Abstract
My analysis of the negotiations between Russia and Japan around the southern Sakhalin Island in the early Meiji period, considering also their colonial activities there, drew the following conclusions. The Russian government’s ambitious policy of simultaneous colonization of both the Maritime Province and Sakhalin could not be realized due to a reduced budget. There were two reasons for the Russian government’s hasty Sakhalin policy: the Japanese migration to Sakhalin soon after the Meiji Restoration and Japan’s declaration of the invalidity of the Treaty of 1867. The Russian government tried to sever Japan’s influence on the local Ainu, but this attempt was not successful, either, because the Russians could not employ the Ainu permanently. Considering the commitment of Japan and Great Britain to Sakhalin, the Russian Foreign Ministry drafted the Memorandum on Sakhalin Island, which marked a new era of Russia’s Sakhalin policy.
