Sankebetsu Brown Bear Incident - Aftermath

Aftermath

Yayo, who received head wounds in the attack, made a full recovery, but Miyoke Umekichi, who was bitten by the bear as the child was being carried by its mother, died less than three years later from the wounds he had suffered.

Odo recovered from injury and returned to work, but next spring he fell into a river and died. It was unclear whether the injury inflicted by the brown bear had caused the accident. After the attack, most of the villagers of Rokusen sawa soon left, and the town rapidly transformed into a ghost town.

Ōkawa Haruyoshi, who was seven years old and the son of the Sankebetsu village mayor at the time of the incident, grew up to become an excellent bear hunter. He swore an oath to kill ten bears for every victim of the attack. By the time he reached the age of 62, he had killed 102 bears. He then retired and constructed the bear harm cenotaph (熊害慰霊碑, Yūgai Ireihi?), a shrine where people can pray for the dead villagers.

Takayoshi, Haruyoshi's son, in 1980—after an eight-year chase—hunted down a 500 kg brown bear who was nicknamed the north sea Tarō (北海太郎, Hokkai Tarō?).