Sakhalin island樺太 唐太 サハリン 北蝦夷alternative words: Sakhalin, Saghalian, Sagalian, Karafuto, Karafuto island keywords: locality , northern territory , russia related topics: Matsumae domain , Kushunkotan , Shimoda treaty , Saint Petersburg treaty , Portsmouth treaty related web sites: http://www.karafuto.com explanation: Sakhalin is a very long (1000 km) but narrow (200 km in its largest extent) island located between Japan and Russian maritime territory. It is separated from the continent by a narrow strait of 6 km width and for that reason, first, westerners thought it should be a peninsula. During Edo period, Matsumae exploited the southern part of Sakhalin with Kushunkotan as its center. The 3 successive treaties, i.e. Shimoda (1855), Saint Petersburg (1875), Portsmouth (1905) changed the ownerships of Sakhalin. | |