S oviet Sakhalin (area: 30,500 square miles) is one of the most economically promising and strategically important areas in Northeast Asia. The island's rich natural resources (fisheries, forests, coal, and oil) have played a vital role in the development of the Soviet Far East. Located between the island of Hokkaido and the mouth of the Amur River, Sakhalin forms a natural bridge between the Japanese islands and the Asiatic continent. Sakhalin not only controls the entrance to the Amur River, but it presides over two straits (Tatary and La Perouse) that connect the Sea of Japan with the Sea of Okhotsk. Soviet observers are fully cognizant of Sakhalin's contribution to the region's defense and economic development and have characterized it as "our treasure island" and "the forepost of the Soviet nation on the Pacific Ocean."' Historically, Sakhalin is East Asia's "Alsace-Lorraine." Each of the great nations surrounding it (China, Russia, Japan) have at one time exercised sovereignty there. The Sino-Soviet and Soviet-Japanese territorial disputes do not at present involve Sakhalin,2 but it would be premature to conclude that the island has ceased to be an issue of international rivalries. Since the end of the Second World War, accurate information regarding Sakhalin's internal development has been difficult to obtain. As a sensitive frontier area, the island is off limits to all foreigners, and even Russian visitors require special passes to set foot on Sakhalin. The Japanese who ruled southern Sakhalin from 1905 to 1945 and whose northern frontier approaches to within 25 miles of the island, have paid little attention to Sakhalin's postwar development. This article attempts to fill partially the in-