The historical background of Japanese women left behind in Sakhalin The latter part of the paper will examine the factor behind the intermarriage with Koreans and its influence on repatriation. Firstly, the historical background of Japanese women left behind in Karafuto will be discussed with particular focus on the invasion of the Soviet army in South Sakhalin. Moreover, the influence of intermarriage on their repatriation will be discussed.

This paper explores the factor behind the intermarriages by focusing on their status as women and their ethnicity as Japanese. Most of the ones left behind in Sakhalin were women who later intermarried with Koreans. Nevertheless, the number of Japanese people in Sakhalin greatly decreased after the end of World War II. The overall population of Karafuto reached 380,000 in 1945. Among the rest of the population, half of it was Korean immigrants who mostly came in after 1938 and engaged in simple physical labor. Unlike other Japanese colonies such as Korea and Taiwan, the number of original inhabitants was smaller and the overall population of Sakhalin formed a large number of Japanese immigrants, 95 percent of its population. In 1905, after signing the Treaty of Portsmouth, which entailed the end of the Russo-Japanese War, South Sakhalin was governed under the Empire of Japan. Sakhalin Island, which is located at the Eastern coast of Eurasia and north of the Japanese island Hokkaido, has a long history of Russia and Japan competing for its ownership-its Japanese name is Karafuto.

Japanese buildings in sakhalin