Medium Post #1 (Week 2)

Put yourself in the shoes of an Ainu person who lived through the extension of the boundaries of the old Tokugawa regime to include your ancestral homelands.

How might your life change on an everyday level? How might you respond, either individually or collectively to this imposition of colonial rule over you?

Ironically, Japan began to colonize Hokkaido and then created the Former Natives Protection Law to pretend that they actually cared about the Ainu. The law forced natives to assimilate under the guise of medical treatment, education, and land grants. According to “Rule in the Name of ‘Protection’: The Vocabulary of Colonialism”, the law [undermined] the ability of Ainu communities to support themselves in traditional ways and to suppress their language, history, and cultural practices” (55).

The Ainu Cultural Promotion Law replaced the Former Natives Protection Law and was a small win for the Ainu. According to this new law, Japan would continue to support the Ainu in the economic, educational, and cultural sectors; officially acknowledge their colonial tendencies, and give ethnic groups (such as the Ainu) seats in the Diet.

If I was an Ainu person, I would have been furious at the Japanese for encroaching on my ancestral homeland and prohibiting us from speaking our language and practicing our culture. The colonization of Hokkaido is one of the many examples of Japanese imperialism. Japan colonized Okinawa, Taiwan, and Korea among others. Furthermore, the Japanese blamed the Ainu for the problems they (the Japanese) created in the first place, which reminds me of President Trump’s promise to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it.

Individually, I would listen to authorities but still continue to practice my culture in secret. Collectively, I would have come together with my fight for our freedom and/or organized an uprising against Japanese occupation. In the 21st-century, the equivalent of this would be to form your own opinion about an issue, spread awareness on social media, and participate in the movement actively or passively (e.g. sign petitions, participate in protests, or talk to family/friends).