Sakhalin

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Sakhalin (Russian: Сахалин, IPA:

This article contains Manchu text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Manchu alphabet.

Sakhalin has several names including Karafuto (

The Qing dynasty called Sakhalin ‘Kuyedao’ (‘the island of Ainu’) and the indigenous people paid tribute to the Chinese empire. However, there was no formalized border around the island. The Qing dynasty was a pre- modern or ‘world empire’ which did not place emphasis on demarcating borders in the manner of the modern ‘national empires’ of the nineteenth and early twentieth century (Yamamuro 2003: 90–97).[9]

— T. Nakayama

The island was also called "Kuye Fiyaka".^[10] The word "Kuye" used by the Qing is "most probably related to kuyi, the name given to the Sakhalin Ainu by their Nivkh and Nanai neighbors."^[11] When the Ainu migrated onto the mainland, the Chinese described a "strong Kui (or Kuwei, Kuwu, Kuye, Kugi, i.e. Ainu) presence in the area otherwise dominated by the Gilemi or Jilimi (Nivkh and other Amur peoples)."^[12] Related names were in widespread use in the region, for example the Kuril Ainu called themselves koushi.^[11]

History

Early history

Humans lived on Sakhalin in the

After the

From the Nivkh perspective, their surrender to the Mongols essentially established a military alliance against the Ainu who had invaded their lands.[15] According to the History of Yuan, a group of people known as the Guwei (骨嵬; Gǔwéi, the Nivkh name for Ainu) from Sakhalin invaded and fought with the Jilimi (Nivkh people) every year. On 30 November 1264, the Mongols attacked the Ainu.^[16] The Ainu resisted the Mongol invasions but by 1308 had been subdued. They paid tribute to the Mongol Yuan dynasty at posts in Wuliehe, Nanghar, and Boluohe.^[17]

The Chinese Ming dynasty (1368–1644) placed Sakhalin under its "system for subjugated peoples" (ximin tizhi). From 1409 to 1411 the Ming established an outpost called the Nurgan Regional Military Commission near the ruins of Tyr on the Siberian mainland, which continued operating until the mid-1430s. There is some evidence that the Ming eunuch Admiral Yishiha reached Sakhalin in 1413 during one of his expeditions to the lower Amur, and granted Ming titles to a local chieftain.^[18]

The Ming recruited headmen from Sakhalin for administrative posts such as commander (指揮使; zhǐhuīshǐ), assistant commander (指揮僉事; zhǐhuī qiānshì), and "official charged with subjugation" (衛鎮撫; wèizhènfǔ). In 1431, one such assistant commander, Alige, brought marten pelts as tribute to the Wuliehe post. In 1437, four other assistant commanders (Zhaluha, Sanchiha, Tuolingha, and Alingge) also presented tribute. According to the Ming Veritable Records, these posts, like the position of headman, were hereditary and passed down the patrilineal line. During these tributary missions, the headmen would bring their sons, who later inherited their titles. In return for tribute, the Ming awarded them with silk uniforms.^[17]

Nivkh women in Sakhalin married Han Chinese Ming officials when the Ming took tribute from Sakhalin and the Amur river region.^[19][20]

Qing tributary

The Manchu

The Qing dynasty ruled these regions by imposing upon them a fur tribute system, just as had the Yuan and Ming dynasties. Residents who were required to pay tributes had to register according to their hala (ᡥᠠᠯᠠ, the clan of the father's side) and gashan (ᡤᠠᡧᠠᠨ, village), and a designated chief of each unit was put in charge of district security as well as the annual collection and delivery of fur. By 1750, fifty-six hala and 2,398 households were registered as fur tribute payers, – those who paid with fur were rewarded mainly with Nishiki silk brocade, and every year the dynasty supplied the chief of each clan and village with official silk clothes (mangpao, duanpao), which were the gowns of the mandarin. Those who offered especially large fur tributes were granted the right to create a familial relationship with officials of the Manchu Eight Banners (at the time equivalent to Chinese aristocrats) by marrying an official's adopted daughter. Further, the tribute payers were allowed to engage in trade with officials and merchants at the tribute location. By these policies, the Qing dynasty brought political stability to the region and established the basis for commerce and economic development.^[24]

— Shiro Sasaki

The Qing dynasty established an office in

Local native Sakhalin chiefs had their daughters taken as wives by Manchu officials as sanctioned by the Qing dynasty when the Qing exercised jurisdiction in Sakhalin and took tribute from them.[26]^[20]

Japanese exploration and colonization

In 1635 Matsumae Kinhiro, the second daimyō of Matsumae Domain in Hokkaidō, sent Satō Kamoemon and Kakizaki Kuroudo on an expedition to Sakhalin. One of the Matsumae explorers, Kodō Shōzaemon, stayed in the island in the winter of 1636 and sailed along the east coast to Taraika (now Poronaysk) in the spring of 1637.^[27]

In an early colonization attempt, a Japanese settlement was established at Ōtomari on Sakhalin's southern end in 1679.^[28] Cartographers of the Matsumae clan drew a map of the island and called it "Kita-Ezo" (Northern Ezo, Ezo being the old Japanese name for the islands north of Honshu).

In the 1780s the influence of the Japanese

Mogami's interest in the Sakhalin trade intensified when he learned that Yaenkoroaino, the above-mentioned elder from Nayoro, possessed a memorandum written in Manchurian, which stated that the Ainu elder was an official of the Qing state. Later surveys on Sakhalin by shogunal officials such as Takahashi Jidayú and Nakamura Koichiró only confirmed earlier observations: Sakhalin and Sóya Ainu traded foreign goods at trading posts, and because of the pressure to meet quotas, they fell into debt. These goods, the officials confirmed, originated at Qing posts, where continental traders acquired them during tributary ceremonies. The information contained in these types of reports turned out to be a serious blow to the future of Matsumae's trade monopoly in Ezo.[30]

— Brett L. Walker

Japan proclaimed sovereignty over Sakhalin in 1807, and in 1809 Mamiya Rinzō claimed that it was an island.^[31]

European exploration

The first European known to visit Sakhalin was

The Jesuits did not have a chance to visit the island, and the geographical information provided by the Nanai people and Manchus who had been to the island was insufficient to allow them to identify it as the land visited by de Vries in 1643. As a result, many 17th-century maps showed a rather strangely shaped Sakhalin, which included only the northern half of the island (with Cape Patience), while Cape Aniva, discovered by de Vries, and the "Black Cape" (Cape Crillon) were thought to form part of the mainland.^[citation needed]

Only with the 1787 expedition of Jean-François de La Pérouse did the island began to resemble something of its true shape on European maps. Though unable to pass through its northern "bottleneck" due to contrary winds, La Perouse charted most of the Strait of Tartary, and islanders he encountered near today's Nevelskoy Strait told him that the island was called "Tchoka" (or at least that is how he recorded the name in French), and "Tchoka" appears on some maps thereafter.^[34]

19th century

Russo-Japanese rivalry

On the basis of its belief that it was an extension of Hokkaido, both geographically and culturally, Japan again proclaimed sovereignty over the whole island (as well as the Kuril Islands chain) in 1845, in the face of competing claims from Russia. In 1849, however, the Russian navigator Gennady Nevelskoy recorded the existence and navigability of the strait later given his name, and Russian settlers began establishing coal mines, administration facilities, schools, and churches on the island. In 1853–54, Nikolay Rudanovsky surveyed and mapped the island.^[35]

In 1855, Russia and Japan signed the

In 1857, the Russians established a penal colony on Sakhalin.^[36] The island remained under shared sovereignty until the signing of the 1875 Treaty of Saint Petersburg, in which Japan surrendered its claims in Sakhalin to Russia. In 1890 the author Anton Chekhov visited the penal colony on Sakhalin and published a memoir of his journey.^[37]

Division along 50th parallel

Japanese forces invaded and occupied Sakhalin in the closing stages of the

South Sakhalin was administered by Japan as

The northern, Russian, half of the island formed Sakhalin Oblast, with the capital at Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinsky.^{[citation needed]}

Whaling

Between 1848 and 1902, American whaleships hunted whales off Sakhalin.^[38] They cruised for bowhead and gray whales to the north and right whales to the east and south.^[39]

On June 7, 1855, the ship Jefferson (396 tons), of New London, was wrecked on Cape Levenshtern, on the northeastern side of the island, during a fog. All hands were saved as well as 300 barrels of whale oil.^[40][41][42]

Second World War

While the vast majority of Sakhalin Japanese and Koreans were gradually repatriated between 1946 and 1950, tens of thousands of Sakhalin Koreans (and a number of their Japanese spouses) remained in the Soviet Union.^[45][46]

No final peace treaty has been signed and the status of four neighboring islands remains disputed. Japan renounced its claims of sovereignty over southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands in the Treaty of San Francisco (1951), but maintains that the four offshore islands of Hokkaido currently administered by Russia were not subject to this renunciation.^[47] Japan granted mutual exchange visas for Japanese and Ainu families divided by the change in status. Recently, economic and political cooperation has gradually improved between the two nations despite disagreements.^[48]

Recent history

On 1 September 1983, Korean Air Flight 007, a South Korean civilian airliner, flew over Sakhalin and was shot down by the Soviet Union, just west of Sakhalin Island, near the smaller Moneron Island. The Soviet Union claimed it was a spy plane; however, commanders on the ground realized it was a commercial aircraft. All 269 passengers and crew died, including a U.S. Congressman, Larry McDonald.^{[citation needed]}

On 27 May 1995, the 7.0 M_w 

Sakhalin is separated from the mainland by the narrow and shallow Strait of Tartary, which often freezes in winter in its narrower part, and from Hokkaido, Japan, by the Soya Strait or La Pérouse Strait. Sakhalin is the largest island in Russia, being 948 km (589 mi) long, and 25 to 170 km (16 to 106 mi) wide, with an area of 72,492 km² (27,989 sq mi).^[2] It lies at similar latitudes to England, Wales and Ireland.

Its orography and geological structure are imperfectly known. One theory is that Sakhalin arose from the Sakhalin Island Arc.^[49] Nearly two-thirds of Sakhalin is mountainous. Two parallel ranges of mountains traverse it from north to south, reaching 600–1,500 m (2,000–4,900 ft). The Western Sakhalin Mountains peak in Mount Ichara, 1,481 m (4,859 ft), while the Eastern Sakhalin Mountains's highest peak, Mount Lopatin 1,609 m (5,279 ft), is also the island's highest mountain. Tym-Poronaiskaya Valley separates the two ranges. Susuanaisky and Tonino-Anivsky ranges traverse the island in the south, while the swampy Northern-Sakhalin plain occupies most of its north.^[50]

Crystalline rocks crop out at several capes;

Main rivers: The Tym, 330 km (205 mi) long and navigable by rafts and light boats for 80 km (50 mi), flows north and northeast with numerous rapids and shallows, and enters the Sea of Okhotsk.^[51] The Poronay flows south-southeast to the Gulf of Patience or Shichiro Bay, on the southeastern coast. Three other small streams enter the wide semicircular Aniva Bay or Higashifushimi Bay at the southern extremity of the island.

The northernmost point of Sakhalin is

Sakhalin has two smaller islands associated with it, Moneron Island and Ush Island. Moneron, the only land mass in the Tatar strait, 7.2 km (4.5 mi) long and 5.6 km (3.5 mi) wide, is about 24 nautical miles (44 km) west from the nearest coast of Sakhalin and 41 nmi (76 km) from the port city of Nevelsk. Ush Island is an island off of the northern coast of Sakhalin.

• 
  Sakhalin and its surroundings.
• 
  Velikan Cape, Sakhalin
• 
  Zhdanko Mountain Ridge

Demographics

According to the 1897 census, Sakhalin had a population of 28,113, of which 56.2% were Russians, 8.4% Ukrainians, 7.0% Nivkh, 5.8% Poles, 5.4% Tatars, 5.1% Ainu, 2.82% Oroks, 0.95% Germans, 0.81% Japanese, with the non-indigenous people living mainly from agriculture, or being convicts or exiles.^[52] The majority of Nivkh, Ainu and Japanese lived from fishing or hunting, whereas the Oroks lived mainly by livestock breeding.^[53] The Ainu, Japanese and Koreans lived almost exclusively in the southern part of the island.^[54] Since 1925, many Poles fled Soviet Russian persecution in the north to the then Japanese south.^[55]

In 2010, the island's population was recorded at 497,973, 83% of whom were ethnic

The administrative center of the oblast, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, a city of about 175,000, has a large Korean minority, typically referred to as Sakhalin Koreans, who were forcibly brought by the Japanese during World War II to work in the coal mines. Most of the population lives in the southern half of the island, centered mainly around Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and two ports, Kholmsk and Korsakov (population about 40,000 each).

The 400,000

The Sea of Okhotsk ensures that Sakhalin has a cold and humid climate, ranging from humid continental (Köppen Dfb) in the south to subarctic (Dfc) in the centre and north. The maritime influence makes summers much cooler than in similar-latitude inland cities such as Harbin or Irkutsk, but makes the winters much snowier and a few degrees warmer than in interior East Asian cities at the same latitude. Summers are foggy with little sunshine.^{[58][failed verification]}

Precipitation is heavy, owing to the strong onshore winds in summer and the high frequency of North Pacific storms affecting the island in the autumn. It ranges from around 500 millimetres (20 in) on the northwest coast to over 1,200 millimetres (47 in) in southern mountainous regions. In contrast to interior east Asia with its pronounced summer maximum, onshore winds ensure Sakhalin has year-round precipitation with a peak in the autumn.^[50]

Flora and fauna

The whole of the island is covered with dense

Transport, especially by sea, is an important segment of the economy. Nearly all the cargo arriving for Sakhalin (and the

For the 2016 summer season, this route will be served by a highspeed catamaran ferry from Singapore named Penguin 33. The ferry is owned by Penguin International Limited[59] and operated by Sakhalin Shipping Company.^[60]

Sakhalin's main shipping company is Sakhalin Shipping Company, headquartered in Kholmsk on the island's west coast.

Rail

About 30% of all inland transport volume is carried by the island's railways, most of which are organized as the Sakhalin Railway (Сахалинская железная дорога), which is one of the 17 territorial divisions of the Russian Railways.

The

The process of converting the railways from the Japanese 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge to the Russian 1,520 mm (4 ft 11+27⁄32 in) gauge began in 2004[61]^[62] and was completed in 2019.^[63] The original Japanese

Besides the main network run by the Russian Railways, until December 2006 the local oil company (Sakhalinmorneftegaz) operated a corporate narrow-gauge 750 mm (2 ft 5+1⁄2 in) line extending for 228 kilometers (142 mi) from Nogliki further north to Okha (Узкоколейная железная дорога Оха – Ноглики). During the last years of its service, it gradually deteriorated; the service was terminated in December 2006, and the line was dismantled in 2007–2008.^[64]

• 
  A passenger train in Nogliki
• 
  A Japanese

  D51 steam locomotive

  outside the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Railway Station

Air

Sakhalin is connected by regular flights to

The idea of building a fixed link between Sakhalin and the Russian mainland was first put forward in the 1930s. In the 1940s, an abortive attempt was made to link the island via a 10-kilometre-long (6 mi) undersea tunnel.^[65] The project was abandoned under Premier Nikita Khrushchev. In 2000, the Russian government revived the idea, adding a suggestion that a 40-km (25 mile) long bridge could be constructed between Sakhalin and the Japanese island of Hokkaidō, providing Japan with a direct connection to the Eurasian railway network. It was claimed that construction work could begin as early as 2001. The idea was received skeptically by the Japanese government and appears to have been shelved, probably permanently, after the cost was estimated at as much as $50 billion.

In November 2008, Russian president

]

Economy

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Sakhalin is a classic "primary sector of the economy" area, relying on oil and gas exports, coal mining, forestry, and fishing. Limited quantities of rye, wheat, oats, barley and vegetables grow there, although the growing season averages less than 100 days.^[50]

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the subsequent

In 1996, two large consortia, Sakhalin-I and Sakhalin-II, signed contracts to explore for oil and gas off the northeast coast of the island. The two consortia's pre-project estimate of costs were a combined US$21 billion on the two projects; costs had almost doubled to $37 billion as of September 2006, triggering Russian governmental opposition. The cost will include an estimated US$1 billion to upgrade the island's infrastructure: roads, bridges, waste management sites, airports, railways, communications systems, and ports. In addition, Sakhalin-III-through-VI are in various early stages of development.

The Sakhalin I project, managed by

A second consortium, Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd (Sakhalin Energy), is managing the Sakhalin II project. It has completed the first production-sharing agreement (PSA) with the Russian Federation. Sakhalin Energy will build two 800-km pipelines running from the northeast of the island to Prigorodnoye (Prigorodnoe) in Aniva Bay at the southern end. The consortium will also build, at Prigorodnoye, the first liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant to be built in Russia. The oil and gas are also bound for East Asian markets.

Sakhalin II has come under fire from environmental groups, namely Sakhalin Environment Watch, for dumping dredging material in Aniva Bay. These groups were also worried about the offshore pipelines interfering with the migration of whales off the island. The consortium has (as of January  2006^[update]) rerouted the pipeline to avoid the whale migration. After a doubling in the projected cost, the Russian government threatened to halt the project for environmental reasons.^[68] There have been suggestions^{[by whom?]} that the Russian government is using the environmental issues as a pretext for obtaining a greater share of revenues from the project and/or forcing involvement by the state-controlled Gazprom. The cost overruns (at least partly due to Shell's response to environmental concerns), are reducing the share of profits flowing to the Russian treasury.^{[69][70][71][72]}

In 2000, the oil-and-gas industry accounted for 57.5% of Sakhalin's industrial output. By 2006 it is expected^{[by whom?]} to account for 80% of the island's industrial output. Sakhalin's economy is growing rapidly thanks to its oil-and-gas industry.

As of 18 April 2007^[update], Gazprom had taken a 50% plus one share interest in Sakhalin II by purchasing 50% of Shell, Mitsui and Mitsubishi's shares.

In June 2021, it was announced that Russia aims to make Sakhalin Island carbon neutral by 2025.^[73]

International partnerships

• Gig Harbor, Washington
  , United States
• Jeju Province, South Korea

Claimed by

• Russian Empire 18th Century to 1875
• Tokugawa Shogunate, Empire of Japan
  1840–1875
• Qing dynasty, 1636–1872

See also

• List of islands of Russia
• Ryugase Group – a geological formation on the island
• Winter storms of 2009–10 in East Asia

Citations

Works cited

• ISBN 9780824864194
  .
• Kim, Loretta E. (2019), Ethnic Chrysalis, Harvard University Asia Center
• Nakamura, Kazuyuki (2010). "Kita kara no mōko shūrai wo meguru shōmondai" 「北からの蒙古襲来」をめぐる諸問題 [Several questions around "the Mongol attack from the north"]. In Kikuchi, Toshihiko (ed.). Hokutō Ajia no rekishi to bunka 北東アジアの歴史と文化 [A history and cultures of Northeast Asia] (in Japanese). Hokkaido University Press.
  ISBN 9784832967342
  .
• Nakamura, Kazuyuki (2012). "Gen-Mindai no shiryō kara mieru Ainu to Ainu bunka" 元・明代の史料にみえるアイヌとアイヌ文化 [The Ainu and Ainu culture from historical records of the Yuan and Ming]. In Katō, Hirofumi; Suzuki, Kenji (eds.). Atarashii Ainu shi no kōchiku : senshi hen, kodai hen, chūsei hen 新しいアイヌ史の構築 : 先史編・古代編・中世編 (in Japanese). Hokkaido University. pp. 138–145.
• Nakayama, Taisho (2015), Japanese Society on Karafuto, Voices from the Shifting Russo-Japanese Border: Karafuto / Sakhalin,
  ISBN 978-1-315-75268-6 – via Google Books
• Narangoa, Li (2014), Historical Atlas of Northeast Asia, 1590–2010: Korea, Manchuria, Mongolia, Eastern Siberia, New York: Columbia University Press,
  ISBN 9780231160704
• Schlesinger, Jonathan (2017), A World Trimmed with Fur: Wild Things, Pristine Places, and the Natural Fringes of Qing Rule,
  ISBN 9781503600683
• Smith, Norman, ed. (2017), Empire and Environment in the Making of Manchuria,
  ISBN 9780774832908
• Sasaki, Shiro (1999), Trading Brokers and Partners with China, Russia, and Japan, In W. W. Fitzhugh and C. O. Dubreuil (eds.) Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People, Arctic Study Center, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.
• Stephan, John (1971). Sakhalin: a history. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  ISBN 9780198215509
  .
• Tanaka, Sakurako (Sherry) (2000). The Ainu of Tsugaru : the indigenous history and shamanism of northern Japan (Thesis). The University of British Columbia.
  doi:10.14288/1.0076926
  .
• Trekhsviatskyi, Anatolii (2007). "At the far edge of the Chinese Oikoumene: Mutual relations of the indigenous population of Sakhalin with the Yuan and Ming dynasties". Journal of Asian History. 41 (2): 131–155.
  JSTOR 41933457
  .
• Walker, Brett L. (2006). The Conquest of Ainu Lands: Ecology and Culture in Japanese Expansion, 1590–1800. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press.
  ISBN 0-520-24834-1
  .
• Zgusta, Richard (2015). The peoples of Northeast Asia through time : precolonial ethnic and cultural processes along the coast between Hokkaido and the Bering Strait. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.
  OCLC 912504787
  .

Further reading

• Anton Chekhov, A Journey to Sakhalin (1895), including:
  • Saghalien [or Sakhalin] Island (1891–1895)
  • Across Siberia
• C. H. Hawes, In the Uttermost East (London, 1903). (quoted in EB1911, see below)
• Ajay Kamalakaran, Sakhalin Unplugged (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, 2006)
• Ajay Kamalakaran, Globetrotting for Love and Other Stories from Sakhalin Island (Times Group Books, 2017)
• Kropotkin, Peter Alexeivitch; Bealby, John Thomas (1911). "Sakhalin" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 24 (11th ed.). p. 54.
• John J. Stephan, Sakhalin: A History. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sakhalin.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Sakhalin.

• Map of the Sakhalin Hydrocarbon Region – at Blackbourn Geoconsulting
• TransGlobal Highway – Proposed Sakhalin–Hokkaidō Friendship Tunnel
• Steam and the Railways of Sakhalin
• Maps of Ezo, Sakhalin and Kuril Islands from 1854