Evacuation Ship Passenger Lists Show Names, Details on 8,835 Displaced Northern Territories Residents

By Ichiro Hatae / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

7:00 JST, December 8, 2025

An organization of former residents of the northern territories, which were illegally occupied by the Soviet Union immediately after the end of World War II, confirmed names of 8,835 former residents of the islands by examining passenger lists of ships on which they were forced to move to the mainland. The documents were kept at the National Archives of Japan.

The organization said that the passenger lists recorded the evacuees’ names, family structures, and ages at the time, providing clear evidence about Japanese people who lived on the islands. “We would like to pass this on to future generations,” the group also said.

A sense of real life

“I could have a real feeling that my father and relatives had lived on the island, and I was deeply moved,” said rakugo storyteller Sanyutei Kinpachi, 55, from Nemuro, Hokkaido. Kinpachi, whose real name is Yoshinobu Kimura, was describing his feelings when he found the names of eight people including Kinpachi’s father, who was born in Shibotsu Island and grew up there. Shibotsu is part of the Habomai group of islets in the northern territories.

Kinpachi, who had been researching his family history, learned in summer last year that the passenger lists compiled by a bureau affiliated with the former health and welfare ministry were kept at the National Archives of Japan. Examining the original documents, he found records of the eight people boarding the evacuation ship and disembarking at Hakodate Port in southern Hokkaido, via Karafuto, or Sakhalin.

Kinpachi showed a copy of the list to his father, who had visited Shibotsu Island with him about 20 years ago and shed tears at the site of his former home. His father then spoke nostalgically about the taste of the rice balls and miso soup he ate aboard the ship. “There must be many former islanders and second- or third-generation descendants who want to know their family history,” said Kinpachi as he gazed at the passenger list in his hands.

Final destinations

Kinpachi serves as the secretary general of the Kanto branch of an association called Chishima Renmei, which was established by former northern territories residents and others. He decided to photocopy all the lists and examine them in detail together with the branch chief Taiko Kodama, 81, who is originally from Shibotsu Island.

Their investigation revealed that residents from the northern islands were first sent to Maoka in Karafuto between July 1947 and October 1948, before boarding a total of 16 evacuation ships bound for Hakodate. The total number of former islanders who did so reached 8,835.

The lists contained former islanders’ names, ages, occupations and original places of residence. The evacuation ships’ departure and arrival dates, as well as former islanders’ planned destinations, were also recorded.

Passing on the memory

Earlier this year, the branch held an event in Tokyo to view the passenger lists. Additional events were later held in Sapporo and Nemuro, Hokkaido, among other locations. Former islanders and their descendants reportedly told the group that they had found their names in the passenger lists or they wanted to show them to their parents while they were still alive.

As of the end of July, there were 4,897 former residents of the northern territories with an average age of 89.6, as well as 16,315 children of former residents with an average age of 61.9, and 12,781 third generation with an average age of 39.4, according to the Chishima Renmei association.

Special programs that had allowed former islanders to visit the northern territories have been suspended since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The branch plans to continue holding events to view the lists in response to requests from former islanders and others.

“We will pass on the memories of the islanders to ensure that voices demanding the islands’ return will not stop,” said Kinpachi. “We want the third and fourth generations to see the lists and think of the islands.”

“The original lists have turned sepia-toned, and we feel the weight of nearly 80 years of history,” Kodama said. “The islanders whose names were found in the lists are aging, but they have not forgotten that the islands are their hometowns.”

‘Lists expected to help spark interest’

Prof. Kiyofumi Kato of Komazawa University, who is well versed in the northern territories issue and the displacement of the islanders, highly values the passenger lists of former residents of the northern territories.

“Amid the declining number of former islanders who experienced the postwar chaos, this is a resource allowing their children and grandchildren to objectively learn when and how their parents or grandparents had to evacuate from the islands, he said. “It can help spark greater interest in the northern territories.”

Emperor Showa’s radio address announcing Japan’s defeat in the Pacific War aired on Aug. 15, 1945. Japan signed the instrument of surrender on Sept. 2. It was after that the Soviet Union completed its occupation of the northern territories.

“Reexamining the history after Aug. 15 is crucial for understanding the full picture of the war. I want people to become interested in not only the northern territories but also the history involving Karafuto and the Chishima Islands,” the professor said.