Introduction

    «  Malgré la politique d'assimilation menée par le gouvernement japonais, nous, les Aïnous, avons maintenu notre ethnicité en tant que peuple autochtone du Japon. Nous avons le droit à l'autodétermination. Nous, les Aïnous, avons notre propre culture, notre religion et nos traditions que personne ne peut bafouer. Les Aïnous n'ont jamais abandonné ces droits. C'est pourquoi nous continuons à détenir fermement ces droits de culture, de religion et de traditions. »
    Discours soumis par l'association Utari aux Nations Unies,
    Genève, Août 1987.

      Lors de ce discours en 1987, l'association Utari, qui défend les droits du peuple aïnou, s'exprime pour la première fois sur la scène internationale. Devant les observateurs des Nations Unies et les centaines de représentants des peuples autochtones du monde entier, le peuple aïnou revendique son identité autochtone.

      Repoussés au nord par les multiples invasions japonaises, les Aïnous, qui occupaient la majeure partie de l'archipel nippon, vivent actuellement sur l'île la plus au nord, Hokkaido. Estimés actuellement entre 20 000 et 50 000 personnes, les Aïnous du Japon font partie d'une population aïnou qui s'étend jusqu'aux îles Kouriles et Sakhaline.

      Après de nombreux combats qui les ont opposés aux troupes japonaises, les Aïnous ont progressivement perdu le contrôle de leurs terres. Le Japon, tout au long du 19ème siècle, a mené à l'encontre des Aïnous une politique d'assimilation* violente visant à les intégrer à la société dominante. Dans le cadre de cette politique, les Aïnous se sont vus privés du droit de vivre selon leurs propres traditions, leurs propres croyances et de s'exprimer dans leur langue. Ils ont progressivement été contraints de vivre selon les coutumes japonaises et de se fondre dans la société. Malgré cette politique d'assimilation, les Aïnous ont toujours été considérés comme des êtres inférieurs et souffrent encore à l'heure actuelle d'une très forte discrimination.

      Face à cette situation jugée inacceptable, des associations de défense des droits fondamentaux aïnous se sont peu à peu constituées. Dans les années 1970, et jusqu'à nos jours, les revendications aïnous se structurent afin que leur soit reconnu le droit à jouir librement de leur culture distincte.

      Parallèlement, sur la scène internationale, les Indiens d'Amérique ont investi le débat des Nations Unies pour faire entendre des revendications similaires face aux Etats Unis. Devant la multiplication des revendications autochtones, les organes de l'ONU se sont mobilisés pour offrir à ces populations un espace de dialogue et oeuvrer en faveur d'une reconnaissance étatique de leurs droits spécifiques.

      Depuis 1987, les associations aïnous participent au Groupe de travail sur les Populations Autochtones des Nations Unies et partagent leurs expériences et leur combat avec les représentants des 300 millions d'autochtones qui vivent actuellement dans le monde. Elles ont ainsi l'occasion d'interpeller les membres de la communauté internationale sur leur situation au sein du Japon. Les experts internationaux du système des droits de l'Homme des Nations Unies, ainsi que les Etats, peuvent alors constater le statu quo, et parfois les évolutions, de la situation aïnou au sein de l'Etat japonais.

      Avec les avancées significatives de la décision rendue par la Cour de Sapporo sur le barrage de Nibutani en mars 1997 et de la Nouvelle Loi aïnou promulguée en juin de la même année, une amélioration a pu être constatée dans le traitement de la cause aïnou par le gouvernement japonais. Toutefois, alors que la communauté internationale reconnaît le peuple aïnou en tant que peuple autochtone depuis sa première participation au Groupe de travail sur les Populations autochtones, le Japon se refuse toujours à accepter « l'autochtonie » des Aïnous et à leur accorder les droits spécifiques qui y sont rattachés.

      L'identité autochtone revendiquée par les Aïnous trouve ses fondements dans le lien d'un peuple avec la terre où il réside. Basée sur l'antériorité historique d'un groupe d'individus à une terre déterminée, l'autochtonie entraîne des droits spécifiques et collectifs à l'égard de la culture, de la propriété territoriale et de l'autodétermination*.

      La reconnaissance de l'identité autochtone d'un peuple par un Etat qui le domine revient à accepter que ces droits spécifiques lui soient accordés, et entraîne dans l'ordre national des conséquences sociales, politiques et juridiques favorables au peuple en question.

      Les enjeux principaux de cette reconnaissance pour les peuples qui la revendiquent sont l'amélioration des conditions de vie et la préservation d'un mode de vie traditionnel où la fierté des racines prédomine.

      Dans le cas des Aïnous du Japon, cette reconnaissance n'est pas encore atteinte et constitue l'objectif essentiel des revendications des associations.

      Depuis la création d'un espace international de débats et de réflexion sur les peuples autochtones au sein des Nations Unies, les Aïnous ont mené en parallèle leurs revendications sur les scènes nationale et internationale. Les mécanismes de dialogue mis en place entre les institutions onusiennes et les Etats ont permis aux requêtes aïnous de jouer des interactions entre la politique intérieure et la politique extérieure du Japon. La stratégie des associations aïnous a fait agir l'interdépendance des déclarations officielles du Japon sur le plan interne et sur le plan international pour inciter le gouvernement à reconnaître leur identité autochtone.

      L'ambivalence de la situation aïnou actuelle - qui oscille entre des avancées significatives et un immobilisme étatique- invite à s'interroger sur l'efficacité de cette stratégie. En effet, de quelle manière l'utilisation de l'espace international par le mouvement associatif aïnou influe-t-elle sur la politique intérieure du Japon en ce qui concerne la reconnaissance de leur identité autochtone ?

      La communauté internationale révèle son efficacité dans le travail normatif sur les droits autochtones qui vient rééquilibrer le rapport de force inégal qui oppose la population aïnou à l'Etat japonais (Première partie). Elle trouve toutefois ses limites dans son incapacité à contraindre un Etat réticent et à impulser les initiatives nationales (Deuxième partie).


Introduction d'un memoire trouve sur le site de l'Universite de Lyon. Recherches et informations tres detaillees et interessant.
"Le rôle de la communauté internationale dans la reconnaissance de l'identité autochtone du peuple aïnou au Japon" par Emilie CHESNEAU - Octobre 2002.

La traduction en français (et avec les accents) de ce texte peut vous rapporter un xp, n'hésitez pas !
Ono Kazuoki is a very real, very human presence in Fuchu Prison. Ono's story is relatively straightforward. He’s in his 50s and has lived a life fraught with dismal efforts and ill founded plans. For the most part, he's a failure as a human being, desperate for some kind of purpose. All his life, Ono has experienced nightmares about Fuchu Prison. He didn't realize early on just what he saw, he simply had visions of pain and suffering in some place with high walls and iron doors. Every year the dreams got worse until they were unbearable and Ono was hardly able to sleep more than an hour before waking in sweatdrenched sheets. Following clues and images put together from his visions, Ono was able to get himself to Fuchu prison, working there as part time employee.
Once he was in, the prison revealed itself bit by bit, slowly chipping away at his already unsteady mind. While whittling away at Ono's sanity, the prison also used its powers to show him that he was "Chosen" to help it. Ono partly understood what he was to do, but helping the place was more than a one-man job. (After all, even he had come to realize that he lacked most of the salient capabilities required in life). The Prison promised help. Ono has now lived in the prison for over a year. The place allows him to leave to get supplies, and he has been "planning・for the eventual visit of stranded individuals to put to work toward his mission. He’s been establishing traps, finding good sniper spots, and getting very little sleep.

Libre à vous de traduire cet article, pour 2 XP (ok, c'est pas cher payé mais vous gagnez aussi toute ma gratitude).
The Fuchu prison is the biggest of Japan. But appart from the modern wings rest a "Special Wing" inherited from the darkest period of Japanese Empire. Still, the walls remember, quite literally. The tragedy birthed the prison's restless spirit. The Special Wing, it seemed, is unwilling to go gently into oblivion. With the residual memories of all who ever lived there, an entity arose from the prison's death and persisted in a bleak and restless "life" after death. For the most part, the prison special wing is a dry, dusty place of moldering floorboards and crumbling walls. Everything is cracked and earthen. The prison is dominated by rust-colored dust and stubborn patches of humidity. Once upon a time, the cells and rooms numbered a dozens, but many have collapsed. Left standing are a few cells, the Colonel’s office, the main hall, the guards room, the infirmary and the cemetery in the far side of the Courtyard.

Hall
The hall is a large room with an old iron door leading to the outside world at one side and a hallway that leads to the cells and the leaving quarters of the guards. Large windows locked with iron bars show a patchy “Courtyard” surrounded by the prison buildings.

The Courtyard
The prison buildings surround a square courtyard. The ground is bare of nearly any vegetation. This place has been used for the promenades of the prisoners. A pole, removed now, was used for gunning prisoners sentenced to death. The cracks in the Northern wall are a legacy of this practice.
Haunting Phenomena
Visual: Bobbing witchlights in the Courtyard. Vision of a pole covered by black patches. The Northern wall begin to bleed from all his holes.
Smell: The smell of gun smoke, areas of inexplicable and repulsive scents (vomit, blood or rotting meat).
Aural: Sounds of a man shouting far away, followed by detonations.
Tactile: Cold spots.
Taste: Sudden taste of wet clothes in the throat.

The cemetery
The cemetery is raised on the eastern part of the courtyard. It bears 51 graves, each of which is nothing more than a big rock with a name and dates written into its flattest surface. One grave at the far side of the hill differs from the rest. It has an actual headstone (albeit a small and crumbling one) and shows the name Sergeant Abe, with the date 19. The majority of graves  show 19 (ie 1944) as the date of death. Also, each grave marked "19" (with the exception of Abe’s) has a word painted below the name and dates. It's either "execution" or "suicide". Characters can count 33 executions and seven suicides.
Haunting Phenomena
Visual: odd smoke, witchlights
Smell: The smell of gun smoke, areas of inexplicable and repulsive scents (vomit, blood or rotting meat).
Aural: Sounds of someone attempting to move stealthily through the stones.
Tactile: Cold spots.
Taste: odd feelings, sensations that almost indicate a bad cold or sickness coming on. A character may be tight in the chest, become dizzy, start coughing or even exhibit a sudden fever or urge to vomit.

The basement
The basement is creepy and dank. There are leaks in the foundation and scuttling millipedes. Part of it is cement-floor. This area was the primary abode of the dogs. Their cage is still there. It is a chainlink-fence-enclosed dog kennel where the dogs died, tearing one another apart in the hungry dark. A pipe sticking out of a wall can be set to trickle fresh water, and there's a hose attached to an adjacent wall. At night, after the prison has had enough time to awaken almost one can get flashes of its canine aura, and smell or hear dogs. Even during the day, there sometime seems to be a lingering dog-kennel aroma. The basement is the site of a cistern with black and rank water.
Haunting Phenomena
Visual: the door move plunges the basement into darkness. Sight of dogs, either in their prime or at their end, when only one or two survived. Glint of light across the eyes of dogs in the darkness, but with no actual animals visible.
Smell: The smell of dog feces or urine. Strange, stagnant whiffs from the cistern. Smell of fear and urine near the hose.
Aural: Growling, barking or whining of dogs. Sound of dog claws on the floor or at the door of the basement.
Tactile: Brush of dogs against legs or the feel of a dog rearing up to push its paws against a character's chest. A feeling of cold from the cistern. The sound of the dogs hurling themselves at the door.
Taste: Sudden taste of blood, rotted meat, or stagnant water.

The Archives
The prison's archives room was not huge. The shelves are now empty and the reading tables gone. The files were originally on history, military science, and of course records of the prisoners.
Haunting Phenomena
Visual: Finding a single file, the pages damped and impossible to read. Only the picture is visible, a man in the prison uniform. Folders spontaneously appearing on shelves where the shelves were empty before, some bear the name of the characters.
Smell: The scent of old paper.
Aural: The sound of books ruffling or fluttering. A voice, quiet and incoherent, as if someone reads aloud and distractedly.
Tactile: Folders on the shelves whip about in a poltergeist display. Pages turning on their own.
Taste: The sudden taste of mold or dust.

The Guardians rooms
There are three rooms, damped and cold, the walls are covered with humidity patches. The rooms can easily recover their old role. There is a heater but the system seems to be dead.
Haunting Phenomena
Visual: image of neatly arranged bed posts, a Japanese flag reflected on the dusty window.
Smell: The scent cigarette, of cooked food.
Aural: some old song, seemly played on a gramophone.
Tactile: cold spots, sudden adrenaline rush.
Taste: the taste of blood.

The Colonel’s Office
Kawamura’s office is a combination small office with a desk and an old safe, and what appears to be a dilapidated concrete room (for interrogation purpose).  Under the Colonel’s desk is a wooden trapdoor, concealed in shadow. The room below the trapdoor is nothing more than a human-sized niche carved out of the ground, dug as a bolt-hole in case criminals escaped or ran rampant. Within, characters find a human skeleton draped in unrecognizable garments. What is recognizable is the insignia of Colonel of the Japanese Imperial Army. (This is Kawamura’s skeleton.) In the right hand is a military automatic pistol dating back the world war two. The mouth of the skeleton hangs open and a hole extends from the top of its skull down through the jaw.
Tucked under the skeleton, in its left hand, is a book. The pages are weathered and decaying. Picking up the book looses the pages from their binding. It' a criminal log book, detailing the crimes of Fuchu Prison Special Wing detainees from the years 1941 to 1945. The book is hard to read, hand written and partly decaying. At the very end, the the end the Colonel inserts personal notes and goes on briefly about that blasphemous priest, and later about "the pox" that everyone seems to have. The Colonel’s last scrawled words are something to “the effect of that goddam savage cursed us all with this disease, even Sergeant Abe. He'll make his peace in Hell, but now he' dragging us all down with him. I had to do what I had to do to make things right. Now I have to do one more thing. The Emperor preserves our weary souls”.
This room is subject to the haunting of the Colonel (his gun is one of his Anchors), this could be translated in many ways: the reflected face of “somebody” in one of the windows (that somebody being the ghost of Colonel Kawamura), or just a general smell of rot and decay.
The torture room is really spooky, with fingernail marks or handprints on the cell walls. The room has been cleaned up after the tragedy, but the suffering endured here is still tangible.

Production Unit 32-456
This was an underground factory where the prisoners where forced to work. The unit entrance is a ramshackle lean-to of tin sheets and collapsing wooden beams. The door has a rusted lock on it and that lock is broken and open. Entering the place is hazardous. Not only is it utterly dark, but to descend one has to use either the hand-crank elevator (a claustrophobic, rusty cage that can hold only two to three people because there's a large hole in the middle of the cage), or climb down the elevator shaft on a rotten wooden ladder. The factory itself is a tangle of unlit tunnels, pits, cave-ins and fractured cart track. Deep in the corridors mazes lies a wall of tightly packed rocks that, if destroyed, gives way to a small niche where a skeleton remains. Written spectrally in a dry, red-black substance on a nearby wall are the words, "Here lie the bloody bones of the blasphemous Yamada Chikuyupi."

The technical passageways
All the exits are tightly closed, but the technical conduits still have secrets. A tent is roughly hidden behind some garbage and half collapsed wall. It is filled with supplies. Such supplies include bulk and can foods, ammunition for a pistol, a sleeping bag, a few changes of clothes for an adult male, some rope and various and humidity covered other goods. This is Ono Kazuoki’s tent. The prison lets him come and go, because he's sworn to serve it. Thus, he's able to go out into the world, get food and supplies, and return.