The
Marsh family is spending
Stan's ninth birthday at a public aquarium in
Denver. As the Marshes enjoy interacting with the trained
bottlenose dolphins,
Japanese armed with spears suddenly storm the
dolphinarium and kill all the dolphins. The Japanese perform similar attacks at several other aquariums, orcas and
whales and at an
NFL game, where they kill members of the
Miami Dolphins football team. Stan asks his friends
Kyle,
Cartman, and
Kenny to help him take on the cause of saving the dolphins and
whales from the Japanese. Kyle declines, feeling they can't change Japan's views on the issue, while Cartman and Kenny are much more interested in playing the video game
Rock Band, professing they "don't give two shits about stupid-ass
whales and dolphins". Eventually,
Butters (who is also too busy) informs Stan about the television show
Whale Wars, stating that they can take volunteers to help them. Seeing this as his chance, Stan takes Butters' advice and joins host
Paul Watson and his crew aboard the
Sea Shepherd, but is underwhelmed by their method of throwing
"stinky butter" at Japanese whalers in an effort to deter them. After the Japanese whalers kill Watson with a harpoon, Stan destroys their ship by igniting their fuel barrels with a flare gun. Stan becomes the new captain and leads a more successful campaign in impeding the Japanese whaling effort by employing more aggressive methods. The crew ends up getting interviewed by
Larry King, who describes Paul Watson as an "incompetent media whore" and questions Stan on his intentions of increasing ratings with violence. Stan dismisses the charge and contends he is only interested in saving the whales, not ratings. Wanting to be on television, Cartman and Kenny join the ship's crew under false pretenses of wanting to save the whales (especially, in fact, since they are more interested in the fame and fortune). After a brief run-in with
Captain Sig Hansen and his crew from the show
Deadliest Catch, Japanese pilots launch
kamikaze attacks on the
Sea Shepherd. The suicidal planes kill the
Whale Wars crew except for Stan, Cartman and Kenny. The trio are captured and brought to Japan, where
Emperor Akihito tells them retaliation for the
bombing of Hiroshima is the primary motive for Japan's whaling efforts, with Cartman finding the whole nuclear drop and mass devastation hilarious. He shows them a doctored photograph—given to Japan by the United States after the bombing—of the
Enola Gay piloted by a dolphin and a
killer whale. According to him, Japan was so grateful the Americans gave the Japanese these photos they declared peace. Knowing the picture is a fake, Stan decides to reveal the truth about the bombing, but Cartman reminds him that the Japanese seek to drive the entire species of the perpetrators to extinction. Claiming the U.S. government has authorized him to show the "original" photo, Stan presents the Emperor, Prime Minister
Yukio Hatoyama, and other Japanese officials with a new doctored photo showing a
cow and
chicken in the
Enola Gay (created by Kyle, who Stan managed to phone beforehand). The Japanese become infuriated, now believing cows and chickens had modified the original photo to frame the innocent whales and dolphins as
scapegoats. The Japanese agree to cease their whaling efforts and start slaughtering cows and chickens, storming farms full of the animals. The episode ends as
Randy congratulates Stan for making the Japanese "
normal, like us". ==Theme==