The Melting World

This is the first book-length work in English I’ve found to comprehensively explain Wajin-Ainu power relations: Siddle, Richard. (1996). Race, Resistance, and the Ainu of Japan. London: Routledge.

And what a book! It details the complexities and contradictory historical records about the Wajin conquest of Hokkaido and the impact on the Ainu, who are Hokkaido’s (or Ainu Mosir’s) Indigenous people.

I am enjoying learning about this history because it is so important for me as a member of Japanese society to know this, especially since I hope to have my students (future public school teachers) learn these truths, too. Right now there are only 2 sentences about the Ainu in the just-released 2006 mandatory history textbooks of compulsory education (Thanks to Kitty Dubreuil for showing me that!). One of those sentences is in a footnote. This is deplorable, but not surprising, given the myth of hegemony the government steadfastly defends to this day.

Many parallels between the Wajin’s systematic and socially constructed marginalization of the Ainu and the colonial systems marginalizing other Indigenous peoples in the world can be found.
For example, when Wajin first entered Ainu Mosir, they were mostly men who were very poor and often exiled convicts. Ainu women were often raped after their men were sent to work as forced labor (at gunpoint) for the fish fertilizer work camps very far from their homes. The children of these violent encounters were considered Ainu and were brought up by their mothers alone.

Stories like these fill me with anger, but more than that, fill me with the determination to make sure my students know this sad history and not cloak Hokkaido history as a ‘pioneer’ history of brave men entering ‘no man’s land.’ The Ainu were here and are still here, and the silence needs to be broken via inclusive history education in the schools. I can’t understand how the Japanese government can get away with such silences and lies. I guess all power systems pick and choose a history suitable to maintaining their privileged status, just look how the current US president stubbornly sits on his throne of thorny lies.

I recommend this book to all folks interested in Japan. Siddle has done a good job at revealing the dirty little (and big) secrets of the Wajin power games.