Ric O'Barry is welcomed in a Japanese elementary school in Maeshiba.

Working With the Japanese People Not Against Them We have received a great deal of international correspondence lately suggesting that we "Boycott Japan" as a strategy to save the dolphins. Having been to Japan many times to document the dolphin slaughter, we can report with absolute certainty that the Japanese people are not guilty of these crimes against nature. From what we witnessed, the dolphin slaughter and related captures of live "show quality" dolphins involve a small group of people. 26 whalers in 13 boats drive the dolphins into a secret cove and slaughter them. The vast majority of the people in Taiji and surrounding villages are exceptionally friendly. They should not be targeted and punished for something they are not guilty of.

The Japanese people don’t need a  boycott. They need access to the information that we take for granted. If they knew the truth about the dolphin slaughter, they would help abolish it.  The men who hunt and kill dolphins in Taiji agree with us. They revealed this during a meeting with them at Taiji City Hall. When we told them we had come to Taiji to document the dolphin massacres and let the Japanese people know the facts about the hunt, this is the reaction we received: 

“The Japanese people have no  right to know about the dolphin slaughter. It is none of their  business.”   

But the Japanese people have every right to know the truth.  Article 21 of the Japanese Constitution guarantees them that  right. Condemning a whole nation for the actions of a few people is  simply unfair. A better strategy would be to isolate the Taiji dolphin hunters from the rest of the Japanese population who are unaware of the slaughter.

We need to work with the Japanese people, not against them.