Япония: цивилизация, культура, язык 2024

ЯПОНИЯ: цивилизация, культура, язык 2024 474 By 1935, the three most populated areas were Toyohara, Ōtomari and Tomarioru 泊居 , each with a population of just over 60,000 people. In the first, business was actively developing due to its capital status. Through the second, communication with Hokkaido was established. Tomarioru developed owing to new workers in forestry, coal, and fishing. The total number of Karafuto population was about 400,000 residents in 1940. Nevertheless, in the next few years, Karafuto’s economy was slowly declining due to World War II. The geographical position of the island on the northern outskirt of the empire, climatic features that made it difficult for ships to approach in winter, together with a shortage of fuel, made the export of products unprofitable and often impossible. In April 1943, Karafuto was finally included in the “internal lands”, although for ideological and political rather than economic reasons. More than 95% of the population were ethnic Japanese, the region’s infrastructure was built almost from scratch, that is why it is possible that the central government was trying to secure its borders and its territory integrity in this way. Anyway, in August 1945, the Soviet Union, fulfilling its obligations to the United States and Great Britain, entered the war against Japan, obtaining the southern part of Sakhalin. To conclude, Karafuto’s economic development differs markedly from the experience of the “classic examples” of colonies, whose existence relied primarily on generating cheap resources for the metropolis. By the 1930s the region was already firmly based on the pulp-paper, forestry, and coal industries. Until the 1920s, however, it was regarded as a new free territory where a large number of primarily farmers could be resettled: a policy that was extremely similar to the development of Hokkaido in the second half of the 19th century.