Evacuation of Karafuto and Kuriles The evacuation of Karafuto ( Sakhalin ) and the Kuriles refers to the events that took place during the Pacific theater of World War II as the Japanese population left these areas , to August 1945 in the northwest of the main islands of Japan . The evacuation started under the threat of Soviet invasion . As Japanese civilians evacuated Korea and Manchuria , they cleared out of the Karafuto and Kurile Islands according to the terms of the Potsdam Declaration that the terms of the Cairo Declaration would be carried out , and Japanese sovereignty would be limited to the " Home Islands " of Honshū , Hokkaidō , Kyushu , Shikoku and such minor islands as the Allies determined . Timeline . Karafuto . The operation began with the crossing of the Horonai ( Poronai ) Japanese frontier river post and bombardment of the Handenzawa Japanese land frontier post in Shikuka district , as well as the advance to the north of Koton ( now Pobedino ) , a powerful fortified district ( FD ) . Severe fighting with heavy losses on both sides continued for over a week , with Soviet troops breaking the enemy ' s defenses on August 18 . The Soviets also landed their naval forces deep behind enemy frontlines to aid their ground forces . According to some of the 6 , 000 refugees already evacuated from the area , Soviet forces carried out fierce naval bombardment and artillery strikes against civilians awaiting evacuation as well as Japanese installations in Maoka , Shikuka on August 10 . Nearly 1 , 000 civilians were killed by machine - gun fire in this attack . Nine female Japanese telephone operator s in the city decided not to evacuate , instead maintaining contact with the Wakkanai and Mainland Japan until the moment that Soviet forces destroyed the telephone and postal installations in city . The town of Maoka ( originally with a population of about 9 , 000 ) had approximately 2 , 000 civilians killed by Soviet artillery due to stiff Japanese resistance . This incident became known in Japan as the " Maoka Massacre " . On August 16 , the coastguard " Zarnitsa " , four minesweepers , two transports , six gunboats and nineteen torpedo boats landed in Port Toro ( now Shakhtersk ) with the 365th Separate Marine Battalion and one battalion of the 113th Infantry Brigade . The men instantly engaged the enemy in fierce battle and by morning of the next day had captured four populated areas and the port city of Esutoru ( now Uglegorsk ) , Anbetsu ( now Vozvrashcheniye ) and Yerinai ) . On August 20 , a combined marine battalion and the 113th Infantry Brigade landed in Port Maoka ( now Kholmsk ) . They were preceded by a group of scouts , landed secretively by submarine " Sh - 118 " , in the Maoka area to successfully complete their task . However , Japanese resistance was desperate , and the landing party had to fight particularly fiercely and valiantly . Enemy fire set one of the coastguards on fire , to which the Soviet response was intense naval bombardment of the city , causing more civilian deaths . The rest of Japanese Maoka defenders retreated by Tei ( now Polyakovo ) and Futomato ( now Chaplanovo ) in Ikenohata county , between the mountains in the direction of Toyohara in order to make a last stand in the capital of the province or in Kawakami Sumiyama county for sustained guerrilla resistance . On August 25 , another 1 , 600 men landed in Otomari ( now Korsakov ) . The Japanese garrison of 3 , 400 men laid down their arms with almost no resistance and surrendered . Some vessels of the last convoy , including civilian evacuees , had been sunk by Soviet submarines in the Aniva Gulf . Kuriles . The rout of Japanese forces in Manchuria and Sakhalin created favorable conditions for liberation of the Kurile Islands . The key Japanese position was on Shumushu and Paramushiro Islands . On August 18 , two coast guard ships , the mine layer " Okhotsk " , four minesweepers , 17 transports and 16 special landing vessels with nearly 9 , 000 sailors , soldiers , and officers on board , approached Shumushu and Paramushiro to start the landing operation . The enemy offered fierce resistance . Bloody battles took place in Shumushu and Paramushiro with varying success till August 23 when the Japanese garrison surrendered . By the end of August , all the northern Kuriles were under the control of Soviet forces , including Uruppu Island . The Northern Pacific Flotilla occupied the rest of the islands to the south of Uruppu . Up to 60 , 000 Japanese officers and men were taken prisoner in the Kuriles . The landing operation in the Kuriles was the last of World War II . In the Kuriles a similar pattern was repeated when Japanese civilians desperately retired from Shumushu and Paramushiro before the Soviet invasion ( the Russians only sank one war vessel transporting some Japanese troops ) , but did not occur at the time in some islands such as Uruppu and South Kuriles . In these cases , Russian troops arrived in aggressive form to expel local citizens and confiscate local property . Fate of Western residents and Allied prisoners in the area . Similar treatment faced the German , Ukrainian and Polish citizens who resided in these provinces , the White Russians in the area ( living from ancient Russia n administration under the Shimoda agreement ) , were arrested , accused of high treason and collaboration with an enemy power . Some were sent to gulags in Eastern Siberia , others were executed . Similar things happened to White Russians living in Manchukuo , Kwantung or North Chosen ( Korea ) . Some versions ( including the work of American researchers ) allege that Japanese forces during wartime sent certain Western POW s ( Americans , British , Dutch , and the like ) to detention camps in Karafuto and the Kuriles from other areas in Southeast Asia as well as to detention centers in Hokkaidō ( Otaru POW center ) and North Honshū , Manchukuo or Chosen . The final fate of the supposed Allied POW s when Soviet forces arrived in these areas previously under Japanese administration , if unknown , is very similar to Americans captured or interned in Vladivostok ( during the Doolittle Raid or B - 29 strikes against Manchukuo industry ) or Kamchatka ( when Americans carried out some air strikes against North Kuriles Islands ) . Some reports also exist mentioning the possibly of identifying Americans interned in East Siberian Gulags in the same period , and possibly into the Cold War period . Such a topic still awaits in - depth research by historians and experts of the area .