Third Edition Spring 2013 - Institute of East Asian Studies, UC ...

Thus, the metaphors of scientific racism and racial hierarchieswere directly shaped by Western conceptions of indigenous populations.The Laws of Expansion and the Expansion of LawsProtection is an ethically nebulous concept. Entities thatview themselves capable of bestowing protection frequently justifytheir actions as unequivocally ‘beneficial’ to the populations theyact upon. For example, Japanese colonization of Taiwan was openlydeclared by Japanese as beneficial to Taiwanese, while across theocean a few decades later, US internment of Japanese-Americansduring WWII was deemed beneficial to those interred. 17 , 18 Additionally,‘protection’ establishes an unmistakable hierarchy of power.Accordingly, ‘protection’ of Ainu under Japanese law alignedprimarily with the interests of Ainu colonizers.Political advocacy of legal protection for Ainu began in thelate 19th century, following centuries of Ainu-Japanese interaction,and beginning in the 17th century, official trade relationships viaJapanese outposts in Hokkaido. Prior to the introduction of protectionlaws, the settling of Hokkaido by the Japanese governmentwas openly referred to as colonization. 19 In present-day Japan, thispast is now referred to as ‘development’ instead of colonization,implying that the occupation of Hokkaido was instead a ‘natural’extension, and a periphery settled rather than taken. Arguably,this orientation obscures the violence underpinning the process ofland and resource annexation, and the corresponding exploitationof Ainu inhabitants.discusses how physical measurements, such as brain weight and skull shape, wereemployed as ‘evidence’ of racial and gender inferiority, observing that metaphor “generatesdata that conform to [the nature it constructs], and accommodates data that are inapparent contradiction to it, so that nature is seen via the metaphor and the metaphorbecomes part of the logic of science itself.” (Stepan 371)17 Siddle, Race, Resistance and the Ainu of Japan, 82.18 See: Colleen Lye, “A New Deal for Asians,” in America’s Asia: Racial Form andAmerican Literature, 1893-1945 (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press,2005), 141-203.19 Siddle, Race, Resistance and the Ainu of Japan.Reacting to the threat of Russian encroachment, Japaneseassimilation of Ainu strengthened the Japanese claim on Hokkaido,as did the enforced annexation and control of selective land, andremoval of Ainu inhabitants. Competition between Japan and Russiato claim Hokkaido was driven by the desire to claim the wealthof natural resources, including coal, timber, and fish, and to exploitthe agricultural potential of the land. Following the Meiji Restoration,the colony of Ezochi (Ezo, or Ainu, land) was renamed Hokkaido.Settlement functioned to legitimate Japanese rule. Accordingly,a rapid movement of Japanese settlement and agriculturaldevelopment was incentivized by land grants. Though there wasan emphasis in the language of official policy promoting a visionof kindness and harmony with ‘natives,’ the Japanese governmentsimultaneously declared Ainu residency as non-ownership, andpassed laws to legally uphold this belief. 20Not all inland Ainu lands were seized at first, but when resourceswere sought by Japanese, such as hunting access, the Ainuwere forced to relocate, and laws were passed to ban Ainu huntingtools and techniques. Following the introduction of hunting riflesby Japanese, deer herds approached extinction within a fewyears. 21 Similarly, bans on Ainu fishing and appropriation of fisheriesimpeded Ainu autonomy, while unrestrained Japanese consumptionled to sudden and dramatic resource depletion. Withoutaccess to their conventional foodways, Ainu began to die of starvation.22 Some attempts at amelioration were made by the Japanesegovernment, such as the granting of small plots of land for agriculturalproduction to Ainu, but ultimately, only small amounts of landwere given to few individuals. 23 Meanwhile, Ainu settlements wereincreasingly relocated to land ill-suited to agricultural productionin order to make prime land available to Japanese settlers. Ainurelocation settlements were deliberately scattered in an attemptto separate and weaken Ainu communities. Ironically, the surveyingand mapping of lands to be sold or distributed by the Japanesegovernment relied heavily on Ainu knowledge and labor; after all,20 Ibid.21 Ibid.22 Ibid., 63.23 Ibid.77 Valerie Black Ainu Indigeneity 78