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Paper short abstract

This paper is on the transition of Japan's colony of Karafuto into a Soviet territory following the empire's defeat in WWII. By focusing on the experiences of settlers and colonial labourers, the paper investigates the features and consequences of this failed experiment in Japanese colonialism.

Paper long abstract

For four decades, the southern half of the Sakhalin Island (Karafuto) staged the second of Japan’s experiments in settler colonialism. Acquired formally in 1905 following victory over Imperial Russia, ten years after Taiwan but almost three decades before the start of the bold experiment of Manchukuo, the resource-rich island with a harsh climate became Japan’s second formal colony. It presented the colonizers with a new set of challenges, but also a fresh slate to inscribe ambitious plans for Japan’s future as a rising colonial empire. Like with most colonial projects, these plans envisaged settling the island with Japanese natives, as well as recruiting other colonized peoples, chiefly Koreans and Ainu, for their labour in resource extraction and infrastructure development projects.

The idiosyncrasies of this ambitious attempt at colonization became apparent when the Soviet Union invaded the colony in August 1945, as part of the brief Soviet-Japanese War. The Red Army speedily occupied Karafuto, turning the colony into a liminal space for several months: while retaining the trappings of Japan’s empire, it necessarily acquired newly Soviet characteristics. The Moscow rulers imposed their own policy priorities, an impact of which could be seen, for example, in their refusal to release 24,000 Koreans once mobilized to the island by the Japanese but now needed as workforce in Sovietizing Southern Sakhalin.

In this paper, I analyze the fall of the Japanese colony of Karafuto and its subsequent incorporation into the Soviet Union, with the trials and tribulations in the transitional period in between. In doing so, I consult Soviet and Japanese eyewitness accounts, as well as archival sources in Japanese, Russian, and English, resorting where possible to comparisons with the imperial collapse in another Japanese colony, Manchukuo. My primary goal is to outline the unique features and unintended consequences of Japan’s failed experiment in settler colonialism, which came to prominence during a period when the Soviets reluctantly utilized Japanese institutions (e.g. banks and currency), while attempting to establish their presence. This period of joint rule sheds important light on post-imperial, postcolonial transitions and settlements, and the fates of thousands trapped between empires.