Katsuo Harada keeps in his possession the skull of a brown bear that nearly killed him 23 years ago.

The skull’s jaw is movable, allowing Harada to show how the bear’s teeth, including its sharp fangs, chewed his head and left him disfigured.

But it was a lesson he learned in his childhood about the animal’s mouth that saved Harada’s life.

The veteran hunter, now 83 and living in Iwamizawa, Hokkaido, said human encounters with bears have increased in the area. He is seeking measures to prevent anyone from experiencing what he went through.

CRUNCHING, PANTING NOISES

Harada and three hunting companions entered a mountain in Hokkaido’s Shiranuka area on Nov. 1, 2000, the opening day of the Yezo deer-hunting season.

Harada was so excited that he could not sleep the night before the expedition.

The four men started tracking different routes at 6 a.m. under the clear blue sky.

Just before noon, Harada sat down to snack on some rice balls. He finished eating and casually looked 50 to 60 meters ahead and saw a Yezo deer ascending a slope. The deer appeared non-energetic and moved slowly.

Deciding the deer would be his “first prey today,” Harada stood up to take a shot with his rifle. But he heard something rustling behind him, and he knew it was likely not a deer.

Harada turned around and saw a brown bear with glittering eyes 4 to 5 meters away.

He had visited the mountain many times and never once spotted a brown bear there. The area had no acorn trees or other food sources for the animals.

On top of that, Harada could normally detect approaching bears with their urine-like stench.
This bear apparently came upwind.

Harada felt he had no choice but to shoot the bear. He fired twice at its heart. But the beast did not flinch and ran toward him.

The rifle was knocked away in the struggle.

Harada crouched down while protecting his head with his hands. But the bear rolled Harada onto his back and pressed down from above.

The bear then began chewing on his head. Harada heard crunching and panting noises.

He was bleeding badly, but strangely, he felt no pain at all.

Harada thought the bear would bite him in the brain and he would be killed. During that desperate moment, he recalled the face of his wife, whom he had just married. 

When he was about to give up on his life, he remembered a childhood lesson given by a hunter in the neighborhood about how to fend off bear attacks.

The piece of advice: Shove your hand into the bear’s mouth to stop it from breathing if there are no other options left.

Harada stuck out his right hand toward the likely location of bear’s mouth. As soon as his fist and wrist were entirely inside, Harada listened to his hand being crushed.

He felt a tingling sensation from his arm to the neck, and then he passed out.

16-HOUR SURGERY

When Harada came to, he had no idea how long he had been unconscious. He heard a ragged gasp, and he thought: “I am still alive. I may be able to survive.”

The brown bear was still on top of him, but its breathing had weakened, giving Harada some hope.

He knew that if he stayed still there, he would probably bleed to death, so Harada moved his right leg to break the deadlock.

Harada kicked at full power at something soft--likely the animal’s belly.

His right hand fell out of the bear’s mouth and made a bang-like sound. The animal’s panting gradually faded away as it wandered off.

Harada radioed for help without rising up. A companion nearby replied, and Harada told him his location.

The hunter said, “OK, I will be there soon.” When he rushed to the scene, the bear was nowhere in sight.

Harada was bleeding badly and started shivering. He lapsed in and out of consciousness. He said he remembers being carried down a cliff on a stretcher.

His head was so fully covered in blood that it was difficult to tell where his face was. Both eyeballs had been knocked out of their cavities, and both ears were nearly torn off.

His skull was partially exposed, and the bones in his right hand were destroyed.

Harada was taken to a medical center in Kushiro, Hokkaido, where he underwent 16 hours of surgery. His doctor described Harada’s survival as “a genuine miracle.”

Harada was discharged by year-end but was hospitalized again. He could finally return to his home in spring the following year.

LIVE TOGETHER WITH BEARS

Harada’s left eyelid remains drooped. His face and right hand are still numb in parts.

A day after the attack, the body of a female brown bear, measuring 1.5 meters long and weighing 160 kilograms, was found a slight distance away. She had been shot in the leg.

It emerged that the bear had been shot by another local hunter the day before she attacked Harada.

“She was lurking in pain, and I happened to pop up before her,” Harada said. “The brown bear must have naturally mistaken me for the enemy who had shot her.”

Harada noted that his survival “would have been impossible if she had not been weakened” after being shot.

“I would have been killed with a single blow if I had encountered a normal brown bear,” Harada said.

Human encounters with bears have increased in recent years, and not just in Hokkaido.

Experts say land development projects have reduced the size of the bears’ habitats, and the animals are entering human settlements in search of food.

Harada’s near-death experience has led him on a mission to create “an environment where brown bears will not come to human settlements.”

As a director of a nonprofit group called Farming Support Hokkaido, Harada is extending assistance to farmers to prevent birds and animals from damaging their crops.

He is also working with the agriculture ministry as an adviser on keeping animals away from farmland.

And he has called for the introduction of a nationwide framework to prevent a recurrence of his calamity.

“Specialists on brown bears should be deployed to each municipality so steps can be taken as soon as information comes in about their footprints or feces,” Harada said.