Article: “Japan’s forgotten indigenous people”

http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20200519-japans-forgotten-indigenous-people

The article give an account of the mistreatment of the Ainu people of northern Japan.

In this RLE the “ourselves” in November 2020 TOK Essay Prescribed Title #3 could be viewed as the perspective of the dominant non-Ainu Japanese population who were responsible for the poor treatment of the Ainu people. There was little thought or respect given to the Ainu.

The BBC article shows how the results of this attitude towards the Ainu:

“Forced into agriculture, [the Ainu] were no longer able to fish for salmon in their rivers and hunt deer on their land, Yoshida said. They were required to adopt Japanese names, speak the Japanese language and were slowly stripped of their culture and traditions, including their beloved bear ceremony. Due to the wide stigmatisation, many Ainu hid their ancestry. And the long-term effects are clear to see today, with much of the Ainu population remaining poor and politically disenfranchised, with much of their ancestral knowledge lost.” http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20200519-japans-forgotten-indigenous-people