Medium Post #1 (Week 2)

Put yourself in the shoes of an Ainu person who lived through the extension of the boundaries of the old Tokugawa regime to include your ancestral homelands. How might your life change on an everyday level? How might you respond, either individually or collectively to this imposition of colonial rule over you?

Life would have changed quite a bit with the change from the Former Natives Protection Law to The Ainu Cultural Promotion Law. Originally the Former Natives Protection Law limited the ability of the Ainu people to promote and support their own traditions and culture. However with the introduction of The Ainu Cultural Promotion Law, the Ainu people gained more of an ability to actually support and promote their culture and themselves. Support for the Ainu culture and economy rose in Japan with the new law.

At first it would have seemed nice to receive the Former Natives Protection Law. At a glance it provided all these seemingly nice things like medical assistance and education for seemingly nothing. However, after the enactment, it quickly would have set in that I lost more than I had gained. Little by little I would have to watch as my life changed day by day, having to follow new laws that I was forced to abide by. For a country that was established on traditions and culture, it would have been a shocking blow to see the beginning of westernization. I would have been very upset for Japan taking land that myself and ancestors had lived on for years.

I myself would have likely gone along with it hoping for something to change in favor of myself and the Ainu people. I would continue to practice my culture as safely at home as I could. I would likely have fought a passive battle against the occupation by secretly putting up posters or spreading false rumors amongst the people. I would attempt to create chaos to have them either revert the law/their occupation or introduce some other law that protected me and my culture.