At first the Japanese had factories only on the banks of the Aniva and in Mauka, their main office being at the
Kusun-Kotan gap, where the Japanese consul now resides.12
Later they cut a road from the Aniva to the Takoyskaya valley. They maintained supply depots near the place known today as Galkino-Vraskoye. The road has not yet overgrown and is called the Japanese Road. The Japanese also reached the Tarayka, where they caught migratory fish in the Poronaya River and established the Sitka settlement. Their boats sailed as far as Nyisky Bay. The boat with the beautiful rigging seen by Polyakov in 1881 on the Tro was Japanese.
The Japanese were interested in Sakhalin strictly for commercial reasons, just as the Americans were interested in Tyuleni [Seal] Island.i3 After the Russians founded the Muravyevsky Post in 1853, the Japanese began to show some political activity. Knowing that they might lose their large profits and free labor compelled them to look closely at the Russians and they attempted to strengthen their in- fluence on the island in order to offset Russian influence. But again, probably from lack of confidence in their own rights, they carried on the struggle with the Russians in an almost ludicrously irresolute manner, and acted like chil- dren. They limited themselves merely to spreading gossip about the Russians among the Ainus, boasting that they could slaughter all the Russians at any time they pleased. Wherever the Russians built a post, a Japanese picket out- post was immediately stationed there, on the opposite side of the river. In spite of their desires to appear terrifying, the Japanese nevertheless remained peaceful and amiable. They sent sturgeon to the Russian soldiers, and when the Russians asked for nets, the Japanese gladly satisfied their requests.
A pact was concluded in 1867 whereby Sakhalin be- came the common possession of both countries with the right of joint domain. The Russians and Japanese recog- nized their equal rights to the island. In other words, neither of them considered the island to be their sole possession.14
By the treaty of 1875 Sakhalin definitely became a part of the Russian Empire and the Japanese were recompensed with the gift of all of our Kurile Islands.15
Alongside the mountain pass where the Korsakov Post is situated is another pass which has retained its name since the time when it was the Japanese settlement of Kusun- Kotan. No Japanese buildings remain. However, there is a shop run by a Japanese family which sells groceries and various trifles, where I purchased hard Japanese pears, but this was built later. On the best location in the pass there is a white house where from time to time a flag can be seen waving—a red circle on a white background. This is the Japanese consulate.
One morning during a northeaster when it was so cold in my quarters that I wrapped myself in a blanket, I was visited by the Japanese consul, Mr. Kuze, and his secretary, Mr. Sugiama. I immediately began to apologize that it was so cold.
"Oh, no," my guests said. "'Ic is very warm here!"
By their facial expressions and tones of voice they at- tempted to tell me not only that it was warm in my quar- ters, but that I was living in an absolute paradise on earth. Both are pure-blooded Japanese of medium height, with Mongoloid faces. The consul is about forty years old, he wears no beard, his mustache is barely visible, and he is of solid build. The secretary is about ten years younger and wears blue eyeglasses, obviously a consumptive—a victim of the Sakhalin climatc. There is another secretary, Mr. Suzuki. He is below medium height, has a very large mus- tache which droops in Chinese fashion, and has narrow, slanting eyes—an irresistibly handsome man in the eyes of the Japanese. Once, when telling me about a Japanese minister, Mr. Kuze said, "He is as handsome and manly as Suzuki." They wear European clothing outside their home and they speak Russian very well. \'{Then I visited the con- sulate I often found them reading Russian or French books. They had a bookcase full of books. They had had European education, were exquisitely courteous, considerate and cor- dial. The Japanese consulate was a warm and charming meeting place for the local officials. Here they could forget the prison, penal servitude and office squabbles, and relax.
The consul is the intermediary between the Japanese who come to trade and the local administration. On the most solemn occasions he and his secretary, dressed in full regalia, drive from the Kusun-Kotan pass to the post to the District Commander and congratulate him on the holiday. Mr. Bely returns the compliment. Every year on December i he goes with his staff to Kusun-Kotan to congratulate the consul on the birthday of the Emperor of Japan, and drink champagne. \'V'hen the consul visits naval vessels, he re- ceives a seven-gun salute. During my visit there arrived the orders of Anna and Stanislav, both of the third degree, to be awardcd to Kuze and Suzuki. In full dress, Mr. Bely, Major S. and Mr. F., and the secretary of the police depart- ment, ceremoniously departed for Kusun-Kotan to present the Orders. I went with them. The Japanese were tremen- dously touched by both the orders and the solemnity of the occasion, for they greatly delighted in such things. They served champagne. Mr. Suzuki did not conceal his pleasure, and cxamined the order from all sides with sparkling eyes, like a child with a toy. I detected a struggle in his "hand- some and manly" face. He wanted to dash to his quarters and show the order to his young wife (he had married re- cently), and at the same time politeness demanded that he remain with the guests.10
Now that I have completed the survey of the settled arcas of Sakhalin, I will proceed to discuss various matters, some important and others unimportant, which comprise the contemporary life of the colony.
The settlement lies at a crossroads. Those traveling from Alexandrovsk to Korsakov in the winter or vice versa always stop here. A way station was built in 1869 near the present, formerly Japanese, settlement. Soldiers and their wives, and later convicts, lived here. A brisk trade flourished during the winter, spring, and at the end of summer. During the winter the Tungus, Yakuts and the Amur Gilyaks came to trade with the foreigners in the South, while during the spring and late summer the Japanese came to fish from their junks. The name of the way station, the Tikhmenevsky Post, has been retained to the present day.
This experiment applies only to Sakhalin. However, in his article "Banishment to Sakhalin" ( Vestnik Evropy, 1879, V),
206
Professor D. G. Talberg considers it of general importance and, applying its results generally to our ineptirude in colonization, he comes to the following conclusion: "Is it not time for us to give up all our colonizing efforts in the East?"' In their introduction to Professor Talberg's article the editors of Vestnik Evropy state that "we will scarcely find another such example of colonizing ability demonstrated by the Russian people in the past when they seized all of the European East and Siberia." Furthermore, the esteemed editors base their opinion on the work of the now de- ceased Professor Yeshevsky, who presented "an amazing picrure of Russian colonization."
In 1869 a trader brought twenty Aleuts of both sexes to Southern Sakhalin from Kodiak Island to hunt game. They were settled near Muravyevsky Post and were supplied with provisions. They did absolutely nothing but eat and drink. In a year the trader moved them to one of the Kurile Islands. At approximately the same time two Chinese political exiles were settled in Korsakov Post. Since they expressed the desire to engage in farminc;, the governor-general of Eastern Siberia ordered each of them to be supplied with six oxen, a horse, a cow and enough seeds for two years. They received nothing, however, presumably because no stock was available, and finally they were sent to the mainland. Among the unsuccessful free colonists can also be included the Nikolayevsk town.dwcller Semenov, a tiny, gaunt man, forty years old, who now wanders all over the Southern District searching for gold.