1st Edition

Voices from the Shifting Russo-Japanese Border Karafuto / Sakhalin

Edited By Svetlana Paichadze, Philip A. Seaton Copyright 2015
    262 Pages 30 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    262 Pages 30 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    In the nineteenth century, as the Russian empire expanded eastwards and the Japanese empire expanded onto the Asian continent, the Russo-Japanese border became contested on and around the island of Sakhalin, its Russian name, or Karafuto, as it is known in Japanese. Then in the wake of the Second World War, Russia seized control of the island and the Japanese inhabitants were deported. Sakhalin’s history as a border zone makes it a lynchpin of Russo-Japanese relations, and as such it is a rich case study for exploring the key themes of this book: life in the borderlands, migration, repatriation, historical memory, multiculturalism and identity.

    With a focus on cross-border dialogue, Voices from the Shifting Russo-Japanese Border reveals the lives of the ordinary people in the border regions between Russia and Japan, and how they and their communities have been affected by shifts in the Russo-Japanese border over the past century-and-a-half. Examining the lives and experiences of repatriates from Karafuto/Sakhalin in contemporary Hokkaido and their contribution to the multicultural society of Japan’s northernmost island, the chapters cover the border shifts in Karafuto/Sakhalin up until 1945, the immediate aftermath the Second World War, the commemorative practices and memories of those in both Japan and Eastern Russia, and, finally, postwar lives by drawing extensively on interviews with people in the communities affected most by the shifting border.

    This interdisciplinary book will be of huge interest to students and scholars across a broad range of subjects including Russo-Japanese relations, Northeast Asian history, border studies, migration studies, and the Second World War.

    Introduction, Svetlana Paichadze and Philip Seaton Part I: Borderland Societies Pre-1945 1. Japanese Society on Karafuto, Taisho Nakayama 2. Borders, Borderlands and Migration in Sakhalin and the Priamur Region: a Comparative Study, Igor Saveliev Part II: Postwar Population Movements 3. Occupation-era Hokkaido and the Emergence of the Karafuto Repatriate: the Role of Repatriate Leaders, Jonathan Bull 4. Soviet Rule in South Sakhalin and the Japanese Community, 1945-9, Yuzuru Tonai 5. Returning from Harbin: Northeast Asia, 1945, David Wolff  Part III: Reconstructing Narratives of Karafuto/Sakhalin 6. Memories Beyond Borders: Karafuto Sites of Memory in Hokkaido, Philip Seaton 7. Homecoming Visits to Karafuto: How Is Home (Furusato) Reconstructed After a Long Absence?, Masatoshi Miyashita 8. Russia’s ‘Last Barren Islands’: The Southern Kurils and the Territorialisation of Regional Memory, Paul Richardson Part IV: Postwar Lives and Returning 'Home' 9. Dreams of Returning to the Homeland: Koreans in Karafuto and Sakhalin, Yulia Din 10. Multi-layered Identities of Returnees in their ‘Historical Homeland’: Returnees from Sakhalin, Mooam Hyun and Svetlana Paichadze 11. Language, Identity and Educational Issues of ‘Repatriates’ from Sakhalin, Svetlana Paichadze

    Biography

    Svetlana Paichadze is a Researcher in the Graduate School of International Media, Communication and Tourism Studies, Hokkaido University, Japan.

    Philip A. Seaton is a Professor in the International Student Center, Hokkaido University, Japan.