Time Table of Sakhalin Island
- 1 A.D.
- Sengai-kyo (ancient Chinese geography book) says that
the
northern limit of Japan is located at Amur River.
- 658
- Nihon-shyoki (ancient Japanese history book) says that
there was a
fierce battle between Japanese army led by Admiral
Abe-no-hirafu with 200 battle ships and
Tsungus at the mouth of a big river (Amur River?) located on the north of
Japan.
- 1057
- According to the Japanese narrative book, Konjaku Monogatari, after a lost battle, Japanese Samurai, Abe-no-yoritoki
and his clan,
fled to the north of Japan with a big ship. They discovered
a huge river (Amur River?) and went up it during one month. Feared
when
they met one thousand cavalrymen (Mongols?) crossing over the river on a raft by
attaching together their horses, they returned
back
to Japan.
- 1282
- Japanese Buddhist monk, Nichiji-shyounin went to
Sakhalin in
order to evangelize the island.
- 1474
- Kaitou-shyokoku-ki (ancient Korean geography book
describing her eastern countries such as Japan and
Maritime Territory) says that the northern frontier of Japan
is in
the north of Amur River.
- 1485
- A boss of Sakhalin Ainu met Lord Matsumae who was
controlling
the northern frontier of Japan and accepted to become his
vassal.
- 1635
- Matsumae sent Murakami-kamonzaemon to explore the
island. Next
year, another explorer, Koudou-shouemon, reached the village
of
Shikka, located about 49th parallel.
- 1644
- The central government of Tokyo asked each lord to send
him a
map of their own lands in order to make up the complete map
of
Japan. Lord Matsumae sent a map including the whole
Sakhalin,
Kuril Islands and Kamchatka peninsula. This map, called Shoho-okuni-ezu is the oldest existing
map that draws this part of the world.
- 1679
- Matsumae established the town of Ootomari (Kushunkotan
in Ainu,
actual Korsakov), located on the southern shore of Sakhalin, in order
to control the commerce with aborigines (Ainu and Nivkh). It
became the biggest Japanese
treading post in Sakhalin with more than one hundred houses.
Each summer, aborigines living in
north Sakhalin came there to do a business with Japanese.
- 1806
- Russian frigate Junona directed by Chvostoff attacked Ootomari, the largest Japanese trading post of
Sakhalin and burned warehouses after looting
them. They brought then Japanese merchants to Kamchatka as prisoners.
Next year, they
attacked Etorofu Island (Iturup in Russian) in the southern Kuril chain then Rutaka
on the west of Ootomari.
- 1808
- The central government sent Mamiya
Rinzo to Sakhalin in order to
explore the northern part of Sakhalin, unknown for Japanese until then.
- 1853
- Russia put her flag at the northern limit of Sakhalin
and declared it
as her territory. Then, she established a military base at
Ootomari near Japanese treading post, despite of the protestation of Japanese,
to intimidate them.
- 1855
- First negotiation to settle a frontier between the two
countries was
held in 1855 at Shimoda, a tiny town located at 50km
south-west of
Tokyo. Japanese chief negotiator was Kawaji Toshiakira and
Russian,
Evfimii Vasilievich Putiatin. This is Treaty of Shimoda and
stipulates the
following: Russia takes North Kurils and Japan South Kurils
but
there was no settlement about Sakhalin i.e. two nationals
can
live in this island as before, Japanese in the south and
Russians in the north, without fixing the frontier. Russia
accepted to destroy the
military base of Ootomari.
- 1859
- Admiral Muravieff, governor of East Siberia entered in
the bay of
Tokyo with 7 battle ships and threatened Japanese to accept
the
Russian belonging of Sakhalin, but it was refused.
- 1860
- By taking advantage of Taiping rebellion in China, Russia took the Maritime Territory, where actual
Vladivostok is, by threatening Chinese to declare a war, if they didn't give it
up. This
is Treaty of Pekin (1860). From then the Russian pressure to
Japan
increased: they argued that because Nivkh, inhabitants of
North
Sakhalin, had obeyed the Chinese government, Sakhalin should
be Russian too.
- 1865
- The central government sent Okamoto Kanpo to the
northern limit
of Sakhalin and put a stele declaring the whole island as
Japanese
possession.
- 1867
- Japan had to accept the convention of Saint Petersburg
that
stipulates that Sakhalin is a condominium between two
countries.
As soon as Sakhalin became a condominium, Russian threat
increased in force. They sent Cossack's troops that set fire
to
Japanese settlements and tried to provoke diplomatic
incidents.
- 1875
- Very ill equipped and unable to respond to the Russian
military
power, Japanese had to give up very rich Sakhalin Island in
exchange of icy and uninhabitable North Kurils that had
belonged
to them before. This is Treaty of Saint Petersburg.
- 1905
- After the Russo-Japanese war, Japanese recovered
partially the
sovereignty of Sakhalin but should give up North Sakhalin
that they
occupied during the war. The island was divided into two
sectors
and the frontier between two countries was settled at 50th
parallel.
This is Treaty of Portsmouth.
- 1920
- During the occupation of the southern Siberia by the Allied
Powers, several hundred Japanese (350 workers and 370
soldiers) were
slaughtered in the prison of Nikolayevsk upon Amur, the town
located in
South Siberia near Sakhalin, by Bolsheviks. In reprisal,
Japan
occupied North Sakhalin and this provoked in turn a
protestation of
Americans and Soviets. Finally in January 1925, the two
countries
signed a treaty and the Japanese army withdrew from North
Sakhalin in
exchange of a right of petroleum's concession. The Soviet
government
expressed a sincere regret to the massacre of Nikolayevsk.
- 1945
- On August 8 1945, denouncing the pact of neutrality
between two
countries, valid until spring 1946, Russia entered the war
against
Japan. The Red Army crossed the 50th parallel, frontier
between 2
countries in Sakhalin, and went down to the south. On August
15,
Japan accepted the declaration of Potsdam to end the war.
Feared that
the cease-fire line becomes the definitive frontier (they
advanced
only 100 km in Sakhalin and even worse no Russian in Kuril islands), they
continued to bombard Japanese towns and military positions,
and even
prepared to invade Hokkaido. During this period, several
thousand
civilians were killed by Russians. The worst case was the
attack, by
Russian submarines, of the 3 Japanese ships transporting
refugees from
Sakhalin and made 1700 victims. Finally they stopped to
fight, on
August 22. Then, 600,000 Japanese, mostly soldiers from
Sakhalin and
Manchuria have been brought to Siberia's labor camps and
60,000 among
them have never returned to the homeland.
- 1951
- Conference of San Francisco that should settle the
definitive
frontier between two countries was boycotted by the Russian
delegation. They refused to sign the final document, because
it
didn't say clearly that south Sakhalin and Kurils should
become Russian
territories. So the frontier between 2 countries remains
undefined until now.
- 1983
- Soviet war planes brought down a Boeing of Korean Air Lines
and killed 240
passengers aboard above South Sakhalin. It is a totally
illegal action for the international law because
that land don't yet officially belong to Russia.
- 1995
- A huge earthquake rocked North Sakhalin and destroyed
completely the town of Neftegorsk.
Boris Yeltsin refused an immediate Japanese rescue, fearing
that the territorial dispute
should appear again before the international scene. Total
victims rose to 1800 people.
www.karafuto.com/timetab.html
Last update: July 17, 2020