Reading notes on Itō Shōzō's "Hokkaido Kyūdojin Hogo-ron"

Throughout page 460, Itō is arguing that although the Ainu are, in his view, indeed losing the battle over the "survival of the fittest" and "sacred natural selection," reinforcing a view of an essential (and explicitly racialized) inferiority. However, he attacks the violent logic (bōri) of some streams of social Darwinism that totally disassociate the "despotism, tyranny, and military violence", the "theft, robbery and dangerous weapons", as well as sexual violence of the Matsumae period from (in his view) the decline (suitai) of "the Ainu race". Itō is careful not to draw the Meiji colonization of Hokkaido into this attack. Insofar as that, the often quite literally moribund condition of mid-Meiji Ainu communities faced with starvation or deep poverty is tacitly assumed to be natural selection (shizen tōta) at work. The larger Japanese colonization of Hokkaido is never questioned. Earlier on pages 457, 458, Itō quotes a large section of the famous Seneca leader Red Jacket address to the US senate (quoted in full):

Brother, listen to what we say. There was a time when our forefathers owned this great island. Their seats extended from the rising to the setting sun. The Great Spirit had made it for the use of Indians. He had created the buffalo, the deer, and other animals for food. He made the bear and the beaver, and their skins served us for clothing. He had scattered them over the country, and taught us how to take them. He had caused the earth to produce corn for bread. All this he had done for his red children because he loved them. If we had any disputes about hunting grounds, they were generally settled without the shedding of much blood. But an evil day came upon us; your forefathers crossed the great waters, and landed on this island. Their numbers were small; they found friends, and not enemies; they told us they had fled from their own country for fear of wicked men, and come here to enjoy their religion. They asked for a small seat; we took pity on them, granted their request, and they sat down amongst us; we gave them corn and meat; they gave us poison in return. The white people had now found our country; tidings were carried back, and more came amongst us; yet we did not fear them, we took them to be friends; they called us brothers; we believed them, and gave them a larger seat. At length, their numbers had greatly increased; they wanted more land; they wanted our country. Our eyes were opened, and our minds became uneasy. Wars took place; Indians were hired to fight against Indians, and many of our people were destroyed. They also brought strong liquor among us; it was strong and powerful, and has slain thousands. 

Brother, our seats were once large, and yours were very small; you have now become a great people, and we have scarcely a place left to spread our blankets; you have got our country, but are not satisfied; you want to force your religion upon us.  

The critical edge to this address is neutralized, and Itō emphasizes the final paragraph (with the reference to religion removed): "we have scarcely a place left to spread our blankets" (yohai ... futon ichimai hiroku to shiku chi mo motanu mitonarinu). In an almost celebratory tone, Itō proclaims that the Ainu similarly have been made landless as the Japanese transform Hokkaido into an agrarian settler colony. 

The reference to Native Americans is striking, and is one of many. For example, on page 455, Itō -- clearly reflecting the global project of Japanese settler colonialism as well as the progressivist discourse that liberal settler colonialism is steeped in -- makes reference to the development of liberalized Indian policy in the Spanish Empire and the advent of Indian agents in the United States, or residential schools (dojin kyōiku gakkō) in the British Empire. In a strictly progressivist framework, Itō sees the closing of the 19th century and dawn of the 20th as closely reflecting the shift away from merely "murdering natives with hunting dogs" (ryōken wo katsute dojin wo senmestu) to coercive, assimilatory, often violent, and ultimately genocidal indigenous educational policy.

Reading notes on Nitobe Inazo and Kawano Tsuneyoshi

My first day of serious research this summer has basically confirmed what I assumed already: that Hokkaido was colonized directly on models of American settler colonialism. This was confirmed by a somewhat astonishing pamphlet written by the famous Japanese intellectual (and colonial administrator) Nitobe Inazo, "The Imperial Agricultural College of Sapporo, Japan". This pamphlet givens a general overview of the history of the school (today Hokkaido Daigaku), however, Nitobe also gives a frank and straightforward history of the rationale (both practical and ideological) behind the creation of the college as it relates to the larger colonization project. This is tied to Kuroda Kiyotaka (the Hokkaido Colonization Office director)'s 1870 fact finding mission to the United States:

In General Kuroda's mind there was one source whence he could expect wisdom and knowledge pertaining to new settlements; and that was America. Thisther, therefore, he himself proceeded in the fall of 1870. He studied the rapid and wonderful progress of colonization in that country, and thought that the modus operandi at work there might well produce similar results in Japan.

While this clearly confirms my hypothesis about Japanese settler colonial practices, Nitobe writes extensively about the ideological framework on which the colony was based. Arguing that the "simple adoption of American methods without trained hands to rightly direct them, would merely amount to an apish trick," Nitobe describes a wave of American experts brought to the Imperial Agricultural College to teach Japanese students (who would largely go on to be colonial bureaucrats, including the author). Experts such as Clark taught not simply agricultural methods, but imparted on his students the "manly spirit" of the United States to transform Japanese students into "exemplary pioneers". Interestingly, while it becomes clear that the colonization of Hokkaido is both technologically as well as ideologically grounded on the "advanced civilization" of the United States, Nitobe also stresses the school "promote[d] conceptions of [the students'] relations to the state and to society." Given studies of early Meiji education and barracks life as being tied to the formation of modern national subjects, the Western education and paramilitary training that students in Hokkaido received from American teachers is striking. This may prove interesting later on looking at Ainu educational (assimilative) institutions.

Secondly, the past few days I've started to go through some of the source books I brought back from Hokkaido. The first of these is Kawano Tsuneyoshi's 1894 edited volume Ainu Shiryōshū Series 2 Volume 7 アイヌ資料集第七巻 〈第二期. This is split into three smaller volumes:

1. アイヌ聞取書 (Ainu Oral Testimony)
2. 『啓明会』往復書翰 (“Seimeikai” Return Ticket Notes)
3. アイヌ関係新聞記事 (Newspaper Articles Related to the Ainu)

The first of these that I've looked into is the book of newspaper articles. While these articles focus exclusively on articles between 1900 and 1927 (and therefore not entirely useful for talking about the ideological formation of Hokkaido), it's tightly packed with articles on the plight of the "wretched Former Aborigines" (referring to the Ainu) following the "Former Aborigine Protection Act" in 1899, including some criticism of the act itself. I found newspaper articles like this in Hokkaido as well, which showed an awareness of some (presumably) ethnic Japanese journalists in Hokkaido of the hypocrisy of regimes of "protection" for those subject to them. Also interesting in this volume is a shift to anthropological views of the Ainu in the early 20th century, including an article striking in it's paternalistic arrogance titled "We Must Protect (hogo) the Ainu as Witnesses to Ancient Times". It's becoming obvious that the legal and discursive aspects of protectionism will become central to my research, and these sorts of articles will be extremely useful.