SETTLERS IN KARAFUTO BETWEEN EMPIRES AND NATIONS: HUMAN STORIES OF RETURNING AND REMAINING

Abstract

Karafuto was considered Japan’s most northern and important territory during the period of the Japanese Empire and was home to approximately 400,000 migrants. After Japan’s defeat in World War II, the Soviet Union, which had claimed the northern part of the island, quickly occupied Karafuto, and most of those migrants were left behind on the island. This thesis explores how Karafuto migrants became returnees from Sakhalin or Sakhalin remainees, and their relation to the states. The analysis focuses primarily on micro-history, personal history, drawing from migration history, border history, and imperial history. This paper argues that people’s identities, family structures, and feelings about repatriation and remaining in Sakhalin cannot be explained by the existing framework of stereotypical Karafuto migrants and Sakhalin returnees and remainees. The name lists of about 7,000 Sakhalin Koreans and some articles in a local Japanese newspaper reveal the diverse trajectory and complex identity of Karafuto migrants.