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Indigenous Ainu Teruyo Usa (R) attends a traditional ritual ceremony to mark the eighth anniversary of the opening of her Ainu restaurant in Tokyo in June. Image: REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
lifestyle

Japan builds 'Ethnic Harmony' tribute to indigenous Ainu

10 Comments
By Tim Kelly

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© Thomson Reuters 2019.

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10 Comments
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I believe this when Japanese government teaches Ainu language to Ainu children.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Give the people back their lands, or offer reparations at the very least.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

They can't offer an apology for taking their land and all but annihilating their culture because it would be uncomfortable?

That just shows that there is no "Ethnic Harmony", therefore, this little project is meaningless.

8 ( +9 / -1 )

A compelling theory is that the Ainu were the first humans to reach North America, following the kelp forests by boat across the Aleutians.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I hope the Ainu people, and all other people for that matter, don't fall for this. It's posturing for votes or money or compliance or whatever else the Japanese government does for anyone. It's not done in the interests of the Ainu people that's for sure

3 ( +3 / -0 )

What a thoroughly depressing article.

Giving back forest where Ainu once hunted and foraged, he said, would "be hard for the Japanese people to accept."

Why? How does he know, did he ask them all?

And he added that an apology would be uncomfortable for many Japanese

Because the important thing isn't honestly dealing with the Ainu's requests, it's avoiding making Japanese people feel uncomfortable.

"It would focus people's attention on the bad things that happened and not the future," he said.

So let's just ignore the uncomfortable past and pretend it never happened. Now, where have I heard that before?

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Scholars say the Ainu settled in Japan's northernmost island and across Sakhalin, Russia, by the 1300s.

Who are these people? What are they talking about? What year is 1300? Do they even know the story? Or do they even have Wikipedia not working? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C5%8Dmon_period

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Harmony is a euphemism for something far more sinister.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

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