History of the Ainu
History
History of the Ainu is a history
of Japanese internal colonization. Hokkaido, the Northern island of Japan
where the Ainu has inhabited, is full of natural resources based on rich
river systems. Because of the fact and the location, the land of the Ainu
had been both, Japanese and Russian's interests and the Ainu had been a
target of extermination in order for them to obtain the flourished land.
The culture of the Ainu was considered as barbaric and primitive because
of their traditional customs such as hunting bears, rituals of killing
animals, tattooing of lips, hands and arms as initiation of girls reached
puberty. Moreover, the national homogeneity propelled Japanese to colonize
the land of the Ainu by defining themselves as superior than the Ainu and
denying the Ainu identity completely. As Japanese saw the Ainu as primitive,
the law to convert the Ainu to Japanese was passed as a new wave of Japanese
politics in late 19th century. The prohibition of traditional customs and
enforcing of Japanese culture brought them into poverty, isolation and
lack of education. Furthermore, they had to undergo harsh discrimination
by new residents of their land called pioneers. The Ainu cursed
their blood and tried to hide their entity from the society. Intermarriage
with Japanese seemed to be the only solution for them to escape from the
discrimination by producing diluted blood for their next generation. The
Ainu had to endure the exploitation and discrimination till 1960's when
national and international civil and human rights movement provoked
the younger Ainu to claim their rights and increased access to wealth and
power. In 1997, the new Ainu law with emphasis on supporting Ainu culture
and tradition was passed; however, it failed to mention the essential part
of the issue, human rights of the Ainu. The struggle over discrimination
has been eased compared to 4 decades ago but still is a deep rooted problem.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine
Timeline
~B.C. 1000 The Southern
Mongoloid believed to be ancestors of the Ainu settled down in the Northern
part of Japan
1400's The first contact
with Japanese from main island and the Ainu engaged in peaceful trade with
the Japanese
1457 The Battle of
Kosyamain:
1669 The Battle of
Syaksyain
1789 The Battle of
Kunashiri-Menasi: Japanese succeeded to integrate the Northern island by
defeating the Ainu for previous three battles
1869 Mass immigration
of Japanese to Hokkaido started with the encouragement of the new western
ideal government to develop the Hokkaido, Sakhalin and Kuril became
under control of Russian
1871 Enactment of
the registration; The Ainu became the common with prohibition of their
traditional way of living and enforcement of use of Japanese
1878 The Ainu is given
the status of former aborigines
1889 The prohibition
of deer hunting
1899 The Hokkaido Aborigine
Protection Act was
passed: the Ainu became powerless under law
1930's The first Ainu
organization, Ainu Kyokai, was established by influence of young leaders,
such as Hokuto Iboshi, Yukie Chiri and Torazo Ega
1960's-1970's Influenced
by world movement o civil and human rights, the Ainu began to search and
to claim for their identities, Ainu Kyokai changes to Utari Kyokai because
the word, Ainu, reminded many Ainu painful memories of discrimination
1994 Politician, Shigeru
Kayano, was elected as the first Ainu to enter the Upper House Diet
1997 Act on the Encouragement
of Ainu Culture and the Diffusion and Enlightenment of Knowledge on Ainu
Tradition was
passed: emphasis on supporting Ainu culture but failed to acclaim human
rights issue
View on the change of the
Ainu Population
As we can see in the following
table and graph, the change in the Ainu population clearly indicates the
evidence of Japanese exploitation of the Ainu which enforced them to give
up their tradition and culture. We can not overlook Ainu's physical and
psychological struggle over the abrupt change in their life style of which
has been suffered with low economic income as well as harsh discrimination.
I believe the struggle is one of the main causes of decreasing population.
The population of the Ainu rapidly decreased between 1822 and 1873; about
7000 Ainu died over 50 years. The reason behind the rapid decrease of the
population is thought to be the spread of epidemics, such as small pox,
measles, cholera and tuberculosis beside the enforcement of Japanese culture
and labor. Parallel to the uprising movement in 1960's, the Ainu population
also has increased about 6000. Today, the Ainu population seems to be stable
with small fracture in numbers.
|
Year
|
Population
|
|
1807
|
26256
|
|
1822
|
23563
|
|
1854
|
17810
|
|
1873
|
16272
|
|
1903
|
17783
|
|
1931
|
15969
|
|
1972
|
18298
|
|
1979
|
24160
|
|
1986
|
24381
|
|
1993
|
23830
|
|
1999
|
23767
|
Figure 1 and 2
Introduction
Origin
Tradition
Current
situation
Conclusion
Bibliography