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Harukor: An Ainu Woman's Tale. By HONDA KATSUICHI. Translated by KYOKO SELDEN. With a foreword by DAVID L. HOWELL. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. xxxv, 350 pp. $50.00 (cloth); $19.95 (paper).
Best known for his courageous reporting on the Vietnam War, the journalist Honda Katsuichi's trenchant and eloquent essays have illuminated the dark corners of modern Japanese history and society. One such blind spot has been the conquest and exploitation of Hokkaido and its indigenous populations, especially the Ainu. Having fulminated against the past atrocities and present injustices against the Ainu, Honda seeks in Harukor to reconstruct an Ainu woman's life before the Japanese conquest.
The introductory section provides a thumbnail sketch of Ainu history and a brief overview of Hokkaido's ecology and Ainu culture. The bulk of the book presents a first-person narrative by Harukor, an Ainu woman living in eastern Hokkaido several centuries ago. Harukor is...