You really can see Russia from Wakkanai, the tip of northern Japan.

You’ve heard of the islands disputed by Russia and Japan.

That’s the largest, Karafuto/Sakhalin, on the horizon directly behind this memorial.

The Statue of Nine Women commemorates one symbolic war story, that of 9 women working at a telegraph station who committed suicide with potassium cyanide tablets rather than be taken by the invading Russians.

August 1945, in accordance with Yalta Conference agreements, the Soviet Union took over the control of Sakhalin. Perhaps 400,000 citizens were displaced to Japan. So today it’s functionally Russian, as well as politically Russian.

Lesson of the story — If you declare war on Russia, don’t lose.

Actually, ownership of the big island had been in dispute long before that. It’s complicated.

related – wikitravel – Wakkanai