Following is a selection of readers' responses to the Aug. 17 Zeit Gist columns headlined "Racist undercurrents taint whaling rhetoric" by Dougal McNeill and "Appeals to culture, tradition ignore the historical facts" by Chris Burgess:
After six campaigns to the Southern Ocean and the release of the Academy Award-winning "The Cove," the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has become very much involved in Japanese culture.
When hundreds of Japanese citizens angrily protest "The Cove" and scream for censorship of the film and accuse Sea Shepherd activists of being ecoterrorists, there is no doubt that we have touched a nerve. When Japanese government bureaucrats say they will kill whales to spite Sea Shepherd, they unwittingly empower us as influencing foreign and domestic policy.