At Taiji they kill the whales then hold a memorial service

The whale killing season has just ended so what do the hunters of Taiji do? They hold a memorial service for the hunted whales.
The Mainichi newspaper reports that around 100 people including fishermen attended the service on Sunday and offered incense in front of a monument shaped like a whale in a park in the town in Wakayama Prefecture. The memorial service is held every year in the park on a hill where an old whaling watchtower used to stand.
"We will pass on the long history of the town connected with whaling to future generations," Taiji Mayor Kazutaka Sangen said in a message read on his behalf by town official Hironobu Ryono.

(From Wikipedia)

Taiji has drawn international criticism for its traditional drive hunting of dolphins and small whales.
The open season on cetacean drive hunting, in which the animals are herded into a bay and killed, starts on Sept. 1 in Taiji. The season for drive hunting of dolphins lasts until the end of February, and the hunting of short-finned pilot whales until the end of April.

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