Was there a genocide of the Ainu people by the Japanese?

Arts & Sciences Culture & History
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In the 18th century there were 80,000 Ainu. In 1868 there were about 15,000 Ainu in Hokkaido, 2000 in Sakhalin, and around 100 in the Kuril islands.

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Don’t know much about the Ainu. I would guess that like most aboriginal populations, they succumbed to disease and economic and population pressures, with a few random massacres by settlers. Any recorded?

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The Russian and Japanese treatments of the Ainu were horrendous. The Japanese confiscated their lands, forbade the use of the Ainu language, and they were recognized as a indigenous ethnicity of Japan until 2019, just before the supposed 2020 Olympics.

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Sounds like the actions of a certain political party we’re all familiar with.

Edit: Ok to be fair, similar things were happening all over the globe at the time but still worth mentioning.

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I’ve visited Ainu cultural centers near Lake Akan, at Hokkaido University, and this one but the history of oppression of the Ainu people is whitewashed at these centers. You get the impression the Ainu people just faded away. Where I live in Hokkaido my neighbors tell me there was a significant historical Ainu presence in the area but it’s completely vanished.

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I heard their entire history is whitewashed, even their role in world war 2 is as a victim.

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For some helpful resources in English (as well as some in Japanese), I can recommend this site:

https://ainutoday.com/

Guy

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