemed like just one more flattened building in a seaside town where a tsunami had leveled hundreds of homes. But survivors gathered at this one to stand and brood. They came to what had been the headquarters of Ayukawa Whaling, one of only a handful of companies left in Japan that still hunted large whales. Those who gathered on a chilly recent Thursday spoke as if the company’s destruction two weeks ago had robbed the town of its soul. “There is no Ayukawa without whaling,” said Hiroyuki Akimoto, 27, a fisherman and an occasional crewman on the whaling boats, referring to the town by its popular shorthand. Japan’s tsunami seems to have succeeded ― where years of boycotts, protests and high-seas chases by Western environmentalists had failed ― in knocking out a pillar of the nation’s whaling industry. ←長年のボイコット、抗議、西洋環境団体による海上での捕鯨船追跡が失敗してきたが、日本への津波は、日本の捕鯨産業の支柱を押し倒すのに成功したように見える （→以下、津波で大被害を受けた猟師が、もう捕鯨ができないかもしれない、と嘆く文が続く→） Ayukawahama was one of only four communities in Japan that defiantly carried on whaling and eating whales as a part of the local culture, even as the rest of the nation lost interest in whale meat. So central is whaling to the local identity that many here see the fate of the town and the industry as inextricably linked. “This could be the final blow to whaling here,” said Makoto Takeda, a ear-old retired whaler. “So goes whaling, so goes the town.” The damage was particularly heavy here because Ayukawahama sits on the tip of a peninsula that was the closest land to the huge undersea earthquake 13 days ago. The resulting tsunami tore through the tiny fishing towns on the mountainous coastline, reducing Ayukawahama to an expanse of splintered wood and twisted cars. Three out of four homes were destroyed, forcing half of the town’s 1,400 residents into makeshift shelters. At the offices of Ayukawa Whaling, only a light green harpoon gun ― which once proudly decorated the entrance ― and an uprooted pine tree were left standing. Across a parking lot stood the skeletal frame of the factory where whale meat was processed. A beached fishing boat and crumpled fire truck lay on the raised platform where the whales were hoisted ashore to be butchered. The company’s three boats, which had been sucked out to sea, washed up miles down the coast with remarkably little damage. But they remain grounded there. Ayukawa Whaling’s chairman, Minoru Ito, said he was in the office when the earthquake struck, shattering windows and toppling furniture. He led the mployees to higher ground. All 28 of them survived, he said, though he later had to lay them off. He said he fully intended to rebuild, hopefully in time for an autumn hunt off the orthern island of Hokkaido, though he acknowledged the recovery might take more time. He said the most costly part would be getting the whaling ships back in the water, an undertaking that the company cannot afford without government help. Once the ships are ready, he wants to hire back the employees. However, he admitted that the waves might have scared some employees away, from both haling and Ayukawahama. “If we can fix the ships, then we’re back in business,” said Mr. Ito, 74, whose father was also a whaler. “They should not be afraid, because another tsunami like that won’t come for another 100 years.” Other residents were similarly undaunted. Mr. Akimoto, the occasional whaler, who came with a friend to see the ruined company, said the town needed to esume whaling as soon as possible to lift its spirits. He said the year would be a sad one because the town would miss the April nting season, during which coastal whalers like Ayukawa Whaling are allowed to take 50 minke whales under Japan’s controversial whaling program, which is tensibly for research. Ayukawahama and the other three whaling communities ― among them Taiji, made infamous by the movie “The Cove” ― hunt only in coastal waters. Japan’s own whaling in the Antarctic is conducted by the government. Mr. Akimoto said April was usually the town’s most festive month, especially when large whales were brought ashore. He said he would miss that feeling this year. Added his friend, Tatsuya Sato, 20, “We are so hungry that if they brought a whale ashore now, the whole town would rush down to eat it.” Many older residents compared the food shortages created by the tsunami with the hard-tack years after World War II, when Japan’s whaling industry boomed as a provider of scarce protein. Those were the glory days of Ayukawahama, when the population swelled to more than 10,000 and whaling crews swaggered down streets that bustled with crowds drawn by cabarets and movie theaters. Today, Ayukawahama plays up its whaling history for tourists. Smiling cartoon whales adorn shop fronts and even manhole covers. The town also built its own whaling museum, which was gutted by the tsunami. While no one expects a return to Ayukawahama’s postwar golden era, some tfully hoped that whale meat could once more come to the rescue. Seiko Taira said that food shortages here were particularly acute because the tsunami washed out roads, cutting off Ayukawahama for several days. She said she had neglected to store her own food, and was reduced to feeding her four children and one grandchild a single cup of instant ramen noodles and a few pieces of bread per day. Ms. Taira, 54, said she had grown so desperate that she scavenged the tsunami wreckage for food. On Thursday, picking through the debris near the site of Ayukawa Whaling’s office, her 17-year-old daughter, Yumi, found a can of whale meat. She proudly held up the prize to her mother. “I wish we could eat whale meat every day,” said Ms. Taira, who worked as aregiver for the elderly before the wave hit. “But the whalers are so old, I think they’ll just quit or retire after what happened. Martin Fackler Makiko Inoue contributed reporting. |