The last visiting site was the biggest shopping square in Toyohara. Lots of articles for daily use were sold. I dropped in at a watch shop to check the price of my favorite watch, SEIKO ASTRON, which I had been thinking of buying in Japan or another country to save on the consumption tax, but the young shop workers weren't able to communicate in English. What's going on about the education in Karafuto? When I went up the stairs, I found several Japanese people selling Hokkaido products. They were really happy to see us, the Nippon Maru passengers, and treated us to their wine and dried goods.
An hour's drive on the Korean-made fairly old and dilapidated bus took us to Oodomari, where the makeshift pier to the Nippon Maru was set. Looking down on the port of Oodomari and Aniwa Bay, I recalled that lots of Japanese refugees had set out for their motherland from here in August 1945. More than 1700 people on the three passenger ships torpedoed by Russian submarines were killed before reaching Hokkaido. 70 years have passed since the Russian invasion, but the Japanese people would never forget their cruelty.
(Vocabulary)
a dilapidated building, vehicle etc is old and in very bad condition
北緯５０度以南の樺太は日本領、したがってこのブログでは日本名を使う
Karafuto (樺太) Sakhalin サハリン
Toyohara (豊原) Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk ユジノサハリンスク
Oodomari(大泊) Korsakov コルサコフ
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