Taiji (killing dolphins is not a Japanese tradition) & Beyond: Saving Dolphins & Whales throughout our Planet

So far, Taiji fishermen have slaughtered pilot whales, but some dolphins have been spared, according to Sea Shepherd––concluding some progress has been made. But it's not enough.

AFP's report of the start of the dolphin slaughter at Taiji inaccurately framed the story as if all Japanese people side with dolphin slaughter as a matter of "tradition." That's like thinking all Canadians side with baby seal hunters, or all French people eat horses as a matter of "tradition."

The conflict at Taiji is not about a culture war between Japan and the rest of the world––over the ostensible tradition of killing dolphins. Many Japanese dolphin sympathizers (including multi-generational vegetarian Buddhists, PETA Asia-Pacific supporters, and members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society) side with millions of people worldwide who want to end the dolphin and pilot whale killings at Taiji.

Instead, the real purpose of the Japanese government's support of the Taiji slaughter is about the fishing industry's elimination of natural predatory competition and providing some extra income to Taiji fishermen from the sale of the dolphins to marine amusement parks. Taiji is one brutal facet of a larger conflict between dolphins (and other sea animals) and the global fishing industry.

Media attention generated by Ric O'Barry's activist documentary The Cove depicting the dolphin killings at Taiji as a cultural issue obscures the big picture context of this planetary drama with related scenes playing out worldwide. In Florida, angry fishermen made headlines this past summer by pipe bombing and shooting bottle-nosed dolphins playfully pulling fish from their lines. Around the world, commercial fishing nets kill 300,000 dolphins, porpoises and whales (and millions of other sea animals including endangered loggerhead turtles and sharks) every year:

“Almost 1,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises die every day in nets and fishing gear. That’s one every two minutes," said Dr Susan Lieberman, Director of WWF's Global Species Programme. "Some species are being pushed to the brink of extinction. Urgent action is needed - and we developed this ranking to help governments and aid agencies know where their money and efforts can really make a difference." 

The large scale deaths of sea mammals is euphemistically called "cetacean bycatch." And political leaders, commercial fishermen's organisations, supermarkets, fish processors, and consumers of fish are not addressing this tragedy. Some fisheries even use captured dolphins as bait to catch more fish. Environmental pollution and insensitive development projects also impact cetaceans.

(Baiji Photo © Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Dolphins at special risk include the Pink Dolphins of Hong Kong; Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphins and Bottlenose Dolphins in the Indian Ocean; Irrawaddy dolphins in the Malampaya Sound in the Philippines, the Mekong river, the Mahakam river in Indonesia, and a few thousand newly discovered Irrawady dolphins along the Bangladesh coast. The Yangtze River dolphin (the Baiji) is the world's most endangered cetacean––or the most recently extinct. 2002 marked the last documented sighting of the species; 2006 surveys failed to find any in its native Yangtze River––the Three Gorges Dam destroyed its habitat. According to the ICNU Red List of Threatened Species, fishing nets, electric fishing practices, boat propeller strikes, dam construction, river siltation (from deforestation and agricultural expansion), and pollution all contributed to the Baiji's plight. (The ICNU asserted in July that the global wildlife and biodiversity crisis is worse than the economic crisis. The reasons: overfishing, overhunting and loss of habitat. One third of the ocean's sharks are also at risk, killed by the same commercial fishing nets killing cetaceans). Dolphin species are also at risk in Hawaii, Tahiti, Patagonia, Peru, New Zealand, and the North Atlantic (where 50-70% of the native whales bear scars from net entanglement).

Contrary to Taiji fisherman who claim dolphin killing is a traditional practice, the director of The Cove rightly notes that the Taiji slaughter only goes back to the Meiji regime (1868-1912)––when the authoritarian government instituted a slew of "invented traditions" intended to undermine more established forms of Japanese culture. Before the Meiji era, the Tokugawa shogunate (1600-1868) prohibited meat-eating (associated with Christianity and European culture). Previously, Buddhist and folk Shinto precepts inculcated a widespread reverent attitude towards animals and nature. Meiji leaders attempted to subvert these faith traditions in their attempt to redirect religious allegiance to the cult of State Shinto they created. Moreover, large-scale dolphin killings at Taiji only began in 1969,  (Sea Shepherd Captain Paul Watson underscores that whaling is also not a traditional Japanese practice: "Modern pelagic whaling was initiated by General Douglas MacArthur in 1946. He established the modern whaling fleet."

O'Barry's global spotlight on Taiji is crucial for heightening awareness about dolphins and other cetaceans. The spotlight needs to grow larger and include the other hundreds of thousands of dolphins and other sea creatures being killed as collateral damage by the worldwide fishing industry.

According to Paul Watson, the reason Canadian salmon fishermen kill baby seals in British Columbia is to eliminate natural predatory competitors for Atlantic salmon brought to those waters by the fishing industry (as well as make side income from selling the pelts to the Canadian fur industry which already kills 300,000 baby seals on the East Coast along with 2 million other animals every year). Which is worse––being harpooned by a Japanese fisherman; or struggling to death in a fishing net (suffering from broken beaks and torn fins); or being clubbed and skinned alive by a Canadian fisherman? And how must a captured dolphin feel when taken from its family and sold to a marine amusement park or "swim-with dolphin" programs at theme parks, harbors, gambling casinos and even shopping malls?


Twenty years ago, Hardy Jones, founder of BlueVoice.org, went to Taiji––returning repeatedly seeking to end the capture of dolphins and pilot whales in Japan. BlueVoice.org has not only taken on the issue of intentional hunts of dolphins and whales, but also the fishing net and industrial pollution kills of cetaceans around the world. Its wonderful website offers a number of online videos on saving dolphins and pilot whales; of dolphins in captivity; and just being "Among Dolphins."

To the extent of sometimes verbally and physically clashing with fishermen and whale hunters (and even fellow environmentalist NGO Greenpeace because it chooses to "witness" but not directly confront its opposition and allegedly provides non-vegetarian food for its crew), Sea Shepherd Conservation Society pursues even larger goals of safeguarding all marine species and ecosystems all over the planet. Its website and a supporting site (Ocean Sentry) provides forthright, up-to-date news (and suggestions for action) on this subject.

 - JD

Destroying & Saving Other Species (and Ourselves)

In Alice Walker's book, The Color Purple, the protagonist tells her oppressor: "Everything you do to me, you do to yourself." For decades, ecologists have been telling us the human destruction of the natural world harms us as well.

An article in the Guardian yesterday puts hunting and loss of habitat at the top of a range of human-made threats to biodiversity––numbering endangered species by country:

...The data below shows that 11,686 species were classed as "endangered" in 2006. Of these, the US hosts the lion's share with 10% in that country. Just over 6% of the total species are in Brazil, reflecting the pressure that widespread deforestation is causing in the highly biodiverse region.

The tiny island nation of Singapore has a large number of threatened animals considering its size. Its 100 endangered species works out at over 20 per million people present on the island (compared with less than 4 per million in the United States...

Incredibly, the global consumption of frog's legs has put frogs at risk of extinction. The French eat 4,000 tons annually. People in Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and China also eat tremendous numbers. Most of these frogs are hunted in the wild:

"...Amphibians are the most threatened animal group; about one third of all amphibian species are now listed as threatened, against 23% of mammals and 12% of birds," says Corey Bradshaw, an associate professor at the Environment Institute of the University of Adelaide and a member of the team that carried out the research into human frog consumption that was published earlier this year in the journal Conservation Biology. "The principle drivers of extinction, we always assumed, were habitat loss and disease. Human harvesting, we thought, was minor. Then we started digging, and we realised there's this massive global trade that no one really knows much about. It's staggering. So as well as destroying where they live, we're now eating them to death..."

Indonesia is today the world's largest exporter of frogs by far, shipping more than 5,000 tonnes each year. Some of these may be farmed, but not many...

In Asia, the number of officially threatened species are:

• Afghanistan - 38
• Bangladesh - 111
• China - 804
• India - 569
• Indonesia - 857
• Japan - 215
• Malaysia - 917
• Nepal - 85
• Pakistan - 86
• Philippines - 417
• Singapore - 100
• Thailand - 250
• Vietnam - 310

Captive breeding programs are showing some success, according to the article. Japan For Sustainability recently reported on Hokkaido's Maruyama Zoo program to breed stellar sea eagles. The zoo is also breeding the great purple emperor, golden-ringed dragonflies, and Japanese crayfish.

Activist documentaries like The End of the Line (reveals the impact of overfishing; the website provides an online action center) and The Cove (exposes the annual slaughter of 23,000 dolphins at Taiji, Japan) are helping to build a counter-movement to save animals.

The struggle over the destruction and saving of animals is being played out on an increasingly globalized stage. I would never have guessed this, but there's a Japan link in the survival of the polar bear.

Three international wildlife organizations, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, Humane Society International, and Defenders of Wildlife are lobbying the United States to help stop the international trade in polar bears––hides, trophies, rugs and other polar bear parts. They want the US to submit a proposal to stop the trade at next year's meeting of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) on 13-25 March, 2010 in Qatar. Defenders of Wildlife has an online action.

A decreasing number of polar bears (now around 20,000 to 25,000) live in the wild live within five countries: Canada, Denmark (Greenland), Norway, Russian Federation, and the United States. Melting sea ice from global warming threatens their habitat. Some scientists say the complete loss of summer sea ice will result in the demise of polar bears before the end of this century.

Because of grassroots pressure, the United States finally listed the polar bear as a threatened species under its Endangered Species Act in 2008. This ended the importation to the United States of of polar bears killed by American trophy hunters responsible for large-scale commercial killing of polar bears. (American trophy hunting is a bizarre subculture and cottage industry; every year wealthy American hunters kill tens of thousands of wild animals, representing hundreds of different species––including endangered animals––in foreign countries).

Now the focus of activists has turned to the international trade in polar bear parts-skin, fur, claws, skulls and even stuffed bears. Most of the 400 polar bear skins come from Canada and go to Japan.

Beyond Japan, Asian (particularly Chinese) demand has dramatically elevated the rate of poaching of wild African animals: rhino horns are used in traditional Chinese medicine and ivory is used for decorative purposes. In July, Kenyan authorities impounded $1 million worth of rhino horns and elephant tusks. And now activists are trying to halt the killing and export of American black bears intended for the Chinese market in gallbladders and paws (again for consumption).

Some may ask what do animals have to do with the culture of peace. The answer lies in the empathy, compassion, and the kinds of interconnections (life-affirmative or life-destructive) we are all continuously co-creating.

- JD

Okinawan Lawsuit challenges new military base at Henoko, seeking protection of Okinawa dugong habitat

A group of Okinawans have brought a lawsuit against the Japanese government—challenging the legality of the planned US military base move from Futenma to an ecologically sensitive coral reef in northeastern Okinawan:

...The complainants claim construction of a new airfield on the lower part of Camp Schwab, with runways reaching into Oura Bay, would endanger the threatened Okinawa dugong, a marine mammal related to the manatee.

It was the first such legal action taken in Japan against the plan to replace the Futenma air station in urban Ginowan with a new facility in rural Henoko. The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in Naha District Court...

However, it was not the first such legal action elsewhere: Okinawan citizens and global environmentalists have been resisting the move since its announcement.

On a page linking to an ongoing online action on behalf of the dugong, the Center for Biological Diversity summarizes federal lawsuits dating back to 2003:

...The Center has used innovative legal tactics to secure new protections for the dugong. In 2003, we led a coalition of Japanese and American environmental groups in suing the U.S. Department of Defense to halt the construction of an American airbase in Henoko Bay. Since the dugong is protected under Japanese cultural properties law, the Center filed the first-ever international lawsuit under the U.S. National Historic Preservation Act to protect its last habitat. In 2004, we helped organize a resolution by 889 of the world’s leading coral-reef experts that called on the Japanese and U.S. governments to abandon their plan to construct the offshore airbase. And we led hundreds of international conservation groups in calling on former President Bush and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to cancel the airbase plan.

In 2005, a federal judge ruled that our lawsuit over the airbase could proceed under the U.S. National Historic Preservation Act. The international coalition reiterated opposition to the airbase and rejected an altered construction proposal by the United States and Japan that would still devastate dugong habitat. Finally, in 2008, a federal judge ruled against the U.S. Department of Defense, requiring it to consider impacts of a new airbase on the dugong in order to avoid or mitigate any harm...

Earthjustice has an entire page of info dedicated to coverage of these lawsuits: "The Dugongs vs. The Department of Defense." Its photo of a 1966 commemorative stamp of the establishment of the dugong as a national monument illustrates the environmental and cultural issues at stake in this struggle.

Hideki Yoshikawa's account of legal activism to protect the dugong, "Dugong Swimming in Uncharted Waters: US Judicial Intervention to Protect Okinawa's 'Natural Monument' and Halt Base Construction," published this year at The Asia-Pacific Journal gives details and insights on the latest.

Bon Voyage to the Hibakusha: "Global Voyage for a Nuclear-Free World" launches Aug. 26, 2009 from Yokohama

Global Voyage for a Nuclear-Free World - Peace Boat Hibakusha Project
Ship Departure on the 26 August, 2009, from Yokohama

Japan-based international NGO Peace Boat launches its second "Global Voyage for a Nuclear-Free World." The ship, SS Oceanic, departs from Yokohama on August 2, with 10 Hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors) of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Over 108 days, participants will visit 20 countries to share the testimonies of the atomic bombings and exchange with citizens around the world. Three high school students join this voyage––to explore ways for the younger generations to take on the legacy of hibakusha. 500 other participants also join the voyage––including university students from Korea and Germany.

This voyage focuses on disarmament education; thus provides a space for hibakusha and young people from around the world to meet and learn from one another. As the ship travels through Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Pacific, the Hibakusha's call for a peaceful and nuclear-free future around the world provides a unique base for disarmament education to foster a new movement passing experiences of the atomic bombings beyond borders and generations.

The ship visits Viet Nam, where people continue to suffer from Agent Orange disorders; Ecuador––which recently adopted a peace constitution––; and Tahiti, where victims of French nuclear tests are now speaking out.

Participants will meet with mayors around the world to encourage participation in the "Mayors for Peace" Initiative, and seek ways to further the current global momentum towards nuclear abolition as stimulated by US President Obama's declared determination to create a nuclear-free world.

Web sites
Itinerary of the 67th Global Voyage http://www.peaceboat.org/english/voyg/67/itinerary.html
Project Outline (Japanese) http://www.peaceboat.org/info/hibakusha/index.html
First Hibakusha Project (September 2008 - January 2009) http://www.peaceboat.org/english/voyg/63/index_spec.html

Peace as a Global Language @ The University of Shimane Sept. 26-27, 2009

The theme of this year's conference will be 'Nurturing Grassroots’. Each year this conference continues to grow and change. We are all very excited to have a new venue for this year’s conference on the Sanin coast. This year the conference will be held at the University of Shimane, in Hamada.

PGL conferences began in 2002, and are now an annual event for students, teachers and activists. Whether this will be your first time or your eighth, you are welcome to join us as presenters, participants or conference volunteers. The following issues are among the many that may interest you at this year's conference:

peace
community
local activism
global issues
the environment
human rights
intercultural communication
values
health
gender
media literacy
foreign language education focusing on global issues

Help nurture grassroots change!
How might we encourage change from the bottom up in our community?
How might we educate and empower youth to become active, responsible and peaceful citizens?
In what other ways might we make this a more peaceful world?

Issey Miyake reveals he is a Hibakusha

In this Japan Times commentary on Issey Miyake's July revelation that he is a hibakusha––public scholar Jeff Kingston says we must raise awareness of the "lessons and legacies" of the atomic bombings to resensitize ourselves to the horrifying possibility of nuclear holocaust that accompanies dependence on nuclear weaponry:

Global fashion icon Issey Miyake recently made headlines by divulging in a New York Times article he penned on July 13 that he is a hibakusha, a survivor of the atomic bombings of Japan...

Miyake had remained quiet all these years, not wanting to be defined by his past or to become known as the "hibakusha designer." But he was inspired to speak out after an April 5 speech by U.S. President Barack Obama in Prague, in which he announced his intention to work toward abolishing nuclear weapons, declaring, " . . . as a nuclear power, as the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon, the United States has a moral responsibility to act..."

Creating Hope From Destruction in Iraq: Errant Home and the Visual Art of Qasim Sabti

Art, music, film, and the written word possess a powerful ability to bring us back to our own humanity. Time and again, we turn back to creative expression to help heal the wounds from the trauma of war.

One recent such work is “Errant Home”, a 2008 documentary by Nada Doumani that portrays interviews with four Iraqi artists in exile. Available online through the“Humanity Explored” film festival at cultureunplugged.com, the documentary interweaves memory with stunning artistic imagery as each of the four attempts to reconcile overwhelming loss with the human desire to keep hope alive.

Several segments of the documentary approach this tension with incredible poignancy. In one scene, artist Balasem Mohamad substitutes dialogue with a seemingly endless intense gaze--thereby conveying emotions that no human words could express. In another, journalist Maysoon Al-Mousawi comments that the pain Iraqis have experienced may in fact eventually be capable of generating a true, authentic happiness that might not have otherwise been possible had the suffering of war not occurred. While she does not elaborate further, her comment leaves viewers to contemplate the transformations that may be able to turn unfathomable suffering into opportuntities for profound growth.

Turning deep loss and pain into hope—destruction into creation—is also the theme and life work of Iraqi artist Qasim Sabti, who visited Japan last November. A painter and collage artist based in Baghdad, Qasim was devastated by the U.S. military destruction of important cultural and artistic facilities such as the University of Baghdad library collection—and decided to take action. Rescuing the books, he gave the salvageable ones new life by turning them into completely new art forms.

“When I saw 5000 books burned all at once, my feeling was beyond description,” he said to several dozen people who gathered at Mt. Takao in western Tokyo to attend an event creatively titled ‘Iraq x Mt. Takao = Peace’. Echoing Maysoon Al-Mousawi, he continued,“Far more powerful than this destruction, however, were the new creations that rose to take their place.”

Organized by the NPO Peace On and the “Kenju no Kai” eco-action group that is trying to save Mt. Takao from slated construction, the event was held “in order to try and understand the meaning behind the destruction of something that you love and has meaning for you, which describes the situation both for Iraq and for Mt. Takao,” explained Peace On Director Yasuyuki “Yatch” Aizawa.

“I kept my gallery in Baghdad open all throughout the war, which forced me to learn to live with the possibility of facing my own death,” Qasim commented during a dinner party on his last evening in Tokyo. Echoing a theme running throughout the “Errant Home” documentary, he added, “Our art was like a hidden world that was occurring in parallel with the war and violence. Because what we were doing was in line with true Iraqi culture, though, whereas the militias have absolutely nothing to do with it, we artists always knew that in the end they would disappear while our works would live on.”

Qasim Sabti with Peace On Director Yatch Aizawa (top) 

and interpreter/peace activist May Shigenobu

--Kimberly Hughes

Creating Hope From Destruction: Hiroshima's "Religion of Peace"

It is almost a question that I dread: “Where exactly have you lived in Japan?”

The eight years in Tokyo and two years in Nikko are unproblematic. “It must be so exciting to live in Tokyo!” or “Nikko—how gorgeous. Cold though!” The pleasantries are nearly automatic; the conversational flow uninterrupted.

With Hiroshima, however, it is different. As I speak its name—even before the word has left my mouth—I can already sense the eyes of whomever I am speaking with dropping downward; the voice quickly tapering off. At once both awkward and yet steeped in unspoken knowing, both of us honor the tacit understanding to take the briefest of seconds and silently acknowledge the heavy burden that this city—indeed, even the mere mention of its name—now represents.

Sometimes, the moment passes and conversation resumes. On other occasions, however, the next logical question ensues. “How was it living as an American in Hiroshima?”

Truth be told, it was an incredibly wonderful experience. The people of Hiroshima were almost uniformly warm, gracious, and openly friendly—even to strangers on the street. When I visited the city a couple of years ago after a ten-year absence, my senses—now firmly accustomed to the frostily cordial interactions that occur between most Tokyoites (if they even occur at all)—were shocked into delightful memories of my previous experience living there, when interacting with others in this way was natural and spontaneous.

At the time, as a 21 year-old delving vivaciously into Japanese language and culture, I was shielded almost entirely from the lingering horrors of history in Hiroshima. Aside from my academic coursework in peace studies and attending several lectures given by hibakusha, I can recall only brief, fleeting instances of this shield being breached on any sort of personal level during my yearlong stay. One was when a close friend of mine—a wonderful woman who hosted me in her home every Friday evening for a shamisen (traditional three-stringed instrument) lesson—once grew serious and confided in me that she herself was a hibakusha, having experienced the atomic bomb at age 2, and still bearing miniscule scars in her forehead from where she had been hit by glass. Another instance was at the August 6th memorial, when an elderly woman came up to me and asked where I was from. After I responded honestly, she looked me up and down for a moment, seemed to ascertain that I was a peaceful person, made a hushed comment about how heinous the experience had been, and went on her way.

Other than these moments, however, the memory of the city’s history lay hidden away; deeply out of my reach. Life goes on, and indeed, Hiroshima is a city that seems overflowing with incredible energy and zest. And needless to say, for someone who has not personally experienced that which was suffered by people in the city in 1945, it is nearly impossible to wrap one’s mind around the enormity of the horror. Although we may gain some idea through visiting the city’s A-bomb museum or witnessing imagery, still it lies outside of the capacity of our consciousness to understand what took place.

This was particularly the case for me as a young university student, who at the time had yet to discover the spiritual consciousness that now informs the way that I look at the world. Perhaps—as someone who now aims to be in tune with subtle energies that lay beyond the boundaries of the straightforward, surface-level speech that I was raised to communicate with—the next time that I visit the city, I may be able to sense feelings and energies that are not directly expressed, but are nevertheless very much present.

Terry Tempest Williams, a brilliantly passionate writer and thinker who is herself a hibakusha who grew up downwind of the nuclear testing site in the American southwest and has lost family members to radiation-related cancers, said the following in “The Politics of Place," an interview by independent journalist Scott London:

“It's that paradoxical response of joy and suffering. One, as we were saying, cannot exist without the other. They mirror each other. They live in the same house. And it moves us to tears. I recently got back from Hiroshima and it was fascinating to me how the Japanese accommodate this paradox. We were talking about this word aware, which on the page looks like ‘aware,’ which speaks to both the pain and the beauty of our lives. Being there, what I perceived was that this is a sorrow that is not a grief that one forgets or recovers from, but it is a burning, searing illumination of love for the delicacy and strength of our relations…Perhaps Hiroshima has given birth to a religion of peace. Aware. The active soul.”

Whether or not this may explain the openness and friendliness that seems to characterize human interactions in Hiroshima, I cannot say for sure. This deeply spiritual interpretation, however, I am sure embodies a powerful element of truth on a level that I am only just beginning to comprehend or even conceptualize.

Posted by Kimberly Hughes

500,000,000 Paper Cranes & Voices of Survivors of Hiroshima & Nagasaki

Children all over the world send ten million origami cranes each year to the Children's Peace Monument at Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park. The monument was created in 1958; if the ten million figure is an annual average, that means that Hiroshima has received over 500,000,000 cranes.

An inscription on the 30-foot monument topped by a statue of Sadako Sasaki (who died of radiation-related leukemia in 1955 at 13) holding a golden crane exclaims: "This is our cry. This is our prayer. For building peace in this world."

Most of the remaining survivors of the atomic bombings are from Sadako's generation and were also children or teenagers in 1945. Voices of Survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki provides recorded testimonies and translations of people who lived through the atomic bombings.

The site includes links to other sites memorializing horrors of the Pacific War––including the Battle of Okinawa; the story of POWs imprisoned in a Japanese military "hell ship;" and other atrocities (the Center of Research and Documentation on Japan's War Responsibility documents many).

-- Jean Downey

Nao Somo Kuokere (The Work is Unfinished): Considering the Ainu lanugage

I did not understand the Ainu words that she spoke, but both the joy and pain that she felt was transmitted to me through the sound of her voice. The pain from hiding her identity for so many years, the joy of sharing her culture, the pain from the discrimination she endured for years, the joy of being able to acknowledge her identity, the pain from facing the possibility that her culture and her language might be lost forever if nothing is done to prevent it. A deep sadness enveloped the room as Akiko painted a picture of her life as an Ainu living in Japanese society at a seminar on “Ainu Culture in School Education” organized by the Foundation for Research and Promotion of Ainu Culture in Tokyo, Japan on January 29th, 2009.

As early as the 15th century, Japanese colonizers started dispossessing the Ainu people of their ancestral homeland in Hokkaido. Received Japanese history would paint the colonization of the Ainu as a heroic and peaceful venture for economic development. This completely overlooks the hardships that the Ainu faced and still struggle with today.

Dressed in traditional Ainu kimono, Akiko portrayed her life growing up in an Ainu household with her Ainu-speaking grandmother. Fearing that Akiko would be discriminated against, her mother would peek into the window of the schoolhouse to make sure everything was alright. Akiko shared with the audience how after years of discrimination in Hokkaido she eventually fled from her native Ainu lands to blend in with Japanese society.

Many Ainu people find themselves as silent refugees within Japan, hiding their identity as an Ainu. Akiko noted that some of her family members also fear exposure as an Ainu. Japanese governmental statistics show that 300,000 people consider themselves Ainu, but if the Ainu in hiding are taken into consideration, perhaps their numbers could be up to one million.

As Akiko spoke of her people’s struggles, she also spoke of a hope that there could be a new day when the Ainu people will once again be able to tell their own story. Mutsumi, who gave a workshop on how to teach Ainu culture at elementary schools on that same day, demonstrated how children who at first declared that they hated Ainu people grew to appreciate the Ainu culture and people through her classes at elementary school. Rather than reinforcing the image of Ainu people as promoted by the government for tourism purposes such as bear carvings, she taught children Ainu songs and dances, and how to stitch and interpret the meaningful patterns found on Ainu clothing.

Groups such as the musicians who call themselves the “Ainu Rebels"  have contributed greatly to the movement to reclaim their Ainu heritage. Their mission statement expresses that they “hope to transform our society into one where Ainu people can be proud to be Ainu…[by] learning traditional dancing and singing...[to] work on producing new ways of expressing our identities and culture.” Infusing traditional music with modern hip hop, the Ainu Rebels have found a way to relate to younger generations while raising awareness of the issues that Ainu people face and rejoicing in their dynamic culture.

Yesterday, I was speaking to an international student studying at Kyoto University. While he was ever careful to acknowledge that he was uncertain of the truth of the statement, he told me that he had read that there are now only 10 people that speak the Ainu language. I often hear such opinions on the status of the Ainu language. Depending on the source, there are anywhere from 5 to 1,000 speakers of Ainu at present, many of whom are impeded from speaking the language on a daily basis. There may even be more as governmental and organizational statistics are not 100% reliable.

What I believe must be taken into consideration more than the official numbers of "speakers of Ainu" are the many institutionalized obstacles that prevent young people who desire to learn Ainu from emerging to acquire and perpetuate the language. For instance, even though there is an abundance of international schools that conduct classes entirely in English throughout Japan, the Hokkaido government is resistant to adopting similar Ainu language programs in its schools. In Japan, Zainichi Koreans face a similar problem as the Japanese government will not accredit schools that do not conduct classes entirely in “standard Japanese”. Exceptions are made however for returnee Japanese students who studied in schools in English-speaking countries. Schools tailored to their needs, teaching in English, are accredited.

Some people who desire to learn the Ainu language have found ways to get around the governmental barriers. According to a February 2009 Expert Meeting on Ainu Policy there has been a significant increase in the numbers of people under 30 years old learning the Ainu language, and more and more people under 35 aspire to become teachers of the Ainu language. Of course, this does not mean that the Ainu language should be forced upon the Ainu people creating a new form of marginalization, but the option to learn the language should be made available. Use of the Ainu language must also be made economically viable.

Aspects of the Hawaiian language revitilization program that is considered to by some to be one of the world’s most successful indigenous language revitalization programs could be taken into consideration. Many comparisons can be drawn between the experiences of Ainu under Japanese colonization and the Hawaiian people under U.S. occupation. Both societies endured great strife that is often unaccounted for in the hero-colonizer account of history that tends to paint a rosy picture of how the land was conveniently “discovered” and transformed into economically viable territories. What is often missing is how colonizers murdered the indigenous population by force and by disease, usurped their autonomy, and installed restrictive governmental systems that deprived them of their land, rights, and language. Upon colonization, the Japanese government prohibited the use of the Ainu language in schools and in governmental business, as did the U.S. in respect to the Hawaiian language. Tove Skuttna-Kangas has termed this forced language shift, “linguistic genocide”:

If people are forced to shift their languages in order to gain economic benefits of the kind which are in fact bare necessities for basic survival, this is a violation of not only their economic human rights, but also their linguistic rights.

The economic and social environments the Hawai’ians and the Ainu faced had devastating impacts on their heritage and language.

In Hawai’i, however, at the landmark 1978 Hawai’i State Constitutional Convention, mandates were passed that provided for the teaching of Hawaiian in public schools and that Hawaiian become the official language of Hawaii along with English. This movement gave birth to language revitalization. Inspired by the Maori language immersion preschools in New Zealand, Kōhanga Reo, the NGO ‘Aha Pūnana Leo, the Language Nest, was born. At the start of the initiative, there were less than 50 children who spoke the Hawaiian language. Now it has grown to over 11 Pūnana Leo schools that serve 2000 students annually, effectively creating a new generation of Hawaiian speakers. In a state where Hawaiian was almost completely eradicated, it is now possible to pursue a PhD completely in the Hawaiian language. I was fortunate to be able to visit this four of the language nests in March 2009.

Another groundbreaking program is the Kūpuna program, where kūpuna or elders visit schools and introduce the children to Hawaiian music, provide an oral history of life in Hawai‘i, and explain aspects of Hawaiian cosmology. The program is a step in the right direction, but the nature in which it is implemented allows for an oppressor’s view of history to dominate, as the elders are not respected by the teachers in the schools as holders of indigenous knowledge. For example, the most widely used textbook is the ill-informed, non-Hawaiian written textbook, The Hawaiians of Old. Hawaiians are depicted as brutal savages, thus providing an excuse for colonizers to dominate over the Hawaiian people in order to save them:

The Hawaiian had many wars… They fought often with each other. The chiefs seemed to enjoy fighting… But these wars were… hard on the maka‘āinana who had not even started the war… Wars were awful for most of the Hawaiians.

Even though the elders are meant to portray the real version of their history, Hawaiians and non-Hawaiian students end up echoing the ideas instilled in them from the textbooks and biased non-Hawaiian teachers. As public school teacher Julie Kaomea explains, “such disrespectful use (and misuse) of Native Hawaiian elders and cultural experts serves to reinforce the unequal power dynamic between Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians, and undermines our Native right to assume authority over our Native culture.” As long as these programs are not run by Hawaiians, they will never serve the Hawaiian people’s interests.

The Japanese government portrays Ainu as a “dying race” which furthers their subordination as an inferior people. Ms. Kyono explained that one of the most shocking questions she had ever been asked was ironically during the Indigenous People’s Summit held in Ainu Mosir in July 2008, just prior to the G8 Summit in Hokkaido. One audience member asked, “Are there really any Ainu left?” That clearly demonstrates how Japanese people are still led to believe that the Ainu are gone despite the fact that they do live on.

Scholars, governmental officials, and linguists often blame the Ainu for not passing on their language to future generations. This neglects socio-historical hurdles that colonization has erected which prevent this transmission. Darrell Kipp of the Pigean Institute of the Blackfoot Nation, elaborates that it is not ignorance that caused indigenous people not to pass on their languages, but an act of love so their children could lead “normal” lives.

Finally, the key to the success of both the Ainu and Maori revitalization programs was allowing indigenous people to create programs on their own terms. At present, economic circumstances and racial discrimination prevent Ainu from embracing their language and culture. In fact, it was only just last year in July 2008 that the Japanese government even recognized the Ainu as indigenous, despite signing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) in September 2007. In the spirit of UNDRIP, the Japanese government must step back, and allow Ainu to lead their own programs, as they see fit. Impediments to teaching the Ainu language should be eliminated so that those who wish to learn the language can do so.

Within UNDRIP there are two important articles that provide that Indigenous Peoples have the right to self-determination and thus the right to control the teaching of their language and culture:

Article 13, Paragraph 1: Indigenous peoples have the right to revitalize, use, develop and transmit for future generations their histories, languages, oral traditions, philosophies, writing systems and literatures, and to designate and retain their own names for communities, places and persons.

Article 14, Paragraph 1: Indigenous peoples have the right to establish and control their educational systems and institutions providing education in their own languages, in a manner appropriate to their cultural methods of teaching and learning.

It is about time for the Japanese government to recognize the thriving Ainu people by allowing them to fully assert independence over their education as Japan promised with the signing of UNDRIP. In the spirit of the Ainu adage, Nao Somo Kuokere- “the work is unfinished,” but can be done.

Recommended reading:

lewallen, ann-elise (2008) "Indigenous at last! Ainu grassroots organizing and the indigenous peoples summit in Ainu Mosir," The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 48-6-08.

MORRIS-SUZUKI, T. (1999). "The Ainu: beyond the politics of coexistence," Cultural Survival Quarterly, Winter: 19-23.

SIDDLE, R. (1996). Race, resistance, and the Ainu of Japan. Sheffield Centre for Japanese Studies/Routledge series. London, Routledge.

SIDDLE, R. (2002). "An epoch-making event? The 1997 Ainu Cultural Promotion Act and its impact," Japan Forum. 14, 405-424.

WILSON, A. C. (2004). "Reclaiming our humanity: decolonization and the recovery of indigenous knowledge," in D. A. Mihesuah and A. C. Wilson (Eds.) Indigenizing the Academy: Transforming Scholarship and Empowering Communities, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

- Jen Teeter