South Sakhalin

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Karafuto
樺太
Former subdivision of the Empire of Japan
1905–1945
Flag of Karafuto Chō
Flag of Karafuto during the Takushoku Expo
Emblem of Karafuto Chō
Emblem
Green and circled: Karafuto within Japan in 1942
Light green: Other constituents of the Empire of Japan (i.e. internationally recognised as Japanese territory before the Pacific War)
Anthem
Karafuto tōka
CapitalŌtomari (1907–1908)
Toyohara (1908–1945)
Area 
• December 1941
36,090.3 km2 (13,934.5 sq mi)
Population 
• December 1941
406,557
Government
Emperor of Japan 
• 1905–1912
Emperor Meiji
• 1912–1926
Emperor Taishō
• 1926–1945
Emperor Shōwa
History 
5 September 1905
• Administered by Karafuto Civil Administration
28 August 1905–31 March 1907
• Karafuto Prefecture established
1 April 1907
• Incorporated into inner land
1 April 1943
11–25 August 1945
• Karafuto Prefecture abolished by Japan
1 June 1949
Preceded by		Succeeded by
Russian Empire
Soviet Union
Today part of Sakhalin Oblast
in Russia

Karafuto Prefecture (樺太庁, Karafuto-chō; Japanese pronunciation: [ka.ɾa.ɸɯ̥.to][1]) was established by the Empire of Japan in 1907 to govern the southern part of Sakhalin. This territory became part of the Empire of Japan in 1905 after the Russo-Japanese War, when the portion of Sakhalin south of 50°N was ceded by the Russian Empire under the Treaty of Portsmouth.

Karafuto Prefecture was established in 1907 to govern Karafuto, which was part of Japan's External Land (Gaichi), until it was incorporated into an Inner Land (Naichi) of the Japanese metropole in April 1943. Ōtomari (Korsakov) was the capital of Karafuto from 1905 to 1908 and Toyohara (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk) from 1908 to 1945.

In August 1945, the Japanese administration ceased to function following the Soviet invasion of South Sakhalin. The Soviet Union annexed Karafuto Prefecture, although it continued to exist under Japanese law until Japan formally abolished it in June 1949.

Name

The Japanese name Karafuto purportedly comes from Ainu kamuy kar put ya mosir (カムィ・カㇻ・プッ・ヤ・モシㇼ), which means 'the island a god has created on the estuary (of the Amur River)'.[2] It was formerly known as Kita Ezo, meaning Northern Ezo (Ezo was the former name for Hokkaido). When Japan governed the southern part of the island, they referred to it as Minami Karafuto (南樺太, South Karafuto) or simply Karafuto (樺太). The northern part of the island was called Kita Karafuto (北樺太, North Karafuto) or simply Sagaren (薩哈嗹).

In Russian, the entire island was named Sakhalin or Saghalien. It is from Manchu sahaliyan ula angga hada, meaning "peak of the mouth of Amur River". The southern part was simply called Yuzhny Sakhalin ("South Sakhalin"). In Korean, the name is Sahallin or Hwataedo, with the latter name in use during Korea under Japanese rule.

History

Map of Sakhalin with parallels showing the division at the 50th parallel north with the Karafuto Prefecture highlighted in red
The Karafuto Prefectural Office in Toyohara

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.[3]

Soviet Invasion

A Japanese soldier at the border between the Karafuto Prefecture and Soviet Sakhalin

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,[4] 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.[5]

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 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.[6]

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.[6] A Japanese population of 332 would remain in Sakhalin after 1949.[7] Following the Soviet–Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956, most of this small population would be repatriated as well.[5]

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.[8]

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.[9] The Japan-Sakhalin Association currently exists to maintain ties between former Japanese residents of Sakhalin and its current inhabitants.[10]

Geography

Demographics

Ethnic groups

Census

The Results Report of the Shōwa 10 (1935) National Census
Karafuto Chapter [11]

Population by civil registration and nationality
Population
Total 331,943
Naichi 320,689
Indigenous 1,949
Gaichi 8,842
Korea 8,841
Taiwan 1
Foreigner 463
Manchukuo 11
Republic of China 194
Former Russia[a] 201
Germany 7
Poland 50
The population by region of Naichi people
Region Population
Karafuto 100,853
Hokkaido 86,376
Tōhoku 76,698
Others 53,762
Total 320,689
Population of Naichi, Indigenous, Gaichi people, and foreigners by subprefecture
Subprefecture Population
Naichi Indigenous Gaichi Foreigner Total
Toyohara 64,787 276 694 101 65,858
Ōtomari 61,366 140 300 121 61,927
Honto 22,932 19 251 21 23,223
Maoka 48,353 447 385 16 49,201
Tomarioru 56,928 412 3,601 90 61,031
Motodomari 25,327 33 1,147 37 26,544
Shikuka 40,996 622 2,464 77 44,159
Total 320,689 1,949 8,842 463 331,943
The population of indigenous ethnic groups by subprefecture
Subprefecture Population
Ainu Orok Nivkh Evenki Ulch Yakut Total
Toyohara 276 0 0 0 0 0 276
Ōtomari 138 0 0 2 0 0 140
Honto 19 0 0 0 0 0 19
Maoka 447 0 0 0 0 0 447
Tomarioru 412 0 0 0 0 0 412
Motodomari 32 1 0 0 0 0 33
Shikuka 180 299 110 22 9 2 622
Total 1,504 300 110 24 9 2 1,949

Economy

This Japanese D51 steam locomotive stands outside the present day Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Railway Station, Sakhalin Oblast, Russia. They were used by the Soviet Railways until 1979.

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.[12] 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.[13] 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.[14]

An extensive railway network was constructed in Karafuto to support the extraction of natural resources. 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.

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

No. Picture Name Took office Left office
1 Kiichirō Kumagai (熊谷喜一郎) 28 July 1905 31 March 1907
2 Kusunose Yukihiko (楠瀬 幸彦) 1 April 1907 24 April 1908
3 Tokonami Takejirō (床次 竹二郎) 24 April 1908 12 June 1908
4 Sadatarō Hiraoka (平岡定太郎) 12 June 1908 5 June 1914
5 Bunji Okada (岡田文次) 5 June 1914 9 October 1916
6 Akira Sakaya (昌谷 彰)
(First term)		 13 October 1916 17 April 1919
7 Kinjirō Nagai (永井金次郎) 17 April 1919 11 June 1924
Akira Sakaya (昌谷 彰)
(Second term)		 11 June 1924 5 August 1926
8 Katsuzō Toyota (豊田勝蔵) 5 August 1926 27 July 1927
9 Kōji Kita (喜多孝治) 27 July 1927 9 July 1929
10 Shinobu Agata (縣 忍) 9 July 1929 17 December 1931
11 Masao Kishimoto (岸本正雄) 17 December 1931 5 July 1932
12 Takeshi Imamura (今村武志) 5 July 1932 7 May 1938
13 Munesue Shun'ichi (棟居俊一) 7 May 1938 9 April 1940
14 Masayoshi Ogawa (小河正儀) 9 April 1940 1 July 1943
15 Toshio Ōtsu (大津敏男) 1 July 1943 11 November 1947

Political divisions

Karafuto Prefecture with 4 subprefectures, namely Toyohara, Maoka, Esutoru and Shikuka. Toyohara City was also a part of Toyohara Subprefecture.

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)

Maoka Subprefecture (眞岡支廳[15])

Shikuka Subprefecture (敷香支廳)

Toyohara Subprefecture (豐原支廳[15])

See also

Notes

  1. 舊露西亞 refers to the Russian Empire (1721–1917) and the Russian people who remained living in Southern Sakhalin after it became Japanese territory, as well as the White émigrés who came as a result of the Russian Civil War.

References

  1. Kindaichi, Haruhiko; Akinaga, Kazue, eds. (10 March 2025). 新明解日本語アクセント辞典 (in Japanese) (2nd ed.). Sanseidō.
  2. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/karafuto#:~:text=/%20%CB%8Ck%C9%91%CB%90r%C9%91%CB%90%CB%88fu%CB%90t%C9%94%20/-,noun,the%20southern%20part%20of%20Sakhalin
  3. Krebs, Gerhard (1997). "31. Japan and the German-Soviet War". In Wegner, Bernd (ed.). From peace to war: Germany, Soviet Russia, and the world, 1939–1941. Berghahn Books. p. 551. ISBN 1-57181-882-0.
  4. 16th Army, 2nd Far Eastern Front, Soviet Far East Command, 09.08,45
  5. Urbansky, Sören; Barop, Helena (2017). "Under the Red Star's Faint Light: How Sakhalin Became Soviet". Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History. 18 (2): 283–316. doi:10.1353/kri.2017.0019.
  6. Bull, Jonathan (October 2018). "Karafuto Repatriates and the Work of the Hakodate Regional Repatriation Centre, 1945–50". Journal of Contemporary History. 53 (4): 788–810. doi:10.1177/0022009418761213.
  7. Koji, Miki; Kuno, Hanayo (15 March 2022). "Japanese man who once remained on Sakhalin and now lives in Ukraine to flee to homeland". Mainichi Daily News. The Mainichi Newspapers Co. Retrieved 10 May 2026.
  8. Troianovski, Anton (7 November 2021). "What's in a Name? For the Koreans of Sakhalin, an Anguished History". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 May 2026.
  9. "Joint Compendium of Documents on the History of Territorial Issue between Japan and Russia". www.mofa.go.jp. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan. Retrieved 10 May 2026.
  10. Asakura, Takuya (1 June 2018). "サハリンに残された「戦後」 多様性の島に生きる残留日本人の思い：朝日新聞GLOBE＋". 朝日新聞GLOBE＋ (in Japanese). Retrieved 10 May 2026.
  11. 樺太廳編 (1937). 昭和10年國勢調査結果報告. 樺太廳豐原町: 樺太廳.
  12. Suzuki, Shinichi (January 1935). "The Rayon Industry in Japan". Economic Geography. 11 (1): 107. doi:10.2307/140653. JSTOR 140653.
  13. Steven Ivings: Recruitment and coercion in Japan’s far north: Evidence from colonial Karafuto’s forestry and construction industries, 1910–37, in: Labor History, Vol. 57 (2016), No. 2, pp. 215–234.
  14. Morris-Suzuki, Tessa (August 2001). "Northern Lights: The Making and Unmaking of Karafuto Identity". The Journal of Asian Studies. 60 (3): 645–671. doi:10.2307/2700105. JSTOR 2700105.
  15. 樺太地名改正 明治四十一年三月三十一日內務省告示第二十九號

Further reading

  • Sevela, Marie, "Sakhalin: The Japanese under Soviet rule". History and Memory, January 1998, pp. 41–46.
  • Sevela, Marie, "Nihon wa Soren ni natta toki. Karafuto kara Saharin e no ikô 1945–1948". Rekishigakukenkû, 1995, no. 676, pp. 26–35, 63.