was established in Wakkanai,

Hokkaidō is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The la ...

, Japan in 1961. Covering some , when combined with the adjacent Forest Park, there is total area of approximately for "citizens to relax". Located on a hillside overlooking the Sōya Straits, within the park there are a number of memorials that, along with those of

Cape Sōya is the northernmost point of the island of Hokkaidō, Japan. It is situated in Wakkanai, Sōya Subprefecture. The is at the cape, although the true northernmost point under Japanese control is a small deserted island called Bentenjima, northw ...

, that to the Chihaku ferry near the

North Breakwater Dome The is a long arched " semi-domical" structure in the port area of Wakkanai, Hokkaidō, Japan. Rising to a height of above the sea and extending some , with seventy columns, an intercolumniation of , and a width from column to wall of , the for ...

, the Northern Memorial Museum inside the park, and the Wakkanai Karafuto Museum, together help give Wakkanai the greatest density of "proxy" Karafuto '' lieux de mémoire'' in Hokkaidō.

Monuments

The is a memorial to those who died in Karafuto. At its centre is a statue of a woman with a look of pain and anguish, her face to the heavens and hands to the earth, her back to Sakhalin. An inscription explains that the monument expresses "grief at the loss of everything held dear". The memorial was built by Sapporo sculptor in 1963 and has the more formal name of . This memorial is flanked to the left, when facing the sea, by a monument to the , nine telephone operators at the post office in Maoka, now Kholmsk, who committed suicide on 20 August 1945 during the Soviet Invasion of South Sakhalin, and, to the right, by a monument inscribed with a poem by the

Shōwa Emperor Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...

, composed when he heard the story during his visit with Empress Kōjun in 1968. Also in the park is a monument to the Sakhalin huskies, trained in Wakkanai Park, who have served on expeditions to Antarctica. In particular it celebrates a pair of sled dogs named Tarō and Jirō, who survived for a year when the 1958 expedition was abandoned due to bad weather, while a

memorial tower Memorial Tower, or the Campanile as it is sometimes called, is a 175-foot clock tower in the center of Louisiana State University's campus in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States. Erected in 1923 and officially dedicated in 1926, it stands a ...

comforts the souls of those dogs who have perished along the way.

References

{{Reflist Wakkanai, Hokkaido Parks and gardens in Hokkaido

Monuments

See also

References