“I pull on my balaclava and step onto the bridge wing. It’s loud outside: I can hear the rumbles of nine vessels’ engines and the hiss of ten water cannons … Suddenly the bridge is full of refugees from the upper deck. They are blocking my view out the back windows, but their faces – afraid, excited, awestruck – illustrate the looming presence of the Nisshin. I bend my knees and grip the bench, ready for the crunch.” In Blood and Guts, Sam Vincent plunges into the whale wars. Vincent sets sail with Sea Shepherd, led by the charismatic and abrasive Paul Watson. He attends the recent case at the International Court of Justice, which finds Japan’s ‘scientific’ whaling in the Southern Ocean to be unlawful. And he travels to Japan to investigate why its government doggedly continues to bankroll the unprofitable hunt. This is a fresh, funny and intelligent look at how Australia has become the most vocal anti-whaling nation on Earth. Vincent skewers hypocrisy and sheds light on motives, noble and otherwise. With Japan planning to relaunch its lethal program in 2015, the whale wars are set to continue. Blood and Guts is a riveting work of immersion journalism that lays bare the forces driving this conflict.

サム・ヴィンセントの「Blood and Guts」は、捕鯨を巡る狂騒の深淵へ飛び込んだ、鮮烈な潜入ジャーナリズムの傑作です。シー・シェパードの過激な行動に身を投じ、緊迫感あふれる洋上の攻防を描き出しながらも、著者の視線は常に冷徹で知的なユーモアを湛えています。正義という名の仮面の下にある欺瞞や、国家間のエゴがぶつかり合う様を一級のノンフィクションとして昇華させています。 本書の真骨頂は、単なる環境保護の是非を問うのではなく、人間の執着と相克の本質を抉り出している点にあります。国際法廷から捕鯨を続ける日本の深部まで、多角的な取材で編み上げられた本作は、読者に真実の多層性を突きつけます。熱狂と冷静が同居する文体は、私たちが何を信じ、何のために戦うのかという根源的な問いを激しく揺さぶる、魂の記録と言えるでしょう。