Matsumae clan
The Matsumae clan was a Japanese clan, granted the area around Matsumae, Hokkaidō as a march fief in 1590 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, charged with defending it, by extension the whole of Japan, from the Ainu'barbarians' to the north. The clan known as the Kakizaki clan, had settled in Kakizaki, Mutsu on the Shimokita Peninsula. Claiming descent from the Takeda clan of Wakasa Province, the family took the name Matsumae. In exchange for their service in defending the country, the Matsumae were made exempt from owing rice to the shogunate in tribute, from the sankin-kōtai system, under which most daimyōs were required to spend half the year at Edo, while their families spent the entire year at Edo and were held hostage to prevent rebellion. Due to their location, their role as border defenders, the Matsumae were the first Japanese to negotiate with Russia in any way, they may well have been the first Japanese to meet Russians at all within Japanese territory. In 1778, a merchant from Yakutsk by the name of Pavel Lebedev-Lastochkin arrived in Hokkaidō with a small expedition.
He politely asked to trade. The Matsumae official tried to explain that he had no authority to agree to trade on behalf of the shōgun and suggested that the Russians come back the following year; the following September, the Russians did just that. According to some accounts, they had misinterpreted what had been expected to trade. Instead their gifts were returned to them, they were forbidden to return to the island, they were advised that foreign trade was allowed only at Nagasaki, a port on the southernmost of Japan's home islands. In 1790, a massive earthquake struck Hokkaidō, a forty-two-foot tsunami lifted the Russian ship out of the sea, depositing it a quarter-mile inland; the merchant Lebedev gave up on Hokkaidō. The Matsumae clan's fief had extensive contacts with the Ainu of Hokkaidō, had exclusive rights to trade with the Ainu communities of the island and to guarantee the security of Japanese interests there. Relations between the Matsumae and the Ainu was sometimes hostile, demonstrating that their power was not absolute in the region.
In 1669, what started as a fight for resources between rival Ainu clans developed into a rebellion against Matsumae control of the region. It lasted until 1672, when Shakushain's Revolt was put down; the last serious Ainu rebellion was the Menashi-Kunashir Rebellion in 1789. In 1790, Kakizaki Hakyō painted the Ishū Retsuzō, a series of portraits of Ainu chiefs, in order to prove to the Japanese populace that the Matsumae were capable of controlling the northern borders and the Ainu; the 12 paintings of Ainu chiefs were displayed in 1791 in Kyoto. At the same time, in 1789, a Finnish professor, Erik Laxmann, of the Russian Academy of Sciences, came across several Japanese castaways in Irkutsk. Like several other Japanese before them, they had been found in the Aleutians, off the coast of Alaska, by Russian sailors and had asked to be brought back to Japan. Like those before them, these castaways had been transported instead across Siberia on their way to St. Petersburg. Laxman saw their plight as an opportunity to work towards the opening of Japan, suggested this to Catherine the Great, who agreed.
In 1791, she appointed the professor's son, Lt. Adam Laxman, to command a voyage to return these castaways to Japan, to open discussions towards a trade agreement; the expedition reached Hokkaidō in October 1792, found the Japanese hospitable. The Russians were allowed to spend the winter, documents about them were sent to the bakufu in Edo. However, Professor Laxman insisted on bringing the castaways to Edo, said that he would sail there himself against the Shōgun's wishes; the bakufu sent an envoy to the Matsumae, requesting that the Russians make their way to the town of Matsumae by land. Sensing a trap, the Russians refused, they were allowed to make port in Hakodate, escorted by a Japanese vessel, they were given a guest house near Matsumae castle, were, allowed to maintain their own customs: they did not deny their Christianity, remove their boots indoors or bow to the Shōgun's envoys. The Japanese envoys gave them three swords and a hundred bags of rice, but informed them that the Shōgun's rules remained unchangeable: foreigners could trade only at Nagasaki, only if they came unarmed.
All other ships would be subject to seizure. Due to his purposes in returning castaways, Laxman was granted a pardon in this instance, but he refused to relinquish the castaways until he was given something in writing answering his request for trade; the envoys returned three days with a document restating the rules regarding trade at Nagasaki and the laws against the practice of Christianity in Tokugawa Japan. The Russians never did establish any regular system of trade at Nagasaki, historians today still disagree as to whether the document given to Professor Laxman was an invitation to trade, or an evasive maneuver on the part of the shogunate; the Russian expedition led by Adam Johann von Krusenstern and Nikolai Rezanov stayed for six months in the port of Nagasaki in 1804–1805, failing to establish diplomatic and trade relations with Japan. Since the Matsumae land was a march or borderland, the remainder of Hokkaidō called Ezo became an Ainu reservation. Although Japanese influence and control over the Ainu grew stronger over the centuries, at that time they were left to their own devices and the shogunate did not consider their lands to be Japanese territory.
It was only during the Meiji Restoration in the late 19th century that the march was dissolved and Hokkaidō was formally annexed
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is carbon with variable amounts of other elements. Coal is formed if dead plant matter decays into peat and over millions of years the heat and pressure of deep burial converts the peat into coal. Vast deposits of coal originates in former wetlands—called coal forests—that covered much of the Earth's tropical land areas during the late Carboniferous and Permian times; as a fossil fuel burned for heat, coal supplies about a quarter of the world's primary energy and two-fifths of its electricity. Some iron and steel making and other industrial processes burn coal; the extraction and use of coal causes much illness. Coal damages the environment, including by climate change as it is the largest anthropogenic source of carbon dioxide, 14 Gt in 2016, 40% of the total fossil fuel emissions; as part of the worldwide energy transition many countries use less coal. The largest consumer and importer of coal is China.
China mines account for half the world's coal, followed by India with about a tenth. Australia accounts for about a third of world coal exports followed by Russia; the word took the form col in Old English, from Proto-Germanic *kula, which in turn is hypothesized to come from the Proto-Indo-European root *gu-lo- "live coal". Germanic cognates include the Old Frisian kole, Middle Dutch cole, Dutch kool, Old High German chol, German Kohle and Old Norse kol, the Irish word gual is a cognate via the Indo-European root. Coal is composed of macerals and water. Fossils and amber may be found in coal. At various times in the geologic past, the Earth had dense forests in low-lying wetland areas. Due to natural processes such as flooding, these forests were buried underneath soil; as more and more soil deposited over them, they were compressed. The temperature rose as they sank deeper and deeper; as the process continued the plant matter was protected from biodegradation and oxidation by mud or acidic water.
This trapped the carbon in immense peat bogs that were covered and buried by sediments. Under high pressure and high temperature, dead vegetation was converted to coal; the conversion of dead vegetation into coal is called coalification. Coalification starts with dead plant matter decaying into peat. Over millions of years the heat and pressure of deep burial causes the loss of water and carbon dioxide and an increase in the proportion of carbon, thus first lignite sub-bituminous coal, bituminous coal, lastly anthracite may be formed. The wide, shallow seas of the Carboniferous Period provided ideal conditions for coal formation, although coal is known from most geological periods; the exception is the coal gap in the Permian -- Triassic extinction event. Coal is known from Precambrian strata, which predate land plants—this coal is presumed to have originated from residues of algae. Sometimes coal seams are interbedded with other sediments in a cyclothem; as geological processes apply pressure to dead biotic material over time, under suitable conditions, its metamorphic grade or rank increases successively into: Peat, a precursor of coal Lignite, or brown coal, the lowest rank of coal, most harmful to health, used exclusively as fuel for electric power generation Jet, a compact form of lignite, sometimes polished.
Bituminous coal, a dense sedimentary rock black, but sometimes dark brown with well-defined bands of bright and dull material It is used as fuel in steam-electric power generation and to make coke. Anthracite, the highest rank of coal is a harder, glossy black coal used for residential and commercial space heating. Graphite is difficult to ignite and not used as fuel. Cannel coal is a variety of fine-grained, high-rank coal with significant hydrogen content, which consists of liptinite. There are several international standards for coal; the classification of coal is based on the content of volatiles. However the most important distinction is between thermal coal, burnt to generate electricity via steam. Hilt's law is a geological observation, the higher its rank, it applies if the thermal gradient is vertical. The earliest recognized use is from the Shenyang area of China where by 4000 BC Neolithic inhabitants had begun carving ornaments from black lignite. Coal from the Fushun mine in northeastern China was used to smelt copper as early as 1000 BC.
Marco Polo, the Italian who traveled to China in the 13th century, described coal as "black stones... which burn like logs", said coal was so plentiful, people could take three hot baths a week. In Europe, the earliest reference to the use of coal as fuel is from the geological treatise On stones by the Greek scientist Theophrastus: Among the materials that are dug because they are useful, those known as anthrakes are made of earth, once set on fire, they burn like charcoa
Mainland Japan
Mainland Japan is a term to distinguish the area of Japan from its outlying territories. It was an official term in distinguishing Japan and the colonies in East Asia. After the end of World War II, the term became uncommon, but still is used as an unofficial term to distinguish the area of Japan from Okinawa or Hokkaidō; the literal Japanese meaning might best be translated as inner lands. The term "mainland" is an inaccurate translation because mainland is the continental part of a region, as opposed to the islands, it is somewhat confusing as Mainland Japan is defined to consist of several major islands and many minor ones. The term mainland Japan is sometimes used to translate Honshū, the largest island. In the Japanese Empire of the pre-war period, naichi referred to the mainland of the empire; the other territories of the empire was called gaichi. 1 of the Common Law enumerates the territories with legal jurisdictions, Naichi, Chōsen, Kwantung Province, Nan'yō Islands. In other words, Naichi consisted of the following: Karafuto Prefecture Chishima Islands Hokkaidō Honshū Shikoku Kyūshū Izu Islands Ogasawara Islands Okinawa Minor outlying islands around themAlthough it has never been abolished, the Common Law lost effect from enforcement after Japan lost all the former colonies, or gaichi as a result of World War II.
The residents of Hokkaidō and Okinawa use naichi to refer to the "mainland", excluding these areas. The colloquial usage is "incorrect", as both areas are within naichi. In Hokkaidō, the official term that refers to Japan except Hokkaidō is Dōgai. With Dōgai becoming common in colloquial use, naichi ceases to be used. Home Islands
Treaty of Portsmouth
The Treaty of Portsmouth formally ended the 1904–05 Russo-Japanese War. It was signed on September 5, 1905 after negotiations lasting from August 6 to August 30, at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, United States. U. S. President Theodore Roosevelt was instrumental in the negotiations and won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts; the war of 1904–05 was fought between the Empire of Russia, an international power with one of the largest armies in the world, the Empire of Japan, a nation which had only industrialized after two-and-a-half centuries of isolation. A series of battles in the Liaodong Peninsula had resulted in Russian armies being driven from southern Manchuria, the Battle of Tsushima had resulted in a cataclysm for the Imperial Russian Navy; the war was unpopular with the Russian public, the Russian government was under increasing threat of revolution at home. On the other hand, the Japanese economy was strained by the war, with mounting foreign debts, its forces in Manchuria faced the problem of ever-extending supply lines.
No Russian territory had been seized, the Russians continued to build up reinforcements via the Trans-Siberian Railway. Recognizing that a long-term war was not to Japan's advantage, as early as July 1904 the Japanese government had begun seeking out intermediaries to assist in bringing the war to a negotiated conclusion; the intermediary approached by the Japanese side was the United States President Theodore Roosevelt, who had publicly expressed a pro-Japanese stance at the beginning of the war. However, as the war progressed, Roosevelt had begun to show concerns on the strengthening military power of Japan and its impact on long-term United States interests in Asia. In February 1905, Roosevelt sent messages to the Russian government via the US ambassador to St Petersburg; the Russians were unresponsive, with Tsar Nicholas II still adamant that Russia would prove victorious in time. At this point, the Japanese government was lukewarm to a peace treaty, as Japanese armies were enjoying an unbroken string of victories.
However, after the Battle of Mukden, costly to both sides in terms of manpower and resources, Japanese Foreign Minister Komura Jutarō judged that the time was now critical for Japan to push for a settlement. On March 8, 1905, Japanese Army Minister Terauchi Masatake met with the American minister to Japan, Lloyd Griscom, to convey word to Roosevelt that Japan was ready to negotiate. However, from the Russian side, a positive response did not come until after the loss of the Russian fleet at the Battle of Tsushima. Two days after the battle, Tsar Nicholas II met with his grand dukes and military leadership and agreed to discuss peace. On June 7, 1905, Roosevelt met with Kaneko Kentarō, a Japanese diplomat, on June 8 received a positive reply from Russia. Roosevelt chose Portsmouth, New Hampshire, as the site for the negotiations because the talks were to begin in August, the cooler climate in Portsmouth would avoid subjecting the parties to the sweltering Washington, D. C. summer. The Japanese delegation to the Portsmouth Peace Conference was led by Foreign Minister Komura Jutarō, assisted by ambassador to Washington Takahira Kogorō.
The Russian delegation was led by former Finance Minister Sergei Witte, assisted by former ambassador to Japan Roman Rosen and international law and arbitration specialist Friedrich Martens. The delegations arrived in Portsmouth on August 8 and stayed in New Castle, New Hampshire, at the Hotel Wentworth, were ferried across the Piscataqua River each day to the naval base in Kittery, where the negotiations were held; the negotiations took place at the General Stores Building. Mahogany furniture patterned after the Cabinet Room of the White House was ordered from Washington. Before the negotiations began Tsar Nicholas had adopted a hard line, forbidding his delegates to agree to any territorial concessions, reparations, or limitations on the deployment of Russian forces in the Far East; the Japanese demanded recognition of their interests in Korea, the removal of all Russian forces from Manchuria, substantial reparations. They wanted confirmation of their control of Sakhalin, which Japanese forces had seized in July 1905 for use as a bargaining chip in the negotiations.
A total of twelve sessions were held between August 9 and August 30. During the first eight sessions, the delegates were able to reach an agreement on eight points; these included an immediate cease-fire, recognition of Japan's claims to Korea, the evacuation of Russian forces from Manchuria. Russia was required to return its leases in southern Manchuria to China, to turn over the South Manchuria Railway and its mining concessions to Japan. Russia was allowed to retain the Chinese Eastern Railway in northern Manchuria; the remaining four sessions addressed the most difficult issues, those of reparations and territorial concessions. On August 18, Roosevelt proposed that Rosen offer to divide the island of Sakhalin to address the territory issue. On August 23, Witte proposed that the Japanese keep Sakhalin and drop their claims for reparations; when Komura rejected this proposal, Witte warned that he was instructed to cease negotiations and that the war would resume. This ultimatum came as four new Russian divisions arrived in Manchuria, the Russian delegation made an ostentatious show of packing their bags and preparing to depart.
Witte was convinced that the Japanese could not afford to restart the war, applied pressure via the American media and his American hosts to convince the Japanese that monetary compensation was something that Russia would never compromise on. Outmaneuvered by Wit
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is a city in Sakhalin island, the administrative center of Sakhalin Oblast, Russia. It is located in the Far East part of Russia, situated north of Japan. Gas and oil extraction as well as processing are amongst the main industrial manufactures on the island, it is a place of working of major US oil companies such as ExxonMobil. It was called Vladimirovka from 1882 to 1905 Toyohara from 1905 to 1946. Population: 181,728 . Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk began as a small Russian settlement called Vladimirovka, founded by convicts in 1882; the Treaty of Portsmouth in 1905, which brought an end to the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, awarded the southern half of the Sakhalin Island to Japan. Vladimirovka was renamed Toyohara, was the prefect capital of the Japanese Karafuto Prefecture. After the end of World War II, the Japanese portion of Sakhalin island was occupied by Soviet troops. Ownership of the city was transferred to the Soviet Union and it was renamed Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Town status was granted to it in 1946.
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is the administrative center of the oblast. Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is, together with ten rural localities, incorporated as the city of oblast significance of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts; as a municipal division, the city of oblast significance of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is incorporated as Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Urban Okrug. Due to significant investment from oil companies like ExxonMobil and Shell, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk has experienced substantial economic growth. Although this growth has occurred in the northern part of the island, both companies maintain headquarters and residential complexes in the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk itself; the demand for natural resources by the Japanese and South Koreans has ensured continued prosperity in the foreseeable future for the entire island. There has been significant criticism, including from Presidential Envoy Kamil Iskhakov, that Sakhalin is not caring for its citizens.
Despite sizable gas deposits and incoming investments from gas companies, the regional administration does not yet have plans for the installation of gas services on the island. The oblast continues to have the highest rate of juvenile crime in all of Russia, more than 40% of its businesses are unprofitable. Out of the few remaining Japanese buildings in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, one now functions as the local museum; the building was designed in the Emperor's Crown Style by Japanese architect Yoshio Kaizuka, completed in 1937. The city is served by the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Airport; the city is the hub for the island's narrow gauge railway network, the Sakhalin Railway, built under the Japanese administration in the early 20th century. In addition to railways, the town is a hub for roadways, such as the A-391 and the A-392. Institutes of elementary and middle education include: Sakhalin International School Institutes of higher education in the city include Sakhalin State University and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk institute of economics and informatics.
There are some branches of other high schools: Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk institute of Russian State trade-economics university Branch of Far East State university of railways Branch of Modern Academy of the humanities Branch of The Pacific State economics university Branch of Russian economics academy named after G. V. Plekhanov Branch of Far East law institute 3 - 1TV Russia 5 - Rossiya-24 10- Rossiya-1 12 - ASTV 21 - The first multplex digital TV DVB T2 23 - Che 27 - Domashny / OTV 30 - NTV Russia 33 - STS 35 - Ren-TV / Echo of Sakhalin 43 - Match TV Russia 46 - Petersburg–Channel_5 49 - Rossiya-K 51 - The second multiplex of digital TV DVB T2 87,9 Autoradio 88,3 Retro FM 88,9 Radio Record 89,9 Russian Radio 101,7 Radio Chanson 102,5 Europa Plus 102,9 Humor FM 103,5 Mayak 104,4 Love Radio 105,1 Radio Dacha 105,5 Radio ASTV 106,0 Radio Rossii 106,5 Dorognoe Radio 107,2 Vesti FM Most residents are ethnic Russians, but there exists a sizable population of Koreans. Of the 43,000 Sakhalin Koreans, half are estimated to live in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, comprising 12% of the city's population.
Smaller numbers of indigenous minorities, such as Ainu and Oroks can be found. The Latin Catholic Church of St James in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is the cathedral episcopal see of the missionary Apostolic Prefecture of Yuzhno Sakhalinsk; the city is located on the Susuya River. It is the largest city on the island, the only one with more than 100,000 inhabitants; the straight-line distance to Moscow is 10,417 kilometers. Due to restrictions, foreigners wishing to leave Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in order to travel to any other part of the Sakhalin Oblast and its internal and territorial waters are required to seek permission from the Federal Security Service and the Border Guard. Scuba diving and recreating on the seacoast is permitted only in places defined by the Border Guard; the climate is humid continental with cold winters. Maritime influences can be seen in that precipitation is much higher than in interior Russia and that summers are distinctly cooler than in Khabarovsk or Irkutsk, while winters are much milder.
Summers are foggy, reducing the amount of sunshine. Considering its s
Korsakov (town)
Korsakov is a town and the administrative center of Korsakovsky District of Sakhalin Oblast, located 42 kilometers south from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, at the southern end of Sakhalin Island, on the coast of the Salmon Cove in the Aniva Bay. Population: 33,526 . Little is known of the early history of Korsakov; the site was once home to an Ainu fishing village called Kushunkotan, frequented by traders of the Matsumae clan from as early as 1790. On September 22, 1853, a Russian expedition, commanded by Gennady Nevelskoy, raised the Russian flag at the settlement and renamed it "Fort Muravyovsky", after Governor-General of Eastern Siberia Nikolay Muravyov. Nevelskoy left detailed recollections of the landing, he encountered a predominantly Ainu population as well as Japanese nationals who, judging by Nevelskoy's account, exercised authority over the native inhabitants. At the time of Nevelskoy's arrival, the village featured several standing structures—Nevelskoy calls them "sheds"—and a Japanese religious temple.
The villagers welcomed the Russians after they learned about their mission. Of course, the veracity of this account is in doubt, both because Nevelskoy had ulterior motives for claiming that he was "welcomed" by the inhabitants, because it is not clear to what extent the Russians were able to make themselves understood; the Russians abandoned the settlement on May 30, 1854 because their presence there, at the time of the Crimean War, raised the specter of Anglo-French attack, but returned in August 1869, now renaming the town "Fort Korsakovsky," in honor of then-Governor General of Eastern Siberia Mikhail Korsakov. Lingering territorial conflict between Japan and Russia has polarized scholarly opinion of Korsakov's early history, as each side tries to claim priority of early settlement to back up their respective territorial claims in the broader region. In 1875, the whole Sakhalin including the village was ceded to Russia, under the Treaty of Saint Petersburg. While under Russian administration Fort Korsakovsky was an important administrative center in Sakhalin's penal servitude system and a final destination for hundreds of prisoners from European Russia, sentenced to forced labor for serious crimes.
Such prisoners and their families comprised early settlers of Fort Korsakovsky until its hand-over to the Japanese. Prominent Russian writers, including A. P. Chekhov and V. M. Doroshevich, left keen observations of its unsavory trade. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, a naval engagement, the Battle of Korsakov, took place off the town in August 1904. In 1905, Japan conquered Sakhalin in the late stages of the war, southern Sakhalina, including Korsakovsky, was handed over to Japan in 1905 after Russia's defeat in the war; the Russians burned the wooden town before the hand-over. Upon the ashes of Fort Korsakovsky the Japanese built a stone-clad modern city with paved streets and electricity, renaming it Ōtomari; the town was temporarily the capital of Karafuto Prefecture between 1905 and 1907. While in Japanese hands the town grew substantially. A penal colony under Russia's administration, Ōtomari maintained the practice of forced labor: the Japanese brought thousands of ethnic Koreans to Ōtomari as slave workers.
Korsakov's present-day Korean population is descended from those labor conscripts. In the closing stages of World War II, the Soviet Union conquered Karafuto Prefecture, Old Ōtomari was burned down upon the entry of Soviet troops. After the war, Japan ceded including, Ōtomari, to the Soviet Union; the Japanese population was repatriated by 1947, though a few remained, along with a sizable Korean population. The old bank, a Japanese bank building remains standing, though efforts to convert it into a museum came to nothing for lack of funds. Other Japanese sites and memorials were all destroyed, including a Shinto shrine and a monument to Prince Hirohito, who had visited Ōtomari on an inspection tour. An interesting sample of Japanese monuments can now be seen near Prigorodnoye, known as Merei before 1945, a fallen stella to Japanese soldiers. During the Cold War Korsakov was the site of two Naval airfields. Within the framework of administrative divisions, Korsakov serves as the administrative center of Korsakovsky District and is subordinated to it.
As a municipal division, the town of Korsakov and seventeen rural localities of Korsakovsky District are incorporated as Korsakovsky Urban Okrug. According to a November 1, 1945 Soviet reports, the town had: two refrigerators for fish processing a paper factory a factory to extract salt from sea water a sulphur-alcohol plant 7 sake production facilities 2 timber plantsUp until the 1990s, Korsakov was a major base for the Russian Far Eastern fishing fleet, it was the home of the Base for Ocean Shipping—Baza Okeanicheskogo Rybolovstva—which, went bankrupt during the post-Soviet recession for no better reason than downright looting of state property. The thousands of fishermen employed in the "Bor" continued their work for private fishing companies, which operated small fishing boats not far off the coast without licenses; the catch was sold in Japan for hard currency in Wakkanai. Fishermen used cars; this semi-illicit, semi-barter economy had a certain positive economic effect on Korsakov, though it contributed to organized crime.
Among other large economic
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