Japanese evacuation of Karafuto and the Kuril Islands

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Location of Kuril Islands in the Western Pacific.

The evacuation of

Chishima (kuril) islands refers to the events that took place during the Pacific theater of World War II as the Japanese population left these areas, to August 1945 in the northwest of the main islands of Japan
.

The evacuation started under the threat of Soviet invasion. As Japanese civilians evacuated Korea and Manchuria, they cleared out of the Karafuto and Kurile Islands according to the terms of the Potsdam Declaration that the terms of the Cairo Declaration would be carried out, and Japanese sovereignty would be limited to the Home Islands of Honshū, Hokkaidō, Kyushu, Shikoku and such minor islands as the Allies determined.

Timeline

Karafuto

Main article:
Invasion of South Sakhalin

The operation began with the crossing of the

Shikuka district, as well as the advance to the north of Koton (now Pobedino
), a powerful fortified district (FD). Severe fighting with heavy losses on both sides continued for over a week, with Soviet troops breaking the Japanese defenses on 18 August. The Soviets also landed their naval forces deep behind enemy frontlines to aid their ground forces.

According to some of the 6,000 refugees already evacuated from the area, Soviet forces carried out fierce naval bombardment and artillery strikes against civilians awaiting evacuation as well as Japanese installations in

Wakkanai and Mainland Japan until the moment that Soviet forces destroyed the telephone and postal installations in the city.[1]

On 20 August, after Japan's surrender, fearing that they would be raped by the invading Soviet troops, nine of the twelve female operators poisoned themselves. Three were saved by male colleagues' intervention. The survivors at the post office were treated well by the Soviets.[2]

On 16 August, the coastguard

Esutoru (now Uglegorsk), Anbetsu (now Vozvrashcheniye) and Yerinai
).

During the

Maoka (now Kholmsk). They were preceded by a group of scouts, landed secretly by a submarine, in the Maoka area to successfully complete their task. However, Japanese resistance was desperate, and the landing party had to fight particularly fiercely. Japanese fire set one of the coastguard vessels on fire, to which the Soviet response was intense naval bombardment of the city, causing more civilian deaths.[citation needed
]

The rest of the Japanese Maoka defenders retreated by Tei (now

Toyohara in order to make a last stand in the capital of the province or in Kawakami Sumiyama
county for sustained guerrilla resistance.

On 25 August, another 1,600 men landed in Otomari (now Korsakov). The Japanese garrison of 3,400 men laid down their arms with almost no resistance and surrendered.

Some vessels of the last convoy, including civilian evacuees, had been sunk by Soviet submarines in the

Aniva Gulf. Soviet Leninets-class submarine L-12 and L-19 sank two Japanese refugee transport ships Ogasawara Maru and Taito Maru also damaged No.2 Shinko Maru on 22 August. Over 2,400 civilian were killed.[1]

Kuriles

Main article: Invasion of the Kuril Islands

The rout of Japanese forces in

Paramushiro Islands. On 18 August, two coast guard ships, the mine layer Okhotsk
, four minesweepers, 17 transports and 16 special landing vessels with nearly 9,000 sailors, soldiers, and officers on board, approached Shumushu and Paramushiro to start the landing operation. The Japanese offered fierce resistance. Bloody battles took place in Shumushu and Paramushiro with varying success till 23 August when the Japanese garrison surrendered.

By the end of August, all the northern Kuriles were under the control of Soviet forces, including

Uruppu Island. The Northern Pacific Flotilla
occupied the rest of the islands to the south of Uruppu. Up to 60,000 Japanese officers and men were taken prisoner in the Kuriles. The landing operation in the Kuriles was the last of World War II.

In the

Uruppu and South Kuriles
. In these cases, Russian troops arrived in aggressive form to expel local citizens and confiscate local property.

Fate of Western residents and Allied prisoners in the area

Similar treatment faced the

summarily executed. Similar things happened to White Russians living in Manchukuo, Kwantung or North Chosen
(Korea).

Some versions (including the work of American researchers[

Honshū
, Manchukuo or Chōsen (the Japanese name for Korea).

The final fate of the supposed

which?] also exist mentioning the possibility of identifying Americans interned in East Siberian gulags in the same period, and possibly into the Cold War period. Such a topic still awaits in-depth research by historians and experts of the area.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d Ealey, Mark (26 February 2006). "An August Storm: the Soviet-Japan Endgame in the Pacific War". The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus. Retrieved 14 November 2010.
  2. ^ Murakawa, Miyuki Mourners mark WWII Sakhalin post office suicides, The Japan Times 12 January 2015, Retrieved 29 July 2015
  3. ^ "TASK FORCE RUSSIA -- BIWEEKLY REPORT 19 DECEMBER 1992-8 JANUARY 1993 12TH REPORT TASK FORCE RUSSIA (POW/MIA) REPORT TO THE U.S. DELEGATION, U.S.-RUSSIAN JOINT COMMISSION ON POW/MIAs 8 JANUARY 1993". memory.loc.gov. Retrieved 30 July 2022.

External links

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