Evacuation of Karafuto and Kuriles

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The evacuation of Karafuto and the Kuriles refers to the events that took place as the Japanese population left these areas, to the north-west of the main islands of Japan, in August 1945. (Simultaneously Chosen, Kwantung and Manchukuo were being evacuated by Japanese civilians.)

The evacuation started under the threat of Soviet invasion. It was completed 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.

1 Russian version
2 Japanese version
3 Fate of Western residents and Allied prisoners in the area
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Russian version

The operation began with the crossing of the Horonai (Poronai) Japanese frontier River post and bombardment of the Handenzawa Japanese land frontier post in Shikuka district, and advance to north of Koton (now Pobedino), a powerful fortified district (FD). Severe fighting with heavy losses continued for over a week. Only on August 18 did Russian troops succeed in breaking the enemy’s defense. In this case, landings by Pacific navymen deep behind enemy front lines were of significant help to Soviet ground forces. Such invaders inflicted terror and panic on Japanese settlers in Shikuka (now Poronaysk), Motodomari (now Vostochny), Horonai (now Klokovo), Higashi Naibuchi (now Uglezavodsk), Keton (now Smirnykh), Miyuki (now Starorusskoye) and Nairo (now Gastello).

On August 16, the coastguard Zarnitsa, four minesweepers, two transports, six gunboats and nineteen torpedo boats landed in Port Toro (now Shakhtersk) the 365th Separate Marine Battalion and one battalion of the 113th infantry brigade. The men instantly engaged the enemy in fierce battle and by morning of the next day had captured four populated areas and the port city of Esutoru (now Uglegorsk), Anbetsu (now Vozvrashcheniye) and Yerinai).

On August 20, a combined marine battalion and the 113th infantry brigade landed in Port Maoka (now Kholmsk). They were preceded by a group of scouts, landed secretively by submarine Sh-118, in the Maoka area to successfully complete their task. However, Japanese resistance was desperate, and the landing party had to fight particularly fiercely and valiantly. Enemy fire set one of the coastguards on fire, to which the Russian response was intense naval bombardment of the city, causing more civilian deaths. It is known as Maoka Massacre.

In one particular case, the female Japanese telephone operators in the city decided not to retire and treated to maintain contact with the metropolitan area till the moment that Russian forces destroyed the telephone and postal installations in city. The Japanese retreated inland, having over 300 dead and 600 taken prisoner. Other groups disembarked in Kushunnai (now Ilyinsky), Kita Nayoshi (now Lesogorsk) and Ushiro (now Orlovo).

The rest of Japanese Maoka defenders retreated by Tei (now Polyakovo) and Futomato (now Chaplanovo) in Ikenohata county, between mountains in the direction of Toyohara in order to make a last stand in the capital of the province or Kawakami Sumiyama county for sustained guerrilla resistance. The success in Maoka are also known in Japan as the Maoka Massacre.

On August 25, one more parties of Pacific navymen consisting of 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. Previously from this port, some vessels of the retiring last convoy with civilian refugees had been sunk by Soviet submarines in Aniva Gulf.

The rout of Japanese forces in Manchuria and Sakhalin created favorable conditions for liberation of the Kurile Islands. The key Japanese position was on Shumushu and Paramushiro Islands. On August 18, two coast guards, the mine layer "Okhotsk", 4 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 enemy offered fierce resistance. Bloody battles took place in Shumushu and Paramushiro with varying success till August 23. By the end of the day, the Japanese garrison surrendered.

By the end of August, all the northern Kuriles had been liberated from the enemy, including Uruppu Island. The Northern Pacific Flotilla occupied the rest of the islands to the south of Uruppu. Up to sixty thousand Japanese officers and men were taken prisoner in the Kuriles. The landing operation in the Kuriles was the last of World War Two.

[edit] Japanese version

According to refugees from the area, Soviet forces in accord with the wartime situation carried out fierce naval bombardment and artillery strikes against innocent civilians and Japanese installations (possibly in revenge for the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905), massive slaughter by machine gun fire and building demolitions by explosives. Additionally, Russian troops engaged in some cases in the sacking and looting of Japanese property and sank civil vessels by use of coastal land artillery or submarines in the area. The most evident and terrible excesses occurred in Maoka, Shikuka (now Poronaysk), Nairo (now Gastello), Esutoru and Otomari.

In the Kuriles a similar pattern was repeated when Japanese civilians desperately retired from Shumushu and Paramushiro before the Soviet invasion (The Russians only sank one war vessel transporting some Japanese troops), but did not occur at the time in some islands such as Uruppu and South Kuriles. In these case, Russian troops, arriving in aggressive form to expel local citizens and confiscate local property. It was later reported that Soviet forces had asked civilians about whether or not American forces were present in the Kuriles, which suggests that this may have been a major concern. Thousands of Japanese civilians were killed in Karafuto. Recorded deaths are in the town of Maoka (population 9,000), 2,000 Japanese civilians were killed known as Maoka Massacre. At Toyohara, over 1,000 and at the Soya Strait, 3,000 lives were perished as the Soviet submarines sunk the Japanese refugee ships. The death toll during this invasion is still very vague but it is estimated to be between 21,000 to 100,000. Almost the entire aboriginal populations (Ainu, Uilta , and Nivkh) have fled Karafuto. The one who left in Karafuto were captured and executed (charged as traitors). Japan was forced to give up Karafuto unconditionally by the Potsdam Declaration. The entire Japanese population were deported from Karafuto and all their properties were seized by the Soviet government. The Soviet Union officially annexed Karafuto a year later.

Additionally when finalizing military operations, forced deportation and confiscation of private and government property were carried out, along with the abandonment of Koreans (supposedly Japanese subjects, now in an undetermined state) and possibly some Chinese (brought in for railway construction or mining) in such territories, now under Soviet control. The Koreans left behind were trapped there by their statelessness, and became known as the Sakhalin Koreans. Most have since taken up Russian nationality, though a minority of the elderly have chosen to repatriate to South Korea.

[edit] Fate of Western residents and Allied prisoners in the area

Similar treatment faced the German, Ukrainian and Polish citizens who resided in province, the White Russians in the area, (living from ancient Russian administration under the Shimoda agreement), who were arrested, accused of high treason and collaboration with an enemy power. Some were sent to gulags in Eastern Siberia, others were executed. Similar things happened to White Russians living in Manchukuo, Kwantung or North Chosen (Korea).

Some versions (including American researchers) alleged that Japanese forces during wartime sent certain Western POWs (Americans, British, Dutch, etc.) to detention camps in Karafuto and the Kuriles from other areas in Southeast Asia as well as to detention centers in Hokkaidō (Otaru POW center) and North Honshū, Manchukuo or Chosen.

The final fate of supposed Allied POWs when Soviet forces arrived in these lands under Japanese administration, if unknown, is very similar to Americans captured or interned in Vladivostok (during the Doolittle Raid or B-29 strikes against Manchukuo industry) or Kamchatka (when Americans carried out some air strikes against North Kuriles Islands). Some reports also exist mentioning the possibly identity of Americans interned in East Siberian Gulags in the same period, or are possibly wartime speculations during Cold War period. Such topic still await in depth research by historians and experts in area.[1]