 Korsakov in 1930. |
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| Korsakov was one of the oldest cities in
Sakhalin, settled as the trading center of
Karafuto named 'Karafuto-Basho' in 1790.
Since then, Korsakov had been the most important
port city in Sakhalin for Japanese People
since 1945. At the beginning, Korsakov nowadays was divided into three small villages, named Pakko-Tomari, Kushun-Kotan and Poloan-Tomari, which was named by Ainu people in Sakhalin. Pakko-Tomari situated on the northern hill was old Korsakov while the Chekhov's days. In 1867, Russian Army settled Pakko-Tomari as the Russian basement of Southern Karafuto. Kushun-Kotan means 'the Passage Village' in Ainu Language; there was the trade and fishery basement of Japanese people in the 1790s. In Chekhov's days, few Japanese also had lived there. Chekhov had visited Japan Consulate Office and the Shop managed by Japanese men. Poloan-Tomari mean 'Large Harbor' in Ainu Language, such is the origin of 'Odomari'. Odomari means also 'Large Harbor' in Japanese. Poloan-Tomari situated the mouth of Korsakov River named Odomari River in Japanese, near the port nowadays. In Chekhov days, old Korsakov had 500 people and small two harbors near Kushun-Kotan and Poloan-Tomari. At the first of Japanese period, Japanese connected these three villages immediately, looked like enclosing the large hill in the center of Korsakov. Therefore, Odomari was shaped like a horseshoe. Japanese thought Korsakov was the main entrance of Karafuto, and eager to construct the large port there. The most of Korsakov port nowadays were built in the Japanese period. And Odomari was one of the centers of commerce in Karafuto because of this harbor. In 1913, the first paper mill in Sakhalin was built there. Soon after that, Japanese understood paper mills were the best usage of Sakhalin forests and coalmines and many paper mills were built. In 1925, Odomari had 4,934 households and 24,986 people. |
