HOKKAIDO, May 03 (News On Japan) - During the Pacific War, members of the Ainu community, Japan's Indigenous people, were drafted and sent to the front lines alongside ethnic Japanese under the government's assimilation policy.
While enduring discrimination both at home and on the battlefield, some Ainu soldiers held on to a hope for equality through their service. The stories of those who were swept up by the nation’s policies reveal the hardships and complex emotions they experienced during the war.
In the town of Nibutani in Hokkaido’s Hidaka region, where Ainu traditions remain strong, 65-year-old Kiyotaka Hamada shared the story of his father, Hiroshi, who served as an Ainu soldier during the war. Hiroshi, the eldest son in a farming family, worked on a ranch while studying hard. Yet, he was constantly subjected to discrimination simply for being Ainu.
Hamada recalled how his father once received a perfect score in school but was told by a teacher, "There's no way an Ainu like you could score 100." On another occasion, when Hamada was in fifth grade, his father woke him late at night and asked him to shave his body hair—something Hamada believed stemmed from internalized shame about being visibly Ainu.
In 1941, when the Pacific War began, Hiroshi, then 20, was deployed to Manchuria. There too, he faced deep prejudice. "An officer once said, 'I hear there's an Ainu in our unit. Come out, Ainu! Do you eat raw meat?' It was public humiliation—bullying, really," said Hamada.
However, among Hiroshi’s belongings was a self-made record of his military service, which reveals that despite the hardship, he found a stronger sense of camaraderie within the military than in daily civilian life. Skilled with horses, he earned the respect of his superiors and rose from private to sergeant.
"Of course, he believed war should never happen," said Hamada, "But being in the unit, training together, he said he actually made some good memories—though maybe he shouldn't have said that."
Mark Winchester, an assistant professor at the National Museum of Ethnology and expert in modern Ainu thought, noted that many Ainu may have seen conscription as a way to gain equal standing in Japanese society, having long suffered marginalization due to the colonization of Hokkaido. Yet this hope often collided with a grim reality, as some were treated as curiosities or placed at the front lines due to their hunting skills—an unequal burden masked by a superficial promise of equality.
During the war, the government shifted from trying to assimilate the Ainu under the old Protection Act to using their service as propaganda, hailing them as heroes for morale purposes.
In Biratori, Hokkaido, 76-year-old Fumio Kimura, an Ainu community leader involved in campaigns to return war remains, shared the story of his father, Kazuo, who served in a unit based in Asahikawa. He said his father rarely spoke of war or discrimination, though he was known for his exceptional physical abilities. Whether this silence reflected a lack of discrimination or a decision to shield his children from painful memories remains unknown.
Still, Kimura believes that passing on the story of Ainu history, including their role in war, is essential. "I bark louder than the Ezo wolf," he said. "We must all learn, especially the younger generation. The government must help us look back at the past—not just for the Ainu, but for all of Japan and our children."
Today, there are no precise records of how many Ainu were conscripted or died in the war due to assimilation policies and inadequate documentation. Much of their wartime experience remains absent from history textbooks, raising the urgent question of how to preserve and pass down these overlooked narratives.
Both Hamada and Kimura emphasized the importance of learning from history to create a future free of discrimination.
Source: HBCニュース 北海道放送
