ABSTRACT
In order to reconstruct the last days of Karafuto and to understand how two former wartime enemies relate to their common past across shifting terrains ofhistory and memory, the end of the Cold War is our springboard. The opening of the Soviet archives has provided us with accounts of how the conquerors interpreted events. In tum, the Japanese witnesses, long since conquered and departed, feel more at ease sharing their impressions, now that Russia has emerged from its long isolation. Their perception of the Russians as enemies/conquerors
and neighbours/friends has followed them across the Soya Strait and stayed with many of them for good. Over the last several years I have collected oral histories of this significant period of 'cohabitation' in Russo-Japanese history, and compared the participants' narratives against popular national myths and archival sources.
