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THE FIRST JAPANESE LANDING on Sakhalin, conducted by formations from the 13th Infantry Division with cruiser and destroyer formations in support and which sailed from Aomori (in northern Honshu in 40°50' North 140°43' East) on 4 July, took place three days later at Jorei, a village some 8 miles/12.8 km east of Korsakov; that town, or what was left of it after it had been torched by withdrawing Russian forces, was occupied the following day. Thereafter, with a Russian defense that had been divided between Korsakov, Dué (in 50°50' North 142°10' East), and Aleksandrovsk (in 50°55' North 142°12' East), Japanese forces moved north, securing Vladimirovka (present-day Yuzhno/Iuzhno in 46°58' North 142°45' East) on 11 July before moving north and encountering minimal opposition. On 24 July a second Japanese formation, having sailed from Otaru (on Hokkaido in 43°14' North 140°59' East) three days previously, conducted landings at Aleksandrovsk and at Arkovo; at the same time, and in order to prevent any Russian attempt to move across the Tartary Strait against the rear of their position on the west coast, the Japanese conducted a raid on Russian military installations on De Castries Bay (present-day De Kastri in 51°28' North 140°46' East) on the mainland. After taking Aleksandrovsk the Japanese moved inland to scatter the Russian forces in the area; the latter asked for terms on 30 July and surrendered the following day. In the course of this campaign the Russians lost 182 dead and 4,388 officers and men taken prisoner; 278 managed to escape across the strait. The Sakhalin episode is afforded very little consideration, and the naval units detailed to these operations defy identification. The British Official History, Vol. 3, p. 834, states that 51 vessels were involved in these operations; the contemporaneous Cassell’s History of the Russo-Japanese War, produced in two separate editions—what were Vol. 3 and special edition, Vol. 5, p. 183—stated that there were ten transports supported by two battleships, seven cruisers, three gunboats, and thirty-six destroyers and torpedo-boats, that is, ten transports and forty-eight warships. Lest the scale of support be considered excessive, the point was that this was the only way that the navy could gainfully employ appendix 6.3. the campaign on sakhalin appendix 6.3 133 its warships after Tsushima, and by definition these warships were largely free of distraction and other commitments. By the Portsmouth treaty Sakhalin was divided between Japan and Russia at latitude 50°North, and the island as a whole was demilitarized. See Stephan, Sakhalin, pp. 78–81. ...

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