Recording violence as crime in Karafuto, 1867–1875

Abstract

In early Meiji, Karafuto (the Sakhalin Island) was transformed through the influx of settlers from Russia and Japan, causing a series of conflicts and violence among the residents. The Japanese historical record has framed the stories into competition with Russia over the territorial control, emphasising the place of the island in the emergence of the Meiji state. This paper contends that such framing should be the object of historical investigation. The main case studies are two homicides of commoners, which would have been easily forgotten without the larger political imperative. The lengthy interrogations of witnesses, conducted by officers from two governments, signified the interpretation of local violence into criminal offence, giving grounds for the intervention by the Russian and the Japanese authorities. Meiji Diplomacy utilised the pursuit of redress for a crime against its subjects as a way of strengthening territorial claims in the periphery. Once the border demarcation was concluded at the highest level of diplomacy, however, the murder and other crime cases lost their significance. Based on Kaitakushi manuscripts held in the prefectural Archives of Hokkaido, this article traces the impact of the national history paradigm that has affected our writing of the history of Meiji Japan’s far north.