Editing Karafuto Prefecture (section)

===Post-war===
{{main|Japanese evacuation of Karafuto and the Kuril Islands}}
[[File:Border Security of the 50th parallel of north.JPG|right|thumb|250px|A Japanese soldier at the border between the Karafuto Prefecture and Soviet Sakhalin]]
There were over 400,000 people living in Karafuto when the Soviet offensive began in early August 1945. Most were of Japanese or Korean extraction, though there was also a small [[White movement|White Russian]] community as well as some [[Ainu people|Ainu indigenous tribes]]. By the time of the ceasefire, approximately 100,000 civilians had managed to escape to [[Hokkaido]]. The military government established by the [[Soviet Army]] banned the local press, confiscated cars and radio sets and imposed a curfew. Local managers and bureaucrats were made to aid Russian authorities in the process of reconstruction, before being deported to labor camps, either on North Sakhalin or in [[Siberia]]. In schools, courses in [[Marxism–Leninism]] were introduced, and Japanese children were obliged to sing songs in praise of [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]].

Step by step Karafuto lost its Japanese identity. [[Sakhalin Oblast]] was created in February 1946, and by March all towns, villages and streets were given [[Russian language|Russian]] names. More and more colonists began to arrive from mainland Russia, with whom the Japanese were obliged to share the limited stock of housing. In October 1946 the Soviets began to repatriate all remaining Japanese. By 1950 most had been sent, willing or not, to Hokkaido. They had to leave all of their possessions behind, including any currency, Russian or Japanese. Today some keep alive the memory of their former home in the meetings of the ''Karafuto Renmei'', an association for former Karafuto residents.

In 1945, with the defeat of Japan in [[World War II]], the Japanese administration in Karafuto ceased to function. The Japanese government formally abolished Karafuto Prefecture as a legal entity on 1 June 1949. In 1951, at the [[Treaty of San Francisco]], Japan renounced its rights to Sakhalin, but did not formally acknowledge Soviet sovereignty over it.<ref>Sevela, Marie. "Sakhalin: The Japanese Under Soviet rule". ''History Today'', Vol. 48, 1998.</ref> Since that time, no final peace treaty has been signed between Japan and Russia, and the status of the neighboring [[Kuril Islands]] [[Kuril Islands dispute|remains disputed]].