Kiyotaka Kuroda and the political movement for the abandonment of Sakhalin:

Domestic conflict over the Japan-Russia border problem

Abstract

Previous studies on the Japan-Russia border problem (Sakhalin problem) in the early Meiji era emphasized the influence of H. Parks’ (the British minister in Japan) recommendation to abandon Sakhalin. In contrast, this paper focuses on internal factors and traces the political process by which Kiyotaka Kuroda initiated the Sakhalin issue, and clarifies how the Meiji government successfully achieved the abandonment of Sakhalin. Appointed deputy secretary of the Sakhalin Development Commission by Toshimichi Okubo, Kuroda unified the policy of the Development Commission for Sakhalin and Hokkaido to appeasement against Russia. Further, as a result of political change in the sixth year of the Meiji era, Kuroda also wrested the initiative in Russian diplomacy from Taneomi Soejima in the central government and established an appeasement route for Russia based on prioritizing internal affairs rather than expeditions. Kuroda dispatched his subordinate, Takeaki Enomoto, to St. Petersburg as a minister and signed a treaty to exchange Sakhalin and Kuril. With this opportunity, the Kuroda faction established their influence in the Japanese government and a policy group familiar with Russia was formed within the government.