The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has announced “Operation Divine Wind” against the Japanese.
Divine Wind is the formal translation of the Japanese word “kamikaze,” the name given to hundreds of World War II suicide pilots, sailors and soldiers who attacked Allied forces in the Pacific.
They were named after a “divine wind” that destroyed a Mongolian fleet attacking Japan in the 13th century.
Sea Shepherd leader Paul Watson said his ships and crews were ready to attack the Japanese.
“I do think that we are in for a very dramatic and adventurous three months beginning in December and I am confident that we will be able to stop them once again” he said on the group’s Facebook page.
He said the Japanese would have to kill the Sea Shepherd’s volunteers.
“Are the Japanese people ready to take human lives in defense of this horrifically cruel and illegal slaughter of endangered and protected species of whales?
“Do we have to die to appease Japanese honor?
“If so, my answer to the Japanese government is ‘hoka hey’ [it’s a good day to die], and we will undertake whatever risks to our lives will be required to stop this invasion of arrogant greed into what is an established sanctuary for the whales.”
Watson said the group would have three ships in the region and he called on Australia and New Zealand to send navy ships to monitor action.
There has been no formal announcement from Japan but Japanese media reported the government had allocated $26.7 million to enhance security for its fleet.
In previous seasons Sea Shepherd has managed to disrupt the Japanese fleet, preventing it from whaling. Last year a New Zealander with Sea Shepherd, Peter Bethune, managed to board a whaler but was arrested by the crew and taken back to Tokyo where he was briefly jailed.
Sea Shepherd said whaling made little political or economic sense, but Japan did not want to “surrender to Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.”
Japan’s indebted whaling fleet was an economic burden.
“It is an insult to all the anti-whaling nations that so generously contributed to the relief of the tsunami and earthquake victims,” said Watson.
Sea Shepherd said it would send more than 100 volunteers to the Southern Ocean to defend the whales.
It was the eighth year that Sea Shepherd had sent ships to Antarctica. It claimed to have saved more than 800 whales in the last year’s campaign.
