In the Dec. 9 Zeit Gist article, " 'Tokyo Two' fight to clear names," David McNeill describes the arrest last June of two activists of Greenpeace Japan, Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki, by Japanese police for allegedly taking a parcel of whale meat from the warehouse of delivery company Seino Transportation. The parcel was being sent by a crew member of the Nisshin Maru.

I would like to emphasize that regardless of whether the cause is good or not, there is probably no reason why members of a nongovernment organization should be able to do legally what no policeman can do without a warrant from a judge.

Greenpeace claims the two did not take the box for their own profit. While they certainly didn't eat the 23 kilograms of whale meat contained in it, they surely used it, in a nonconsumptive way, for Greenpeace's antiwhaling campaign. When one accuses 12 crew members of a Japanese whale research ship of embezzlement, one would be expected to wait for the prosecutor's office to announce whether the charge is founded or not before announcing it publicly.

Not only did Greenpeace hold a press conference during which it showed the whale meat to the media before it went to the Tokyo Prosecutor's Office, it also declared that the embezzled meat was stolen from Japanese taxpayers, whereas it was officially reported as belonging to the crew members' employer, Kyodo Senpaku.

Greenpeace Japan's director may insist that Sato and Suzuki were motivated by democratic ideals, not personal gain, but it sounds more like the antiwhaling NGO was trying to defame people involved in Japanese whale research programs. Greenpeace appeared to be trying to act as both judge and as an interested party in this affair. While Greenpeace accuses the whalers of smuggling whale meat for sale on the black market, it contradicts itself when it argues that growing stockpiles prove that Japanese people don't want to eat whale meat.

nicolas terrasse