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The Sankebetsu Bear Incident of 1915: Japanese settlers from the main land set up a small colony on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido. In this brutal tale, a Japanese bear know as the Ussuri or the Ezo brown bear killed 7 people making it the deadliest single bear attack in recorded history.
The Ussuri brown bear can weigh up to 880 lbs and be as tall as 6-9 ft tall ( 399kg and 1.8-2.75m).
In early November of 1915 in this relatively new settlement a brown bear was sighted and reported to be around 9ft tall and estimated to weigh around 750 lbs. The family that sighted the bear took a shot at it causing the bear to flee into the woods.
Then, in December a woman was caring for a neighbors child at home when a brown bear broke in mauled them, killed the child and dragged the woman into the woods. A 30 man search party was gathered and they found her partial remains. The bear was discovered not far from the body of the woman but once the search party made contact, the bear fled into the woods.
After this a 50 man security detail was posted at the nearest neighbors house with 2 mothers and 5 children protected inside and they waited to see if the bear would return to the scene of the initial attack and it did. The security detail then took off, chasing the bear into the woods. The bear shook the security detail, circled back and went to the neighbors house holding the mothers and children. The home was now only protected by one man. The bear broke into the house and started mauling the women and children and the lone man on security went in to save the women and children but was mauled to death. The bear continued its attack killing and maiming but one mother and one child managed to run away and call out to get the security detail back to the home. Once the men returned they took aim and missed the bear in all the commotion, sending it fleeing once again into the woods.
After this horrific scene the villagers decided to call upon an expert. They got themselves a legendary bear hunter to come out of retirement to hunt this bear and save the villagers from more of these attacks. They tried to bait the bear with one of the bodies it left behind in its last attack but it was not successful. The next night the villagers saw a shadow in the tree line, took aim and fired hitting the bear. The following morning, the expert followed the trail of blood and tracked down the bear and delivered the final blows. They did confirm this was the bear when they discovered human flesh in the bears stomach. The official size of the bear was reported as being 8.9ft tall and weighed in at 836 lbs ( 2.7m and 379kg).
Since then a monument was erected where the bear was killed commemorating this tragic moment in Japan's history.
Picture Source https://www.guidoor.jp/en/places/2363 of the re-creation of the first site the bear attacked and the bear for scale.
If anyone is interested in a bit more detail or our reactions to this story you can listen in on our podcast ***The Darkives*** available wherever you listen to podcasts and on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/28Sl3IJTV84jkWSS6QqOi5?si=X7Ayp6S0Te6ja1XkSZ6W7w and Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dark-history-of-the-sankebetsu-bear-incident/id1828836975?i=1000738790058
#fun
The Ussuri brown bear can weigh up to 880 lbs and be as tall as 6-9 ft tall ( 399kg and 1.8-2.75m).
In early November of 1915 in this relatively new settlement a brown bear was sighted and reported to be around 9ft tall and estimated to weigh around 750 lbs. The family that sighted the bear took a shot at it causing the bear to flee into the woods.
Then, in December a woman was caring for a neighbors child at home when a brown bear broke in mauled them, killed the child and dragged the woman into the woods. A 30 man search party was gathered and they found her partial remains. The bear was discovered not far from the body of the woman but once the search party made contact, the bear fled into the woods.
After this a 50 man security detail was posted at the nearest neighbors house with 2 mothers and 5 children protected inside and they waited to see if the bear would return to the scene of the initial attack and it did. The security detail then took off, chasing the bear into the woods. The bear shook the security detail, circled back and went to the neighbors house holding the mothers and children. The home was now only protected by one man. The bear broke into the house and started mauling the women and children and the lone man on security went in to save the women and children but was mauled to death. The bear continued its attack killing and maiming but one mother and one child managed to run away and call out to get the security detail back to the home. Once the men returned they took aim and missed the bear in all the commotion, sending it fleeing once again into the woods.
After this horrific scene the villagers decided to call upon an expert. They got themselves a legendary bear hunter to come out of retirement to hunt this bear and save the villagers from more of these attacks. They tried to bait the bear with one of the bodies it left behind in its last attack but it was not successful. The next night the villagers saw a shadow in the tree line, took aim and fired hitting the bear. The following morning, the expert followed the trail of blood and tracked down the bear and delivered the final blows. They did confirm this was the bear when they discovered human flesh in the bears stomach. The official size of the bear was reported as being 8.9ft tall and weighed in at 836 lbs ( 2.7m and 379kg).
Since then a monument was erected where the bear was killed commemorating this tragic moment in Japan's history.
Picture Source https://www.guidoor.jp/en/places/2363 of the re-creation of the first site the bear attacked and the bear for scale.
If anyone is interested in a bit more detail or our reactions to this story you can listen in on our podcast ***The Darkives*** available wherever you listen to podcasts and on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/28Sl3IJTV84jkWSS6QqOi5?si=X7Ayp6S0Te6ja1XkSZ6W7w and Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dark-history-of-the-sankebetsu-bear-incident/id1828836975?i=1000738790058
#fun
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