Hokkaido was long the domain of the aboriginal Ainu peoples. Serious Japanese settlement of the island began in 1869, when the territory, which was then called
INTRODUCTION. Today Hokkaido is one of Japan's four main islands. It was called Ezochi until 1869, when it officially became Japanese territory and was renamed Hokkaido. Ezochi means the land of “the Ezo”, or “the barbarian”, which referred to the indigenous people, now called the Ainu.
Hokkaido is the northernmost of Japan's four main islands and the largest of the country's 47 prefectures. Harumi Takahashi, Hokkaido's governor, states, “Hokkaido and the Russian Far East are geographical neighbors sharing a similar climate and natural environment.
Early history
About 2,000 years ago, the island was colonized by Yayoi people, and much of the island's population shifted away from hunting and gathering towards agriculture.
Background behind the birth of Hokkaido
The place where Hokkaido lies now used to be a boundless expanse of sea 200 million years ago. Approximately 140 million years ago, the North American plate in the east and the Eurasian plate in the west started moving towards each other, and an island was created on each plate.
The Ainu are an indigenous people from the northern region of the Japanese archipelago, particularly Hokkaido.
Since 1945 all islands northeast of Hokkaido have been administered by Russia.
The Matsumae clan (松前氏, Matsumae-shi) was a Japanese aristocratic family who were daimyo of Matsumae Domain, in present-day Matsumae, Hokkaidō, from the Azuchi–Momoyama period until the Meiji Restoration.
Hokkaido was only fully incorporated into the Japanese state in 1869 following the Meiji Restoration (1868), after which Japanese settlers colonized the island beyond Wajinchi. The indigenous Ainu people were dispossessed of their land and forced to assimilate.
The territory of Japan comprises the four large islands of Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu, and other smaller islands.
Japan's second-largest island, roughly the size of Maine, Hokkaido was of huge strategic significance. Joseph Stalin's possession of the island would turn the vast Sea of Okhotsk into a Soviet lake, and ease the projection of Soviet naval power into the Pacific.
During the Soviet–Japanese War in August 1945, the Soviet Union made plans to invade Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan's four main home islands. Opposition from the United States and doubts within the Soviet high command caused the plans to be cancelled before the invasion could begin.
The largest city on Hokkaidō is its capital, Sapporo, which is also its only ordinance-designated city. Hokkaidō did not officially become part of Japan until 1868, and until the 1800s, the population of Ainu outnumbered the number of Japanese living on the island.
The two Indigenous Peoples of Japan, the Ainu and the Okinawans, live on the northernmost and southernmost islands of the country's archipelago.
Serious Japanese settlement of the island began in 1869, when the territory, which was then called Yezo province, was renamed Hokkaido (“North Sea Province”).
Japan's indigenous people, the Ainu, were the earliest settlers of Hokkaido, Japan's northern island.
In 1894-95 Japan fought a war against China over the control of Korea and gained Taiwan, Japan's first colony.
The first Dutch ship arrived in 1600, and in 1609 the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, or VOC) established a trading factory in Hirado. Following the expulsion of the Portuguese in 1639, the Dutch became the only Europeans allowed to remain in Japan.
Japan is one of the countries today that has never been colonized.
Ainu, indigenous people of Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands who were culturally and physically distinct from their Japanese neighbours until the second part of the 20th century.
The last group is the Tokugawa Clan, founded by the famous shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. The current head of the main clan is Tokugawa Tsunenari, the great-grandson of Tokugawa Iesato and the second cousin of the former Emperor Akihito from the Imperial Clan.
Although it is believed that the Ainu culture was established around the 12th or 13th century, the first historical materials to mention the Ainu date from around the 15th century. At that time, the Ainu primarily made their livelihood by fishing, hunting and plant gathering, and also traded with people in other areas.
The Russian government was confused and unrealistic in its policy leading up to the war with Japan and, indeed, in the conduct of the war itself. This fact, combined with the ineffective leadership of its troops, was, more than any other factor, responsible for its defeat.
The island has been under Russian administration since the end of World War II, when Soviet forces took possession of the Kurils. It is claimed by Japan (see Kuril Islands dispute).