Whaling showdown strains partnerships

TOKYO — They were "pirates" to some, "hostages" to others. But two anti-whaling activists who drew global attention this week by forcibly boarding a Japanese harpoon ship in Antarctic waters have demonstrated how the emotional clash over Japan's annual whale hunt can disrupt even the best international friendships.

The high seas showdown sent shudders through the Japanese and Australian governments, which have a close partnership on trade and security issues but find themselves on opposing sides of a whaling dispute in which middle ground is evaporating.

Alarmed officials in Tokyo and Canberra, the capitals, watched as this year's whale kill in the Southern Ocean near Australian waters took a nasty turn, with mutual accusations of racism and hypocrisy followed by the dangerous boarding of the Japanese whaler by eco-vigilantes.

The sides disagree on why the activists remained on board the Yushin Maru No. 2. The activists said they were restrained by the angry Japanese crew and that crewmen initially tried to throw them overboard.

The Japanese government complained that the two men, an Australian and a Briton, refused to be repatriated to their protest ship.

"They had no intention of leaving," said Glenn Inwood, a spokesman for the Institute of Cetacean Research, the quasi-public body that operates under the auspices of the Japanese government and conducts the hunts under a clause of the 1986 ban on commercial whaling that allows some to be taken for scientific purposes. "They showed up carrying a change of clothes, books and a flask of rum."

A face-saving resolution to the three-day standoff came Friday, when an Australian coast guard ship acting as a go-between transferred the two Sea Shepherd Conservation Society protesters back to their own vessel.

But both sides agree that this year's clash has been animated by more fevered emotion than usual. While publicly demanding the Sea Shepherd stop "harassing" its ships, some Japanese officials have been privately horrified by how the financially insignificant whaling industry has cast a pall over Japan's relations with some of its closest partners, Australia and the U.S.

"This is doing no good for Japanese diplomacy," said an official who requested anonymity because his comments conflicted with Japan's official position. "Many people are saying Japan is not balancing its interests, with a vocal minority dictating a course that risks some of our most cherished relationships."