Where are the Ainu now?

A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin, and culture, is like a tree without roots.
-- Marcus Garvey (1887-1940)

In the Botanical Gardens in Sapporo there is an Ainu Museum. Reading through the visitors book there reveals a concern common to many of the foreigners who pass that way. While many commend the museum for its English-language explanations, their comments are peppered with queries like: "Where are the Ainu now?"; "How many are there?"; "What happened to them?"; "Where do they live?"; and even "What do they look like?"

As with the names many native people have invented for themselves, "Ainu" literally means "human" and is used to refer to themselves as an ethnic group. They are a group whose distinct culture emerged from the earlier Jomon culture on Hokkaido, the Kuril Islands, southern Sakhalin (Karafuto) and northern Japan -- territories the Ainu refer to as "Ainu Moshir," meaning "Land of the Ainu."