May 14, 2018
To:
Mr. Yoshihiro Hayashi, Director, National Museum of Nature and Science
Professor Shinji Shimada, President, University of Yamanashi
From:
Yuji Shimizu (Co-Chair, Hokkaido University Declassified Document Research Group)
Yoshihiko Tonohira (Co-Chair, Hokkaido University Declassified Document Research Group)
Ryukichi Ogawa (Plaintiff in the court case for the return of Ainu remains)
Hiromichi Kamiya (Kotan Association)
Kimura Fumio (Member, Biratori Ainu Association)
Yoshio Yamazaki (Deputy Chair, Kotan Association)
Tsugio Kuzuno (Deputy Chair, Kotan Association)
Tsutomu Takatsuki (Administrative Director, Kotan Association)
Satoshi Hatakeyama (Chair, Monbetsu Ainu Association)
Questionnaire
From the Meiji era to the postwar period, researchers at universities such as the University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, Hokkaido University, and other universities excavated Ainu cemeteries and took away human remains and grave goods. We are a group of people calling for the return of these expropriated Ainu human remains and grave goods to the Kotan [Ainu villages] in the localities where the remains were excavated, and calling for the institutions concerned to take responsibility and apologise for their actions.
The removal of these remains by anthropologists for their research was a product of colonialist discrimination and repression against the Ainu people. It robbed the indigenous Ainu people of the freedom to commemorate their ancestors according to their own religious practices, and deprived them of their right of self-determination right as indigenous people.
As is well known, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), adopted in 2007, calls for the return of the expropriated remains to the indigenous peoples, and in 2008 the Japanese Diet [parliament] passed a “Law Calling for the Recognition of Ainu as Indigenous People”. From 2016, the return of the expropriated remains to local Kotan cemeteries has been proceeding on the basis of judicial rulings by the courts.
From 2010 onwards, Professor Kenichi Shinoda, Deputy Director of the National Museum of Nature and Science, and Professor Noboru Adachi of the University of Yamanashi’s School of Medicine have been using 115 Ainu human remains, held at Sapporo Medical University, to conduct mitochondrial DNA research without the consent of the Ainu from the Kotan where the skeletal remains were excavated. They then published the results of this research as an academic journal article. (see https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ajpa.23338)
On May 16, 2017, we submitted a questionnaire to Sapporo Medical University to confirm these facts, and on the basis of the response received from the University, we submitted a request that Sapporo Medical University should return these remains to their original Ainu communities.
On January 26, 2018, the Kotan Association and the Urahoro Ainu Association filed a civil suit in the Sapporo District Court seeking the return of the Ainu human remains removed from the Kotan cemetery in these areas. The defendants in the case are the Governor of Hokkaido and Sapporo Medical University.
Although the court hearings are in progress, in the light of the facts that have become apparent, we feel impelled to address the problem of the manner in which Profs. Shinoda and Adachi collected the DNA samples and conducted their research activities. We hereby submit the following questions to the National Museum of Nature and Science Museum and the University of Yamanashi. We respectfully request you, as officials of the two institutions concerned, to review the situation as soon as possible, and we thank you in advance for your prompt and sincere response.
1. From 2010 onward, Kenichi Shinoda, Noboru Adachi et al. conducted research on mitochondrial DNA extracted from the remains of 115 Ainu individuals stored at Sapporo Medical University.
The excavation sites of the human skeletal remains used as research materials are: Urakawa Town, Date City, Tomari Village, Suttsu Town, Shari Town, Biratori Town, Abuta Town, Rebun Town, Oshamambe Town, Muroran City, Nayoro City, Yakumo Town, Akan Town, Chitose City, Mombetsu City, Niikappu Town, Tomakomai City, Kamoenai Village, Shimamaki Village, Kitakiyama Town, Wakkanai City, Kyowa Town and Tokoro Town. It is the general practice for the bodies of deceased Ainu to be buried in the Kotan's cemetery in accordance with traditional Ainu funeral practices. Needless to say, the ownership of the remains buried and cared for by the Ainu living in the Kotan rests with the members of the Kotan community. It is thought that the remains of 115 bodies used in the research were excavated for various reasons, but regardless of the reason, it is clear that ownership of the remains is retained by the Ainu who are members of the relevant Kotan and their descendants.
From this perspective, Shinoda and Adachi should have sought the consent of Ainu who are members of the relevant Kotan before researching DNA from the 115 Ainu human remains, but both researchers performed DNA analysis on these remains without obtaining such consent. Does this not contravene your research institutions’ research ethics regulations?
It may be the case that both researchers have obtained consent from the Ainu Association of Hokkaido before the start of their research, but the Ainu Association of Hokkaido is a voluntary grouping of Ainu and entirely distinct from the members of the Kotan where the human remains were excavated.
The Ainu Association of Hokkaido had no authority to approve research on the human remains of the Ainu taken from the Kotan. Therefore, this means that you did not obtain the consent of the Ainu of the Kotan where the remains were excavated. It is surely the responsibility of the research institution to which the researcher belongs to investigate and take responsibility for the improper research use of the human remains.
2. Among the 115 Ainu human remains that Shinoda and Adachi used for research, the skeletons of 35 people are remains that were excavated from the Ainu cemetery of Toei in Urakawa-cho Urakawa-gun.
On January 26, 2018, the Kotan Association (Representative - Yuji Shimizu), composed of Ainu originating from or living in Hidaka, brought a court case against the Governor of Hokkaido, Takahashi Harumi, and Sapporo Medical University, President Tsukamoto Yasushi. This court case, seeking the return of the remains of 35 bodies excavated from the Toei Cemetery, is being heard in the Sapporo District Court. The Kotan Association is the Ainu group that was approved by the Sapporo District Court as the appropriate representative of those seeking the return of the remains. The trial is underway at the moment, but very unfortunately, it appears that the remains of 35 bodies have been damaged due to DNA sample collection during Shinoda and Adachi's research process. For Ainu, damaging the ancestral remains is seen as an insult to the ancestors. Such damage is therefore it is a major problem in terms of research ethics, in that it ignores the dignity of human life. In what way will the researchers and both institutions express their responsibility for the damage done to the Ainu remains?
3. The excavation of the Toei site in Urakawa Town was completed from May to June 1962. This excavation was carried out by the Urakawa Town Board of Education, on the initiative of professors at Sapporo Medical College and a teacher at Shizunai High School. Pottery and stone tools, as well as 34 human remains that are regarded as Ainu and some grave goods, were excavated.
At the time of excavation, the excavation results were reported to the Cultural Heritage Protection Committee. The excavated items were officially recognized as buried cultural property. The excavated pottery and stone tools were placed under the control of the Hokkaido Board of Education, Urakawa Town, while the human remains were retained by Sapporo Medical University.
A report entitled “The Urakawa Archaeological Site” (issued by the Urakawa Town Board of Education in March 1969), describes the Toei site where excavation was carried out (labelled “Toei no. 1”) as follows: “This site was used as a cemetery by the Ainu inhabitants. A collaborative excavation with Sapporo Medical University was conducted here in April 1962. This site was an Ainu cemetery from the Meiji era onwards... However, between 1941 and 1945 the site was taken over by the Imperial Army for use as an exercise ground, and in order to build trenches, most of the remains in the graveyard were destroyed, and only a few graves remain.”
From this report, it can be seen that the remains of Ainu in this cemetery were buried from the Meiji era onward. However, in Shinoda’s and Adachi’s research, the 35 remains from the Toei site are stated to be from Edo era [1603-1868]. We asked Sapporo Medical University, which holds the remains, whether there is any document which provides a reason for identifying the human bones excavated as belonging to the Ainu Period (or Ainu Cultural Period) [i.e. before 1868]. However, the response from Sapporo Medical College stated that that "no such document exists." There are no records indicating that the 35 Ainu human bones excavated from the Toei site belong to the Ainu Culture Period. If the remains excavated from the Toei Ainu cemetery are skeletons from the modern era, surely this undermines the presuppositions of Shinoda’s and Adachi’s research, which defines these remains as dating from the Ainu Cultural Period: a time when little genetic intermixing with majority Japanese had occurred.
4. At the time of the excavation, pottery, stone tools etc. were excavated along with the Ainu human bones from Toei site. According to the excavation report, the pottery and stone tools were described as dating back to the early Jomon period.
On June 25, 1962, the Urakawa Police Chief submitted the following list of items to the Cultural Heritage Conservation Committee for designation as a buried cultural property.
Name of item:
Jomon period early period pottery large quantity (3 crates)
Stone tools from same period small quantity
Ainu human remains 34 bodies
Ainu burial goods small quantity
On December 4 [of the same year], the above items were officially designated as “buried cultural property” by the Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property. These excavated items are currently held by the Hokkaido Board of Education.
We can infer that the Ainu human remains were designated as buried cultural properties together with the pottery and stone tools because they were excavated together. However, if the pottery and stone tools are from the early Jomon era [c. 14,500 to 300 BCE] and the Ainu remains are from a cemetery dating to the Meiji era and later, then it is clear that the two merely happened coincidentally to be excavated from the same area, and that no historical relationship exists between them. Therefore, the designation of the human remains as buried cultural property by the Cultural Property Protection Committee at that time itself seems itself to be based on a false premise.
Thus Shinoda and Adachi, in asserting an Edo Era provenance for Ainu human remains which are in fact modern and should not even be designable as cultural property, have conducted DNA research based on a spurious premise. Does this not mean that the basis of their research article is flawed, and that the article should be withdrawn?
We would appreciate your responses to our questions above.
Please reply by July 31 to the following address.
Tadao Miura,
Hokkaido University Declassified Document Research Group Office Secretariat,
c/o Ainu People’s Information Center
3-39-8 Miyano-cho Rumoi 077-0032
Phone.Fax 0164-43-0128
THE REPLIES from University of Yamanashi & National Museum of Nature and Science. July 30, 2018
