Karafuto Prefecture

History

Japanese settlement on Sakhalin dates to at least the Edo period. Ōtomari was established in 1679, and cartographers of the Matsumae domain mapped the island, and named it "Kita-Ezo". Japanese cartographer and explorer Mamiya Rinzō established that Sakhalin was an island through his discovery of what is now named Mamiya Strait (Strait of Tartary) in 1809. Japan unilaterally proclaimed sovereignty over the whole island in 1845.

The 1855 Treaty of Shimoda acknowledged that both the Russian Empire and Japan had joint rights of occupation to Sakhalin, without setting a definite territorial demarcation. As the island became settled in the 1860s and 1870s, this ambiguity led to increasing friction between settlers. Attempts by the Tokugawa shogunate to purchase the entire island from the Russian Empire failed, and the new Meiji government was unable to negotiate a partition of the island into separate territories. In the Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1875), Japan agreed to give up its claims on Sakhalin in exchange for undisputed ownership of the Kuril Islands.

Japan invaded Sakhalin in the final stages of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, but per the 1905 Treaty of Portsmouth was allowed to retain only the southern portion of the island below the 50° N parallel. Russia retained the northern portion, although the Japanese were awarded favorable commercial rights, including fishing and mineral extraction rights in the north. In 1907, Karafuto Prefecture was officially established, with the capital at Ōtomari. In 1908, the capital was relocated to Toyohara.

In 1920, Karafuto was officially designated an external territory of Japan, and its administration and development came under the aegis of the Ministry of Colonial Affairs. Following the Nikolaevsk Incident in 1920, Japan occupied the northern half of Sakhalin. This occupation would continue until the establishment of formal diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union in 1925 with the Soviet–Japanese Basic Convention. The treaty permitted Japan petroleum and coal concessions in northern Sakhalin. The former would be operated by institutions such as the North Sakhalin Oil Company until 1944. In 1943, the status of Karafuto was upgraded to that of an "inner land", making it an integral part of the Empire of Japan.

As Japan was extending its influence over East Asia and the Pacific through the establishment of a Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, the Imperial Japanese Army as part of its offensive contingency plans to invade the Soviet Union if it either became involved in the Pacific War or collapsed due to the ongoing German invasion, proposed the annexation of the remaining northern half of Sakhalin to Japan.

Soviet Invasion

In August 1945, after repudiating the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact in April, and according to the signed agreements of Yalta, in which Stalin pledged that the Soviet Union would enter the Pacific War three months after the defeat of Germany, the Soviet Union invaded Karafuto. The Soviet attack started on 11 August 1945, three days before the surrender of Japan. The Soviet 56th Rifle Corps, part of the 16th Army, consisting of the 79th Rifle Division, the 2nd Rifle Brigade, the 5th Rifle Brigade and the 214 Armored Brigade, attacked the Japanese 88th Infantry Division. Although the Soviet Red Army outnumbered the Japanese by three to one, they advanced only slowly due to strong Japanese resistance. It was not until the 113th Rifle Brigade and the 365th Independent Naval Infantry Rifle Battalion from Sovetskaya Gavan landed in Tōro, a seashore village in western Karafuto, on 16 August that the Soviets broke the Japanese defense line. Japanese resistance grew weaker after this landing. Actual fighting continued until 21 August. Between 22 and 23 August, most remaining Japanese units agreed to a ceasefire. The Soviets completed the conquest of Karafuto on 25 August 1945, by occupying the capital of Toyohara.

Post-War Status

By the end of hostilities, 80,000 residents had already fled Karafuto and civilian casualties numbered from 3,500 to 3,700. This left the prefecture with a population of about 300,000. From the end of the war to 1946, the remaining population would live and work alongside incoming Soviet settlers. Karafuto's municipal and industrial leaders retained their positions and would stay on as deputies after being replaced by Soviet equivalents. Marxism-Leninism was added to school curricula and Shintoism was removed, though temples and religious gatherings were still permitted. Following an agreement between the United States and the USSR on December 19, 1946, repatriation of the Japanese population began.

At the conclusion of the repatriation program in July 1949, there were 279,356 people who had arrived from Karafuto to Japan, with 35% claiming no familial connection to the Japanese home islands. Repatriates had their property confiscated as colonial holdings, as was done in Korea and Taiwan. But the Overseas Compatriots Relief Committee refused to provide aid on account of Karafuto’s 1943 reclassification from outer to inner land.

The majority of repatriates resettled in Hokkaido. At least 17,600 were sent to prefectures in the Tohoku region and 296 homeless repatriates were sent to Tottori. A Japanese population of 332 would remain in Sakhalin after 1949. Following the Soviet–Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956, most of this small population would be repatriated as well.

Repatriation being limited to Japanese residents and the subsequent Korean War prevented the repatriation of Karafuto’s Korean population. Resulting in a population of Sakhalin Koreans persisting into the present day.

The Japanese government formally abolished Karafuto Prefecture as a legal entity on 1 June 1949. With the Treaty of San Francisco, Japan renounced its rights to Sakhalin, despite not formally acknowledging Soviet sovereignty over it, nor the Kuril Islands. Both territories currently compromise the Russian Federation's Sakhalin Oblast. The Japan-Sakhalin Association currently exists to maintain ties between former Japanese residents of Sakhalin and its current inhabitants.

Geography

Demographics

Ethnic groups

• Japanese
• Korean
• Ainu
• Orok
• Nivkh

Census

The Results Report of the Shōwa 10 (1935) National Census
Karafuto Chapter

Economy

The pre-war economy of Karafuto was based on fishing, forestry and agriculture, together with extraction of coal and petroleum. In terms of industry, the paper industry and the charcoal production industry was well developed. Pulp for rayon production in Honshu was predominately sourced from Karafuto. The territory suffered from a labor shortage through most of its history, and migrant laborers from the Japanese mainland were frequently recruited for seasonal work on in Karafuto. In 1924, 57% of laborers in the construction and forestry industry came from Tohoku and 22% from the Hokuriku region. These laborers would reside in worker dormitories near their sites before returning to their home provinces upon completion of the project. Forced labor known as Takobeya Labor would be used throughout Karafuto's history as well. Indigenous Nivkh and Oroks worked in Japanese-run fisheries and a synthetic textile plant near the Russian border. For the construction of the Toyohara-Maoka line, bonded labor was put to use, including Chinese contract laborers. By the end of the 1920s, these laborers would be replaced with Koreans. With the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, their population would increase substantially.

Transportation

On November 17 1906, a 42.5-kilometre-long (26.4 mi) railway connecting Tohoyara and Otomari was completed. In 1910, this railway would be converted from 600 mm (1 ft 11+5⁄8 in) to 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in), standardizing it with the rest of Japan's railways. Over the following decades an extensive railway network was constructed in Karafuto to transport freight and passengers across the prefecture. The Karafuto Railway Bureau (樺太鐵道局, Karafuto Tetsudōkyoku) maintained 682.6 kilometers of track in four main lines and an additional 58.2 kilometers of track. After 1945, this network would serve as the foundation of the Sakhalin Railway.

Government

Karafuto was administered from the central government in Tokyo as the Karafuto Agency (樺太廳, Karafuto-chō) under the Colonization Bureau (拓務局, Takumukyoku) of the Home Ministry. The Colonization Bureau became the Ministry of Colonial Affairs (拓務省, Takumushō) in 1923 at which time Karafuto was officially designated an overseas territory of the Empire of Japan.

When the Ministry of Colonial Affairs was absorbed into the new Ministry of Greater East Asia in 1942, the administration of Karafuto was separated, and Karafuto became an integral part of the Japanese archipelago.

Directors of the Karafuto Agency

Political divisions

As of 1945, Karafuto was divided into four subprefectures, which in turn were subdivided into 11 districts, in turn divided into 41 municipalities (one city, 13 towns, and 27 villages).

Karafuto's largest city was Toyohara, while other major cities included Esutoru in the north central and Maoka in the south central region.

The list below are the towns and the city of the prefecture. These in italics are the corresponding current Russian names.

Esutoru Subprefecture (惠須取支廳)

• Towns
  • Chinnai (珍內町, Krasnogorsk)
  • Esutoru (惠須取町, Uglegorsk)
  • Nayoshi (名好町, Lesogorskoye)
  • Tōro (塔路町, Shakhtyorsk)
• Villages
  • Nishisakutan (西柵丹村, Boshnyakovo)
  • Ushiro (鵜城村, Orlovo)

Maoka Subprefecture (眞岡支廳)

• Towns
  • Honto (本斗町, Nevelsk)
  • Maoka (眞岡町, Kholmsk)
  • Naihoro (內幌町, Gornozavodsk)
  • Noda (野田町, Chekhov)
  • Tomarioru (泊居町, Tomari)
• Villages
  • Kusyunnai (久春内村, Ilyinskoe)
  • Nayori (名寄村, Penzenskoe)
  • Konotoro (小能登呂村, Kostromskoe)
  • Randomari (蘭泊村, Yabrochnoye)
  • Hirochi (廣地村, Pravda)
  • Kounin (好仁村, Shebunino)
  • Kaiba (海馬村, Moneron Island)

Shikuka Subprefecture (敷香支廳)

• Towns
  • Shirutoru (知取町, Makarov)
  • Shikuka, Shisuka (敷香町, Poronaysk)
• Villages
  • Chirie (散江村)
  • Nairo (内路村, Gastello)
  • Tomarikishi (泊岸村, Vakhrushev)
  • Motodomari (元泊村, Vostochnoye)
  • Hoyori (帆寄村, Pugachovo)

Toyohara Subprefecture (豐原支廳)

• City
  • Toyohara (豐原市, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk)
• Towns
  • Ochiai (落合町, Dolinsk)
  • Ōtomari (大泊町, Korsakov)
  • Rūtaka (留多加町, Aniva)
• Villages
  • Shiranui (白縫村, Arsentyevka)
  • Sakaehama (榮濱村, Starodubskoe)
  • Kawakami (川上村, Sinegorsk)
  • Toyokita (豐北村, Novo-Aleksandrovsk)
  • Chitose (千歳村, Solovyovka)
  • Fukami (深海村, Prigorodnoe)
  • Tonnai (富内村, Okhotskoe)
  • Nagahama (長濱村, Utesnoye)
  • Tōbuchi (遠淵村, Muravyevo)
  • Shiretoko (知床村, Novikovo)