Chapter 8

A Mountain of Bones

Chapter Eight continues to discuss the evolution of the tourist industry based on Ainu culture in Hokkaido  in the postwar period by focusing on two Ainu leaders involved in tourism: Yamamoto Tasuke and Toyoji Teshi. Both men participated in the Asia-Pacific War: Yamamoto was a military civilian (gunzoku) in Micronesia and Toyoji fought in Manchuria and Okinawa. Their wartime experiences further solidified their identification as Ainu during the postwar period and their involvement in the tourist industry was predicated on advocating for the recognition and value of Ainu culture as being distinct from a Japanese culture. There are no additional images connected to Chapter Eight (there are three published in the book) to be pictured here. My requests to National Geographic magazine and Japan Tourist Board (among other publishers as well) to publish images of the Ainu tourist industry in the postwar period taken by these organizations were not granted. Chapter Eight brings the story of the ambiguous place of some colonial peoples like the Ainu full circle- what happens when the empire collapses but the colonial people remain? 

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