By Leanne Khov
Entertainment Editor
An estimate of about 14 wooden ships with rotting corpses on board were found washed up on Japan’s shore over the past two months. According to the Japanese coast guard, more than 20 fishermen corpses were found. These “ghost ships” show what kind of dangerous length the fishermen on board were taking to get a good catch.
These ghost ships were found empty or with corpses on Japan shore, specifically from Fukui prefecture to the south of Hokkaido. The state of decompositions of the bodies and the missing heads of the fishermen victims shows that they have been dead for quite some time. Some of the bodies were so decomposed that it was difficult to identify the age and gender of the person as well as the cause of death.
“It’s sad to hear what happen to these fishermen,” sophomore Kirin Scott stated. “It must have been shocking for Japan to discover these ships.”
The ships recently found were not out of the ordinary for Japan- 65 ships were found last year and 80 ships were found the year before according to the Japanese coast guard. Tattered remains of a North Korea flag and writings such as “Korean People’s Army” identify the boats as part of the military who are involved with the fishing industry in North Korea.
A possible cause of the ships could be that the ships were made of wood and it was not powerful enough to withstand the currents of the Sea of Japan. They did not have a modern engine to travel fast nor a GPS navigation system and it was heavy and old. It could have venture far from North Korea coast or were blown off course during the rough sea weather in November according to John Nilsson-Wright, head of the Asia program at the Chatham House policy institute.
“I think the wooden ships should be more modernized and maybe there won’t be as much of these ghosts ships,” stated sophomore Allie Faunce. “The fishermen were unlucky to deal with such old and poor quality ships.”
Wright also believes that the people who were on the ships were likely trying to flee the regime, although it is uncertain due to the limited amount of information. “What we do know is that for those people living outside of (North Korean capital) Pyongyang … life remains extraordinarily hard, and it may be an economic necessity as much as a desire for political freedom (that is) encouraging some people in the North to try and leave the country,” said Wright to CNN.
These fishermen could have taken the risk of going so far out in Sea of Japan due to the demand of bigger catches by their leader, Kim Jong-un who is trying to boost the country’s problem of food shortages; the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that 70 per cent of North Korea’s people rely primarily on the state distribution system for their food which had insufficient rations. However, their poor-equipped and quality ships make it difficult to handle the high seas. “I hope the fishermen won’t venture out too far after what happen to these ghost ships,” stated Julianna Mathew.
