Karafuto Prefecture

Uncommon card · No. 93957

Karafuto Prefecture (Japanese: 樺太庁, Hepburn: Karafuto-chō; Japanese pronunciation: [ka.ɾa.ɸɯ̥.to]) was established by the Empire of Japan in 1907 to govern the island of Sakhalin south of the 50° N parallel. This territory was ceded to the Empire of Japan by the Russian Empire in the 1905 Treaty of Portsmouth, following Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese War. Karafuto was part of Japan's outer lands (gaichi) until it was incorporated as an inner land (naichi) of the Japanese metropole in April 1943. The capital of Karafuto was Ōtomari (Korsakov) from 1905 to 1908 and Toyohara (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk) from 1908 to 1945. In August 1945, the Japanese administration ceased to function following the Soviet invasion of South Sakhalin. The Soviet Union annexed Karafuto Prefecture, although it continued to exist under Japanese law until Japan formally abolished it in June 1949.

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