Part I. Borderland societies, pre-1945 -- Japanese society of Karafuto / Taisho Nakayama -- Borders, borderlands and migration in Sakhalin and Priamur Region: a comparative study / Igor Saveliev -- Part II. Postwar population movements -- Occupation-era Hokkaido and the emergence of the Karafuto repatriate: the role of repatriate leaders / Jonathan Bull -- Soviet rule in South Sakhalin and the Japanese community, 1945-9 / Yuzuru Tonai -- Returning from Harbin: Northeast Asia, 1945 / David Wolff -- Part III. Reconstructing narratives of Karafuto/Sakhalin -- Memories beyond borders: Karafuto sites of memory in Hokkaido / Philip Seaton -- Homecoming visits to Karafuto: how is home (furusato) reconstructed after a long absence? / Masatoshi Miyashita -- Russia's last barren islands: the Southern Kurils and territorialisation of regional memory / Paul Richardson -- Part IV. Postwar lives and returning home -- Dreams of returning to the homeland: Koreans in Karafuto and Sakhalin / Yulia Din -- Multi-layered identities of returnees in their historical homeland: returnees from Sakhalin / Mooam Hyun and Svetland Paichadze -- Language, identity and educational issues of repatriates from Sakhalin / Svetlana Paichadze