Issue:
September 2025 | Letter from Hokkaido
Hokkaido’s Ainu men fought for Japan in Okinawa 80 years ago. But remembering their sacrifice has been fraught with controversy
Last month marked the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. Like most long-term journalists in Japan, I sometimes struggle to come up with end-of-the-war stories or a unique angle on the annual ceremonies that some of us have covered perhaps a dozen times.
Given that this year was likely to be last major anniversary in which survivors could take part, it was right that the horrors of what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki be given extensive national and international media attention, as well as the firebombings of Tokyo and, on August 15 - the anniversary of Japan's defeat - comments by the emperor and visits to Yasukuni shrine by right-wing politicians.
But it was also interesting to wander off the beaten track of yearly war reporting and seek out stories that Tokyo or overseas editors either didn’t have time to pursue or didn’t think were important. One of these was the role in World War II of the Ainu people.
In a country that refused to recognize the Ainu as an indigenous people until the beginning of this century - and is still reluctant to confront historical discrimination towards them by the government and Wajin (Japanese) settlers on Hokkaido – it is hard to imagine what it must have been like for Ainu men who joined, or were drafted into, the Japanese Imperial Army during the 1930s and 1940s, to fight, and die, alongside their Wajin comrades.
On the southern part of the main Okinawan island, in the Maehira district of Itoman, sits a stone memorial, the Nanboku no To, or South/North Memorial. On one side is a word engraved in katakana: Kimun`utari – “our mountain companions" in the Ainu language. The memorial was unveiled in 1966 thanks to exchanges between Teshi Toyoji, an Ainu soldier who had fought in the Battle of Okinawa, and local Okinawans. Every five years, Ainu representatives travelled to the memorial to join Okinawans in a joint ceremony to commemorate those who died.
Toyoji died in 1993, shortly after giving a television interview in which he said he still had nightmares about the chaos that ensued when U.S. forces appeared, sparking a bloody battle that lasted almost three months. Estimates of total casualties vary, and historians do not know how many Ainu died. But it is believed that at least 43 Ainu were killed during the battle, in which more than 200,000 Japanese and American soldiers and Okinawan civilians died.
But Ainu groups and Okinawan residents have not met at the memorial for two decades, partly due to false rumours that the site was an Ainu grave. On June 23, however, six Ainu representatives visited the memorial to commemorate the anniversary of the end of the battle (a date far more important to many Okinawans than August 15 or September 2, when it formally surrendered).
The Ainu conducted a ceremony to soothe the spirits of their departed ancestors and prayed for the souls not only of fallen Ainu but also American servicemen and Japanese soldiers and Okinawa civilians. Debo Akibe, an Ainu leader from Hokkaido’s Lake Akan area, told Hokkaido Broadcasting Corporation that he hoped reviving the annual ceremony would lead to better relations between the people of Okinawa and the Ainu. And he described the controversy over Namboku no To as a misunderstanding rather than a dispute.
“Leaving things as they were (with suspension of exchanges) feels wrong,” he said.
Whether this year’s ceremony leads to more exchanges between Okinawans and Ainu groups is uncertain. That’s partially due to the distance between Hokkaido and Okinawa (Japan’s longest direct domestic flight is the Peach Airlines flight between Sapporo and Naha, which takes about three-and-a-half hours).
A more likely explanation is official reluctance – not just in Tokyo but among many Wajin in Hokkaido and Okinawa – to support more frequent cultural and grassroots exchanges between Okinawan groups interested in learning about Ainu culture, and vice versa.
There is plenty of interest among scholars in comparing and contrasting the two cultures, especially among anthropologists and historians outside Japan with an interest in ethnic groups, and at Hokkaido University’s Center for Ainu and Indigenous Studies. Forward-thinking governments, such as New Zealand, support cultural exchanges between their ethnic groups and similar communities around the world. Akibe and other Ainu, especially in Nibutani, have long had an interest in making connections with other indigenous peoples. They are forming their own bonds, independent of government bureaucrats who are more interested in observing the officially approved Wajin groupthink about what Japan should be doing to “promote Ainu culture”.
The Ainu and their Okinawan counterparts could take advantage of government programmes. That would reduce costs, but the sad reality is that many younger Japanese, especially urbanites in their 30s to 50s, have little time for anyone who doesn’t share their worldview. Instead, they are far more likely to swallow conspiracy theories and hate speech peddled on social media.
Sanseito, which campaigned in the July upper house elections promising to put “Japanese first”, performed reasonably well even in Sapporo, where people are more enlightened about Ainu issues than most other Japanese cities. Against that political backdrop, anyone hoping for more government financial assistance to facilitate Okinawan-Ainu exchanges could be in for a long wait.
Eric Johnston is the Senior National Correspondent for the Japan Times. The views expressed within are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Japan Times.
