Japanese Children Watch Whales Being Slaughtered

Japanese children as young as ten are watching whales being slaughtered to teach them the "cultural importance" of Japan's controversial commercial whaling industry.

As the whaling season gets under way, schoolchildren in Wada, 50 miles southeast of Tokyo, have been on field trips to see the first Baird's beaked whales of the year winched up the concrete slipway and carved up with razor-sharp flensing knives.

Smartly dressed and in bright yellow caps, the children took notes and sketched parts of the 36 foot whale as it was dismembered.

From their small boats, local fishermen will harpoon up to 26 of the whales during the three-month season. It is now one of just four communities permitted to conduct coastal whaling.

Much of the blubber is carved into bricks that are sold to local people, most of whom have eaten whale all their lives, and the remainder is packaged and sold to supermarkets.

Japan defies the International Whaling Commission's 1986 ban on commercial whaling by claiming that its catches are "research whaling", adding that the by-product of scientific research is not wasted.

A Japanese delegation is currently in Santiago, the Chilean capital, where the IWC is meeting, repeating the government line that the populations of minke, sperm and fin whales have recovered sufficiently since whaling was banned that commercial hunts should again be permitted.

Early discussions were described as peaceful and constructive, but Wednesday's session was marked by renewed accusations and finger-pointing involving Japan and Australia, one of the most vocal opponents of Tokyo's plans.

Peter Garrett, the Australian environment minister, said there was absolutely no need to kill whales for scientific purposes. "In Australia's view the programmes are in reality commercial whaling operations prohibited by the moratorium," Mr Garrett said. "It is no longer sufficient for us merely to oppose whaling under scientific permit. It's time for it to stop."

Joji Morishita, of the Japanese delegation, responded by claiming scientific whaling was "legitimate, necessary and delivers comprehensive data crucial to Japan's research".

He added that countries that oppose the research should "open their eyes".

Shigeko Misaki, a former spokeswoman for the Japan Whaling Association, said it was important that a new generation of Japanese was learning the nation's traditions.

"The anti-whaling campaign has gone too far," she said. "It has almost become a religion, that whales are the only symbol of the marine eco-system. People who believe this religion think all Japanese people are evil because we kill whales.