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| Karafuto 樺太 | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Former subdivision of theEmpire of Japan | |||||||||||
| 1905–1945 | |||||||||||
 Flag of Karafuto during the Takushoku Expo  Emblem | |||||||||||
.svg) Green: Karafuto within Japan in 1942 Light green: Other constituents of theEmpire of Japan | |||||||||||
| Anthem | |||||||||||
| Karafuto tōka | |||||||||||
| Capital | Ōtomari (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 byKarafuto Civil Administration | 28 August 1905–31 March 1907 | ||||||||||
• Karafuto Prefecture established | 1 April 1907 | ||||||||||
• Incorporated intoinner land | 1 April 1943 | ||||||||||
| 11–25 August 1945 | |||||||||||
• Karafuto Prefecture abolished by Japan | 1 June 1949 | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
Karafuto Prefecture (樺太庁,Karafuto-chō;Japanese pronunciation:[ka.ɾa.ɸɯ̥.to][1]) was established by theEmpire of Japan in 1907 to govern the southern part ofSakhalin. This territory became part of theEmpire of Japan in 1905 after theRusso-Japanese War, when the portion of Sakhalin south of50°N was ceded by theRussian Empire under theTreaty of Portsmouth.
Karafuto Prefecture was established in 1907 to govern Karafuto, which was part of Japan'sExternal Land (Gaichi), until it was incorporated into anInner Land (Naichi) of the Japanesemetropole in April 1943.Ōtomari (Korsakov) was the capital of Karafuto from 1905 to 1908 andToyohara (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk) from 1908 to 1945.
In August 1945, the Japanese administration ceased to function following theinvasion of South Sakhalin by theSoviet Union. Karafuto Prefecture was annexed to the Soviet Union, although it continued to exist under Japanese law until it was formally abolished by Japan in June 1949.
The Japanese nameKarafuto purportedly comes fromAinukamuy 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 (ofAmur River)'.[not verified in body] It was formerly known asKita Ezo, meaning NorthernEzo (Ezo was the former name forHokkaido). When Japan governed the southern part of the island, they referred to it asMinami Karafuto (南樺太, South Karafuto) or simplyKarafuto (樺太). The northern part of the island was calledKita Karafuto (北樺太, North Karafuto) or simplySagaren (薩哈嗹).
InRussian, the entire island was namedSakhalin orSaghalien. It is fromManchusahaliyan ula angga hada, meaning "peak of the mouth of Amur River". The southern part was simply calledYuzhny Sakhalin ("South Sakhalin"). InKorean, the name isSahallin orHwataedo, with the latter name in use duringKorea under Japanese rule.
Japanese settlement on Sakhalin dates to at least theEdo period. Ōtomari was established in 1679, and cartographers of theMatsumae domain mapped the island, and named it "Kita-Ezo". Japanese cartographer and explorerMamiya Rinzō established that Sakhalin was an island through his discovery of what is now namedMamiya Strait (Strait of Tartary) in 1809. Japan unilaterally proclaimedsovereignty over the whole island in 1845.
The 1855Treaty of Shimoda acknowledged that both theRussian 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 theTokugawa shogunate to purchase the entire island from the Russian Empire failed, and the newMeiji government was unable to negotiate a partition of the island into separate territories. In theTreaty of Saint Petersburg (1875), Japan agreed to give up its claims on Sakhalin in exchange for undisputed ownership of theKuril Islands.
Japaninvaded Sakhalin in the final stages of theRusso-Japanese War of 1904–1905, but per the 1905Treaty of Portsmouth was allowed to retain only the southern portion of the island below the50° 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 atŌtomari. In 1908, the capital was relocated toToyohara.
In 1920, Karafuto was officially designated an external territory of Japan, and its administration and development came under the aegis of theMinistry of Colonial Affairs. Following theNikolaevsk Incident in 1920, Japan briefly seized the northern half of Sakhalin, and occupied it until the establishment of formaldiplomatic relations with theSoviet Union in 1925; however, Japan continued to maintainpetroleum andcoal concessions in northern Sakhalin until 1944. In 1943, the status of Karafuto was upgraded to that of an "inner land", making it an integral part of theEmpire of Japan.
As Japan was extending its influence overEast Asia and thePacific through the establishment of aGreater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, theImperial Japanese Army as part of its offensivecontingency plans to invade theSoviet Union if it either became involved in thePacific War or collapsed due to theongoing German invasion, proposed the annexation of the remaining northern half of Sakhalin to Japan.[2]
In August 1945, after repudiating theSoviet–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, theSoviet Union invaded Karafuto. The Soviet attack started on 11 August 1945, three days before thesurrender of Japan. The Soviet 56th Rifle Corps, part of the16th Army, consisting of the 79th Rifle Division, the 2nd Rifle Brigade, the 5th Rifle Brigade and the 214 Armored Brigade,[3] attacked theJapanese 88th Infantry Division. Although the SovietRed 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 fromSovetskaya Gavan landed inTōro, 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.
There were over 400,000 people living in Karafuto when the Soviet offensive began in early August 1945. Most were of Japanese or Korean extraction, though there was also a smallWhite Russian community as well as someAinu indigenous tribes. By the time of the ceasefire, approximately 100,000 civilians had managed to escape toHokkaido. The military government established by theSoviet Army banned the local press, confiscated cars and radio sets and imposed a curfew. Local managers and bureaucrats were made to aid Russian authorities in the process of reconstruction, before being deported to labor camps, either on North Sakhalin or inSiberia. In schools, courses inMarxism–Leninism were introduced, and Japanese children were obliged to sing songs in praise ofStalin.
Step by step Karafuto lost its Japanese identity.Sakhalin Oblast was created in February 1946, and by March all towns, villages and streets were givenRussian names. More and more colonists began to arrive from mainland Russia, with whom the Japanese were obliged to share the limited stock of housing. In October 1946 the Soviets began to repatriate all remaining Japanese. By 1950 most had been sent, willing or not, to Hokkaido. They had to leave all of their possessions behind, including any currency, Russian or Japanese. Today some keep alive the memory of their former home in the meetings of theKarafuto Renmei, an association for former Karafuto residents.
In 1945, with the defeat of Japan inWorld War II, the Japanese administration in Karafuto ceased to function. The Japanese government formally abolished Karafuto Prefecture as a legal entity on 1 June 1949. In 1951, at theTreaty of San Francisco, Japan renounced its rights to Sakhalin, but did not formally acknowledge Soviet sovereignty over it.[4] Since that time, no final peace treaty has been signed between Japan and Russia, and the status of the neighboringKuril Islandsremains disputed.
The Results Report of theShōwa 10 (1935) National Census
Karafuto Chapter[5]
| 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 |
| Region | Population |
|---|---|
| Karafuto | 100,853 |
| Hokkaido | 86,376 |
| Tōhoku | 76,698 |
| Others | 53,762 |
| Total | 320,689 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
The pre-war economy of Karafuto was based onfishing,forestry andagriculture, together with extraction ofcoal andpetroleum. In terms of industry, thepaper industry and thecharcoal production industry was well developed. Pulp forrayon production inHonshu was predominately sourced from Karafuto.[6] The territory suffered from a labor shortage through most of its history, and tax incentives were provided to encourage immigration.[7] IndigenousNivkh andOroks worked in Japanese-run fisheries and asynthetic 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 theSecond Sino-Japanese War in 1937, their population would increase substantially.[8]
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.
Karafuto was administered from the central government inTokyo as the Karafuto Agency (樺太廳,Karafuto-chō) under the Colonization Bureau (拓務局,Takumukyoku) of theHome Ministry. The Colonization Bureau became theMinistry of Colonial Affairs (拓務省,Takumushō) in 1923 at which time Karafuto was officially designated an overseas territory of theEmpire of Japan.
When the Ministry of Colonial Affairs was absorbed into the newMinistry of Greater East Asia in 1942, the administration of Karafuto was separated, and Karafuto became an integral part of theJapanese archipelago.
| 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 [ja](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 |  | Toshikazu Munei [ja](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 |
As of 1945, Karafuto was divided into four subprefectures, which in turn were subdivided into 11districts, in turn divided into 41municipalities (onecity, 13towns, and 27villages).
Karafuto's largest city wasToyohara, while other major cities includedEsutoru in the north central andMaoka in the south central region.
The list below are the towns and the city of the prefecture. These initalics are the corresponding currentRussian names.
Toyohara Subprefecture (豐原支廳[9])
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