Japanese and Saving Whales

Culture : What a wonderful word. It means different things to different people. And what a handy word. Particularly for “friends of the United States” such as the Japanese. They constantly preach that because we don’t understand their culture we are unable to trade goods with them.

This clever excuse for one-sided relations has now been refined. Now the Japanese line is that they kill whales and need to continue to do so because their culture is different from the rest of the world. (And the survival of their culture is obviously more important than the survival of the whale as species!)

So let’s take them up on it! How? By restricting their access to Western technology, by denying them favored nation trading privileges, by officially proclaiming their outlaw behavior with ocean life and by publicly examining the issue of ethics with every aspect of their relations with us.

Short of this, I fear nothing will stop their senseless killing of the whales.

PAUL I. BECKER

Studio City