Branded as criminals over protest action

The Dominion Post

Toru Suzuki is a cheerful-looking man, apparently unperturbed by his impending trial in Japan's notoriously tough court system.

Examining my business card, he notes with a grin that I'm from "windy Wellington". Then he reminisces about motorbike racing in Palmerston North, a long way from his current reality.

Mr Suzuki is sitting in a dimly lit law office in Tokyo, watched over by a lawyer and helped by an interpreter. Down the corridor, fellow Greenpeace activist Junichi Sato is waiting.

The "Tokyo Two" are not allowed to be in the same room. It is a bail condition imposed when they were freed in July, facing charges of trespass and larceny, after 26 days in police cells.

They had taken a box of whale meat from a transportation depot in April, hoping to provide proof that the crew of whaling factory ship Nisshin Maru - one of Japan's main whaling ships - were smuggling meat for illegal trade and personal gain.

They handed it to police a month later, saying it was evidence of embezzlement by crew, but ended up being arrested.

They are expected to go on trial next year and Greenpeace says they face up to 10 years in jail. It has argued that the "intercepted" meat provides evidence of corruption within Japan's so-called scientific research whaling industry.

But whaling ship operator Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha and Tokyo's Institute of Cetacean Research says there is no evidence to support Greenpeace's claims and Mr Suzuki and Mr Sato should be shown the "full force" of the law.

Viewed by many of their fellow Japanese as criminals, they have become the centrepiece of Greenpeace's anti-whaling campaign.

This month the organisation announced it would not send a ship to follow the whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean. Last year it spent about three months chasing the whaling fleet and trying to stop the killing. Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd's tactics resulted in Japan's whaling fleet returning to port after killing little more than half its intended catch in the Antarctic.

Greenpeace plans to focus on changing public opinion in Japan instead. It has called on "whale defenders worldwide" to become "co-defendants" to the pair.

The former owner of a motorbike shop, Mr Suzuki, 41, joined Greenpeace Japan as a volunteer and helped out when its ship the Esperanza was in the port of Yokohama last year. "I had always loved helicopters and ships, so without thinking much, I thought I should join."

He had previously thought little about whaling and admits to eating whale meat at school. "To tell you the truth, I loved it, because in those days, meat was not available as widely. Whale meat was probably the cheapest meat available on the market."

He changed his views when he witnessed an attempt to "sabotage" Esperanza in Yokohama. "Then I did some research on the Web and other resources and, the more I learned of whaling, the more I came to the conclusion there was something wrong about Japanese whaling."

Toward the end of last year, he was hired as Greenpeace Japan's actions consultant. After taking the whale meat in April, he was confident he and Mr Sato had uncovered evidence of corruption.

"So at the time of my arrest I was still optimistic that they would never be able to convict us so easily - I should say that in retrospect I was a bit too optimistic."

He says he started a hunger strike soon after being taken into custody and continued for nine days. He also refused to speak to police for 13 days. He shared a cell with a tattooed yakuza (gangster). The pair became friends and gave each other massages. "NOT sexually," he laughs, switching briefly to English.

His wife, 32, and daughter did not visit him. "After a couple of days they gave permission for my wife to come. But my wife and I decided we would not see each other because we don't want my two-year-old to see me in a cell."

Despite the impact on his family, he has no regrets. "Although I am in the midst of all these things, I do not regret it a bit. I wasn't mentally or psychologically damaged by being detained by police. An ordinary person may have succumbed.

"But there was no reason for me to be so worried. I knew that the members of Greenpeace around the world would be supporting me and that my lawyers and colleagues at Greenpeace were in full support."

***

It is time to switch over. Mr Suzuki wanders out and the diminutive Mr Sato comes in another door to take his place.

Dressed in a shirt and corduroy jacket, he is an unlikely partner-in-crime - intensely earnest, softly spoken and more battle-worn. His brush with the justice system appears to have rattled him more. He talks of being interrogated by police for hours in a small room and says he now questions whether Japan is really a democracy.

Mr Sato, 31, has been an environmental activist for much longer than his counterpart. After finishing high school in Japan, he went to the United States to study at Colorado's Fort Lewis College, where he became interested in environmental issues.

After returning to Japan, he began working for Greenpeace in 2001, initially specialising in toxic materials. "When I started, I would say that I was just like any other Japanese in terms of my interest in whaling.

"One of the reasons is I didn't have much information about whaling. The more I came to know about the issues involved, the more I found myself interested in the issue.

"I think many of the Japanese people support whaling just because to them it seems Westerners are criticising Japanese culture. So this has always been very emotional.

"They don't know the facts behind whaling. They don't know how the so-called research whaling has been carried out by Japan. They don't know how much money has been spent on this programme. They don't know how many whales have been killed in this programme. These are all the hidden facts."

He is disappointed the focus of his case has turned from Greenpeace's intended one of exposing whale industry corruption. Instead, he and Mr Suzuki are perceived as criminals, not activists.

"It's very important for us to refocus people's attention. In Japan, there still is a tendency for people to look at arrest as evidence of guilt.

"After my arrest I was detained and I didn't have any chance to watch TV or read newspapers. It was only after my release that I was able to see how my case had been reported in the press. It was built around the assumption I did something wrong or I was a criminal already convicted."

It was especially difficult for his wife and family, which includes a son, aged two. "After my release I had to vindicate myself, so to speak, by explaining to those who have always been close to me what I had done. They were looking at me as if they were asking: `What has he done?'

"I would describe my parents as very conservative. They didn't like the idea of my being with Greenpeace. Now that I find myself in this situation, they are very worried. But both my wife and my parents know why I did what I did. They want the truth to be known."

Now he is unable to work as an activist and is focusing on preparing for trial. He says it is a good thing Greenpeace has shifted the centre of its campaign to Japan itself.

"I've always been a believer that this anti-whaling campaign should be led by Japanese. What the Japanese people don't like, and what they have always disliked, is they have always been told by outsiders what to do."

Rebecca Palmer's exchange to Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper is supported by the Asia New Zealand Foundation.

GREENPEACE ACCUSATION TRIGGERED THEFT INVESTIGATION

* January 2008: Greenpeace began an investigation after being told that crew on Nisshin Maru, the Japan whaling fleet's factory ship, had been embezzling prime whale meat and selling it.

* April 16: According to Greenpeace papers, its Japan actions consultant Toru Suzuki and oceans campaign head Junichi Sato and a third man - Jim Wickens - were involved in taking a box labelled "cardboard" from a Seino Transportation depot in Aomori, northern Japan. It had been sent by a crew member to his home. They opened it and found more than 23 kilograms of whale meat inside.

* May 15: Greenpeace Japan displayed the box of whale meat to media at a press conference in Tokyo. Prosecutors agreed to examine the allegations, and investigated 12 crew members.

* June 20: The prosecutor's office announced it had dropped its investigation because of lack of evidence. Mr Sato and Mr Suzuki were arrested on suspicion of trespass and theft and were detained.

* July 15: Mr Sato and Mr Suzuki were freed on bail, having been charged with trespass and larceny of 23.1kg of whale meat, committed in collusion with Mr Wickens, who had left the country.

* July 18: Whaling ship operator Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha and Tokyo's Institute of Cetacean Research announced that their own investigation had cleared the ship's crew. Kyodo said the whale meat was a gift to crew members in the processing line.

Sources: Greenpeace and Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha