Karafuto Prefecture
Karafuto Agency, from 1943 Karafuto Prefecture,[a] commonly known as South Sakhalin, was a part of the Empire of Japan on Sakhalin, it was part of the gaichi from 1907 to 1943 and later a prefecture as part of the naichi until 1945.
"Karafuto" redirects here. For other uses, see Karafuto (disambiguation).
Karafuto became a territory of the Empire of Japan in 1905 after the Russo-Japanese War, when the portion of Sakhalin south of 50°N was ceded from the Russian Empire in the Treaty of Portsmouth. Karafuto was established in 1907 as an external territory, until being upgraded to an "Inner Land" of the Japanese metropole in 1943. Ōtomari (Korsakov) was the capital of Karafuto from 1905 to 1908 and Toyohara (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk) from 1908 to 1945.
In August 1945, the Japanese administration ceased to function following the invasion of South Sakhalin by the Soviet Union. Karafuto Prefecture was de facto replaced with Sakhalin Oblast, although it continued to exist de jure under Japanese law until it was formally abolished as a legal entity by Japan in June 1949.
Name[edit]
The Japanese name Karafuto purportedly comes from Ainu kamuy kar put ya mosir (カムィ・カㇻ・プッ・ヤ・モシㇼ), which means 'the island a god has created on the estuary (of Amur River)'. It was formerly known as Kita Ezo, meaning Northern Ezo (Ezo was the former name for Hokkaido). When the Japanese administered the prefecture, Karafuto usually meant Southern Sakhalin only. For convenience, the northern part of the island was sometimes called Sagaren.
In Russian, the entire island was named Sakhalin or Saghalien. It is from Manchu sahaliyan ula angga hada, meaning "peak of the mouth of Amur River". The southern part was simply called Yuzhny Sakhalin ("South Sakhalin"). In Korean, the name is Sahallin or Hwataedo, with the latter name in use during Korea under Japanese rule.
As of 1945, Karafuto was divided into four subprefectures, which in turn were subdivided into 11 districts, in turn divided into 41 municipalities (one city, 13 towns, and 27 villages).
Karafuto's largest city was Toyohara, while other major cities included Esutoru in the north central and Maoka in the south central region.
The list below are the towns and the city of the prefecture. These in italics are the corresponding current Russian names.
Esutoru Subprefecture (惠須取支廳)
Maoka Subprefecture (眞岡支廳[7])
Shikuka Subprefecture (敷香支廳)
Toyohara Subprefecture (豐原支廳[7])