Along the way, he personally saw the enemy soldiers hacking the obese peasants to death, then cutting the meat on their elbows and putting them into a lunch box, and when they went to camp, they took out the roast food and ate it with relish.
It is said that this part of the enemy army is of the Ezo tribe, and they have a hobby of roasting human flesh.
——Excerpt from "Memoirs of Li Zongren"
The Ezo people also refer to the Ainu people, the indigenous people of Japan.
The Ainu belonged to the Caucasian race, with a hairy face and body, which Chinese history books called the "Dongyi Mao people".
The Book of Song and the Biography of the Uighur Kingdom: "In the northeast corner of Japan, separated by a large mountain, outside the mountain there is a mao country... The eastern border is bordered by islands, inhabited by Yi people, and all of them have hair.
The Old Book of Tang Dynasty Dongyi Biography records: "Japan is as far as the sea in the south and east, and the mountains in the northeast are limited." On the outside is the Mao people. ”
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >01 Japan's earliest aborigines</h1>
The Ainu appeared in the 12th century BC.
The Ainu originally lived in southern Japan, but due to the Meiji government's colonial policies, many Japanese migrated from the interior to Hokkaido, and the Ainu were excluded to the Hokkaido region to make a living from gathering and fishing.
They were discriminated against, with the term "Ezo" having a pejorative meaning and literally meaning "Mao, Prisoner, and Man".
After the Yamato nation arrived, they occupied the land of the Ainu and expelled them,
In fact, they are the natives of this island.
However, scientists still do not know where the Ainu people came from and who their ancestors were.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >02 The origins of the Ainu are confusing</h1>
The Ainu looked a lot like Lev Tolstoy
They are males with long hair and short stature, one of the most developed human races in the world, with curly hair and high nasal bone bulges, deep eye sockets, well-developed earlobes, and a bright brown complexion, etc., while having some characteristics of European and Mongolian races.
The question of the origin of the Ainu is puzzling, with one theory that they are related to caucasians, while the other theory suggests that they drifted from the Indigenous Australians due to the migration of the Japanese plate, and of course originated in China.
Their ancestors have not been found.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >03 Cruel and strange "bear spirit" sacrifice</h1>
The Ainu revered bears, and according to the early missionaries who arrived in the Hokkaido region, they had the privilege of watching the whole process (now forbidden), they killed the mother bear, and let the women of the clan breastfeed the cubs, and when the bear's claws could hurt people, they would kill the bear, cut off the bear's head, and place it in the place of sacrifice in previous years.
Then eat bear meat, drink bear blood, this link Hokkaido area of ainu and Sakhalin island area is also some differences, Hokkaido area is raw food, Sakhalin island area Ainu people are cooked, and there are sacrifices, basically means that this bear has been favored by the people, now it will be returned, sacrificing itself in exchange for people's abundant aquatic products and the like.
The specific process is actually very detailed, and I think it is a very sad time for the bears, and it is also a very sad time for the Ainu women who feed them, so I will briefly describe it.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >04 peculiar custom</h1>
The Ainu also have a peculiar custom:
Girls get tattoos on their lips when they are 6 or 7 years old, and they get different tattoos as they age.
In this way, when they reach adulthood, the tattoos around their lips look like "clown-style" smiles.
In addition, a "smile" indicates that the girl is ready to get married.
The Ainu believe that such tattoos can help avoid being attacked by demons that enter the body from the mouth.
In addition to their faces, they were tattooed on their wrists and the backs of their hands, which looked like geometric shapes, in order to protect the girls from evil spirits and diseases.
Before the 19th century, the Ainu had little contact with the outside world.
In the 19th century, these tattoos were banned by the Japanese government, but there are still some people who get tattoos in secret.
The last woman to have a tattoo on her face died in 1998.
In addition to tattoos, there are also some rituals that are forbidden, and as a result, the Ainu gradually lose their culture and traditions.
Until the 21st century, the Japanese government declared Ainu people as indigenous to Japan and encouraged people to end discrimination against this group, and in 2019 passed laws on this aspect.
But Russia has never recognized this nation.
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >05 rumors of cannibalism</h1>
It is said that during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the diary of a soldier of the 10th Division of the Japanese Kou was captured, recording that the Ezo soldiers repeatedly cut the thigh meat of the Chinese and roasted it and ate it, and even ate the heart;
And the "Memoirs of Li Zongren" also has such a record:
The Ezo tribe mentioned here is the Ainu people.