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?As an outsider perspective, especially a Westerner at the time, if one were to read, “Hokkaido Former Natives Protection Law”, one would say that the Japanese were changing for the better. They are taking responsibility for their land and their people, and providing a way for the Ainu to be socially accepted to Japanese society, all for free! However, on paper it may seem great, but it is too good to be true.

To put myself in the shoes of the Ainu people at the time, I would feel grateful at first. Looking at Articles 4–7 from Hokkaido Former Natives Protection Law, it sounds great that everything that I didn’t have before will be provided for me. I wouldn’t have to worry about illness, my children’s education, nor equipment for my farm either! In addition, all I have to do is carry on with my normal life, while following the new laws. However, at what cost did I trade all these things for and how long would this last for ?

I would lose my sense of freedom in everyday life. Before the laws were established, I already had my own way of life. Now I have to slowly assimilate and follow the laws of the new Hokkaido government. Especially during this time, when the ways of old tradition were disappearing, making way for Westernization of Japan as seen from Goodbye Asia It may be easier for “mainland Japanese” to be more accepting of the ways of the West, but to me it would be hard, for tradition is set in from birth and to change a fundamental part of your life all of a sudden is difficult. Why would I jump from one sinking ship to another sinking ship?

As an individual I am grateful that all these things are being provided, but I can do without it. As seen in Rule in the Name of ‘Protection’: The Vocabulary of Colonialism, these laws were created as more of a forced assimilation with the intent to suppress the culture and traditions of the Ainu. I would rather have my freedom, than be forced into assimilation. Collectively, I too would fight for my freedoms and right to my own tradition back.