Greenpeace activists got a good reception at the Japanese Consulate in Edinburgh yesterday when they handed in a wishing tree* full of requests for justice for the Tokyo Two.
Mattea, Nicola, Ali, Vince, Mara and Alice from Greenpeace's Edinburgh group spent the morning in the city centre engaging members of the public, telling them about the whaling scandal and the long prison sentences faced by campaigners Junichi Satu and Toru Suzuki for exposing corruption within the Japanese whaling industry.
According to Alice: "We had a very good response from the people we spoke to and many people signed wish cards and attached them to our little wish tree. Once our tree was heavy with cards we went to the consulate and rang the door bell. To be honest, we didn't expect that anybody would come out and see us. To our great surprise and joy, the Depute Consul General Mr Hoyosa himself answered the door.
"We explained the campaign to him and handed him a leaflet about the Tokyo Two campaign. Mr. Hoyosa listened to all we said and was happy to accept the wish tree on behalf of the Japanese government. We were very pleased about that - this is a very important issue for us, which is why we all gave up our time today to help two fellow activists who are in need of international awareness and support. "
This Edinburgh event was just the latest in a series taking place at Japanese embassies around the world to put pressure on Japan to release Junichi and Toru, and put an end to Japan's whaling mission carried out under the name of 'research'.
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* Wish(ing) trees are a traditional Japanese way of expressing hope and are usually found outside temples - people write their wish on a ribbon and tie it on to a 'wishing tree' in the temple grounds to make their hopes and dreams come true.
