‘Why did our ancestors have to leave home?’ Revisionist and decolonial histories of the 1875–1876 forced relocation of Karafuto Ainu and the struggle for human dignity and rights

Under the Treaty of St. Petersburg in 1875–1876, 841 Ainu were forcibly removed from their homes in KarafutoFootnote1 and relocated to Tsuishikari in Hokkaidō. This article centres Ainu experiences of relocation when narrating the so-called ‘Northern Territories’ dispute between imperial Japan and Russia. It offers a decolonial historiography, including unpublished family histories from Karafuto Ainu descendants, to counteract the prevailing historiography's over-reliance on colonial sources, which minimise the forced relocation and its consequences for descendants. One such consequence is the contested repatriation of ancestral remains. Karafuto Ainu descendants demand their return, while Japanese public institutions resist the descendants’ authority to make the demand. This conflict exemplifies the broader colonial legacy of institutions, ranging from universities and museums to the legislature, disregarding Karafuto Ainu rights. Responding to this erasure, the article amplifies Karafuto Ainu leadership and challenges historical revisionism to support their claims to dignity, Indigenous rights and cultural resurgence in the context of settler-colonial violence.