Ainu struggle to find solution for hundreds of unidentified skeletons August 31, 2013 The Asahi Shinbun SAPPORO--Wearing robes displaying intricate designs, an indigenous Ainu group offered flowers and prayers for the souls of more than 1,000 ancestors during a memorial ritual called Icarpa. “We want to inherit our ancestors’ thoughts without forgetting the history of hardships and humiliation the Ainu people have suffered,” Tadashi Kato, executive director of the Ainu Association of Hokkaido, said in his speech at the Icarpa on Aug. 2. The Ainu say the humiliation continues to this day concerning those same ancestors. Their skeletons had been dug up from graves for research purposes and were handled in a slipshod manner. Papers were lost, bones were mixed up, and now only 23 of the 1,635 Ainu skeletons kept at nine universities can be identified. With the universities finding it impossible to return the bones to the rightful descendants, the central government plans to store all unidentified skeletons in one facility. However, the Ainu are divided on this plan. During the Meiji Era (1868-1912), Japanese began to exploit Hokkaido, then an undeveloped region. Anthropological researchers of state-run universities and other organizations went to study the Ainu in Hokkaido and other northern regions, such as Sakhalin and the Chishima (Kuril) Islands. Ainu graves were dug up and skeletons were collected for research on their frames and other features. Some Ainu said the researchers did not receive permission to dig at some of the gravesites and simply stole the remains. Hokkaido University’s School of Medicine in Sapporo, where the Aug. 2 memorial took place, stores 1,027 skeletons. The charnel house in the university was built in 1984, and the Icarpa rituals have been held there 30 times, including the Aug. 2 event. During the studies, skulls were separated and researchers lost track of which set of bones they belonged to. Records written at the time of digging were misplaced or destroyed. In the 1980s, the university ended its research on the skeletons. The president of the university took part in this year’s Icarpa for the first time “to show the university’s stance” on the issue, according to officials of the university’s General Affairs and Planning Department. “From now on, we will make as much effort as possible to manage the skeletons in an appropriate manner,” President Keizo Yamaguchi said. Only 19 of the 1,027 Ainu skeletons at the university have been identified. Kato of the Ainu association said he wants to hold similar memorial services for Ainu people whose skeletons are stored at eight other universities. “We have a big responsibility,” he said. According to an education ministry report presented to the Council for Ainu Policy Promotion in June this year, the skeletons of 1,027 people are stored in Hokkaido University; 251 are kept at the Sapporo Medical University; 198 at the University of Tokyo; 94 at Kyoto University; 39 at Osaka University; 20 at Tohoku University; four at Kanazawa Medical University; and one each at Osaka City University and Nanzan University. At least 202 skeletons were of children. Niigata University and Tenri University also store skeleton parts. But so far, only 19 skeletons at Hokkaido University and four at Sapporo Medical University have been identified. In September 2012, Ainu descendants filed a lawsuit with the Sapporo District Court, demanding that Hokkaido University return the skeletons. “Our thoughts for our ancestors are the same as those of ‘wajin’ (Japanese people) for their ancestors,” said one of the descendants. “We now exist because our ancestors existed. We cannot describe in words our gratitude to our ancestors.” The government in 2009 set up the Comprehensive Ainu Policy Office within the Cabinet Secretariat. It also established the Council for Ainu Policy Promotion, which consists mainly of leaders of Ainu organizations and experts, and is headed by the chief Cabinet secretary. The council is currently considering measures to support the lives of Ainu people and deal with skeletons kept by the universities, while the ministry is working out guidelines on how to return the bones to the descendants. However, stances on the issue and the circumstances surrounding the skeletons vary greatly from university to university. One idea floated by the government in July 2012 fell under the basic concept of: “Space that serves as a symbol of coexistence of ethnic groups.” The plan is to build a “national center” at the edge of Porotoko lake in Shiraoi, Hokkaido, to convey the history and culture of the Ainu ethnic group. The area would be home to such facilities as a museum, traditional Ainu houses, workshops and buildings for studies and cultural exchanges, so that people can learn Ainu people’s views of nature and the world. All unidentified skeletons would be gathered in the national center, where the descendants can pay their respects to and mourn their ancestors. Some Ainu people support the concept, saying the unidentified skeletons should be gathered in one place as soon as possible so that Ainu people can hold a unified memorial service. However, others oppose, saying the measure would give the universities an excuse not to make sufficient efforts to identify the skeletons. By KENJI IZUMI/ Staff Writer
Posted on: Sun, 22 Sep 2013 13:18:51 +0000
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