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Was in Hirafu on the weekend and although there was rain on Saturday Sunday was great weather. Had a treck around then headed out to Hokkaido Speed Park for some noise.... wink

 

Amazed to see how much Niseko has changed in the post 6 years, this time of the year it was really nice with barely anyone around smile

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Sorry no pics from this last weekend. Did spend a very nice day at Lake Toya yesterday though. Did some kayaking and had a bbq lunch. Summer is good up here thumbsup

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Nothing yet. Have asked around but no one seems to know anything. I suspect it has something to do with prisoners/slaves held in the region during WWII so am not suprised no one knows anything. The Japanese don't exactly like to know about the bad stuff that went on back then.

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Originally Posted By: Go Native
Nothing yet. Have asked around but no one seems to know anything. I suspect it has something to do with prisoners/slaves held in the region during WWII so am not suprised no one knows anything. The Japanese don't exactly like to know about the bad stuff that went on back then.


I'm thinking maybe an old onsen (maybe the fountainhead dried up after an earthquake or something), or sulfur mining maybe? Probably not POW related, since it is so far in the boondocks, it would be difficult to patrol and supply. FYI, here is some info on Hokkaido POW camps. There's a fair amount of info on this topic if you search on it.

The bricks are a big clue.
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Well I wasn't thinking pow's as in allied forces, more a slave labor camp of Chinese/Koreans. I know they used slave labor in the region. Anyway will keep trying to find out.

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Well I was told that a hut that once stood near the summit of Youtei was built with slave labor and that many died in it's construction. Can't 100% confirm the truth of that, although the foundations of the hut do remain. Finding anyone that knows anything from that time or is willing to speak about it is not that easy...

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That's interesting. I read somewhere something about the wreckage of a WWII fighter plane on Youtei - something about it was brought there for cold-weather testing. I don't recall the whole story, like whether it was brought down or it is still up there somewhere. Maybe that's what the hut was for - a military test facility?

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They found a wing some years back and you can view down in the natural history museum in Kutchan along with quite a few photos of when they were doing testing. All info in the museum is only in Japanese though. Quite a few foreigners head there each winter so it's a pity they haven't got any translations.

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