Karafuto Prefecture

Karafuto (樺太) is the Japanese name for the southern part of Sakhalin Island or the entire island. By the Treaty of Portsmouth, Karafuto became a prefecture of Japan in 1907, with its capital in Toyohara. However, the name of the government office was not to (都), dō (道), fu (府) or ken (県), denominations used for current prefectures, but chō (庁), so that the name "prefecture" is perhaps inaccurate.

In 1945, with Japan's defeat in World War II, the Japanese administration in Karafuto ceased to function, and in 1951, in the Treaty of San Francisco, Japan renounced its rights to the territory. Since then, the southern part of Sakhalin has been administered by the USSR and later by Russia. Despite everything, as it belonged to Japan, some Japanese political parties claim it as part of their country.

History

Sakhalin was inhabited in the Neolithic Stone Age. At Dui and Kusunai, large quantities of flint artifacts have been found, like those found in Siberia, as well as polished stone war axes, like in Europe, primitive pottery with decorations like those of the Olonets, and stone weights for the networks. Later, a population, for whom bronze was known, left traces on earthen walls and stoves in Aniva Bay.

The indigenous people of Sakhalin are the Xianbei and Xiazhe tribes, who had a way of life based on fishing. The Chinese in the Ming Dynasty knew the island as Kuyi (Chinese: 苦夷; pinyin: Kǔyí), and later as Kuye (Chinese: 庫頁; pinyin: Kùyè). According to the Book of Shengmu (Chinese: 聖武記; pinyin: Shèngwǔjì), the Ming sent 400 soldiers to Sakhalin in 1616, but later withdrew as long as it was not considered a threat to Chinese control of the island. A stone border from the Ming era still exists on the island.

The Qing Empire also claimed sovereignty over the island and Sakhalin was under formal Chinese rule from the Jin dynasty onwards. However, as the Chinese governments had no military presence on the island, the Japanese and Russians attempted to colonize the island. The Japanese settlement of Ootomari was established in 1679. Cartographers from the Matsumae clan drew a map of the island and called it Kita Ezo (Ezo North: Ezo is the ancient name of Hokkaidō). The Treaty of Nerchinsk of 1686 reaffirmed Sakhalin as Chinese territory. However, Russia began to occupy the island, with an army made of convicts, from the 18th century.

Sakhalin became known to Europeans after the voyages of Ivan Moskvitin and Maarten Gerritsz Vries in the 17th century and, even better, from the voyages of Jean-François de La Pérouse (1787) and Ivan Krusenstern (1805), although both considered it as a peninsula and were not aware of the existence of the Strait of Mamiya or Strait of Tartary, discovered in 1809 by the Japanese Mamiya Rinzo.

Japan unilaterally proclaimed sovereignty over the entire island in 1845, although the Russian navigator Gennady Nevelskói definitively recorded the existence and navigability of this strait in 1849 and, defying the Qing claim, Russian settlers established coal mines, administrative facilities, schools, prisons and churches on the island. The Xiazhe were killed or forced to move to the Asian continent

In 1855, Russia and Japan signed the Treaty of Shimoda, which declared that citizens of both countries could live on the island: the Russians in the north and the Japanese in the south, without a defined border between them. Russia also agreed to dismantle its military base in Ootomari. After the Opium War, Russia forced the Qing to sign the unequal Treaty of Aigun and the Convention of Peking, under which China lost all territories north of Heilongjiang (Amur) and east of Ussuri, including Sakhalin, to Russia.. A tsarist penal colony was established in 1857, but the southern part of the island belonged to Japan until the Treaty of St. Petersburg of 1875, when it was ceded to Russia in exchange for the Kuril Islands. After the Russo-Japanese War, Russia and Japan signed the Treaty of Portsmouth of 1905, so the southern portion of the island below the 50° N parallel once again belonged to Japan; the Russians held the other three-fifths of the area. Southern Sakhalin was administered by Japan as Karafuto-chō (樺太庁), with its capital Toyohara, today Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.

There were claims after the war in a German newspaper that at least one BV 222 from Norway was flying via the pole to Karafuto, then part of Japanese territory before April 1944 while using Deutsche Lufthansa markings. Also during wartime, a German family who lived in the area was mentioned in an official census of the province.

Soviet invasion

In August 1945, the Soviet Union launched Operation August Storm in breach of its Neutrality Pact with Japan. With this operation he took control of Sakhalin. The Soviet attack on southern Sakhalin began on August 11, 1945, just four days before Japan's surrender and almost a month before its signing. The 56th Rifle Corps consisted of the 79th Rifle Division, 2nd Rifle Brigade, 5th Rifle Brigade and the 214th Armored Brigade attacked the 88th Division of the Imperial Japanese Army. Although the Red Army outnumbered the Japanese three to one, it was unable to advance, due to strong Japanese resistance. The Soviets did not break the Japanese defensive line until the 113th Rifle Brigade and the 365th Independent Rifle Battalion of Soviet Naval Infantry of Soviet Gavan (Советская Гавань) landed on August 16 in Tōrō (塔路), a seaside village. from western Sakhalin. Japanese resistance became weaker after that landing. The real fighting continued until August 21 and this combat was of no importance. From August 22 to 23, most of the remaining Japanese units announced a truce. The Soviets completed the conquest of Sakhalin on August 25, 1945, by taking and occupying the Sakhalin capital, Toyohara.

According to Japanese sources, thousands of civilians died in Karafuto, it is also worth mentioning that on the Japanese side, faced with desperation and imminent defeat, many combatants carried out suicide attacks, which caused astonishment and fear among some combatants on the Soviet side while that the high command of the Red Army did not allow their troops to even retreat since by doing so they were considered deserters and many ended up being murdered by other soldiers from the same units, just as happened when the Germans had carried out Operation Barbarossa.

Evacuation and legal status

More than 400,000 people resided in Karafuto when the Soviet offensive began. They were mostly Japanese or Korean, but there was also a small community of White Russians and some indigenous Ainu tribes. By the time the ceasefire was confirmed, more than 100,000 civilians had managed to escape to Hokkaidō.

Step by step, Karafuto lost its Japanese identity. The Sakhalin Oblast was created in February 1946, and by March, all towns, cities and streets had been renamed in Russian, while multitudes of Russian settlers displaced the Japanese. In October 1946, forced repatriations of Japanese began, completed by 1950. Many settlers were forced to leave leaving behind all their belongings, so upon their return to Japan they found themselves destitute.

Current situation

Since January 2, 1947, the Sakhalin region, in its current form, was defined and integrated as part of the Russian Federation.

A peace treaty has not been signed and the status of the neighboring Kuril Islands is still in dispute. Japan renounced its claims and rights to southern Sakhalin when it signed the Treaty of San Francisco (1952), but did not approve Russian sovereignty over it. From Japan's official position, Sakhalin's attribution is not yet determined, and it is marked as "no man's land" on Japanese maps. As of 2005, the issue remains a major burden on Russian-Japanese relations. Even now, no peace treaty has been signed between the two nations.

Currently, the Japanese government, led by the Liberal Democratic Party, has no official claim to Karafuto. However, socialist and other parties have claimed the territory as Japanese. Its status is yet to be defined, as Japan does not recognize Russian sovereignty over Karafuto. Japan insists on taking the issue to the international court, but Russia has rejected any Japanese claim to southern Sakhalin.