Between 1905 and 1945 the area south of 50 degrees latitude on Sakhalin Island was Japanese territory. Japanese authorities gathered the Uilta and Nivkh people to the place namede “ Otasu” (suburbs of Shisuka, now Poronajsk) which became famous as a sightseeing spot. Ms. Aiko Kitagawa (died in 2007) was Uilta, born in Nokoro (now Vladimirovo) in Sakhalin Island, and grew up at Otasu. She left Sakhalin Island to come to Abashiri in 1968. She donated a glass necklace that was used at a bear ceremony in Otasu to the Hokkaido Museum of Northern Peoples. Her relatives prayed that their children grew up energetically by the necklace at a bear ceremony, however a personal wish did not ask at the ceremony usually.
