I just got a very strange phone call from my boss. Apparently, I’m going to Sakhalin Island in Eastern Russia. Apart from the almost infinite number of airmiles on offer, I know nothing. Do any of you guys know any better?
I know just a few things about it.
(1) It’s geographically part of the Japanese archipelago (I think).
(2) Some Ainus (Japanese aborigines) live there, or used to live there.
(3) Yul Brynner was from there.
It’s a remote place. If you don’t mind my asking, what kind of work do you do?
Isn’t that where they (Russians) shot down Korean Airlines flight # 007 back in the mid '80s or so with a US congressman onboard when it inadvertantly strayed into their airspace?
Found some sites by googling:
http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0016985.html
http://www.outpostexpat.nl/sakhalin/sakhalin.htm
http://www.outpostexpat.nl/sakhalin/moreinfo.htm
Excellent links Mr. Kobayashi.
The Ainus? Bummer.
I’m a geologist in the oil business. I guess there must be oil there.
That’s where the Russians were hiding the “Doomsday-Device”…
Spectre beat me to the Yul Brynner bit, so I’ll just add that Chekhov visited frequently for health reasons and wrote quite a bit about the penal colonies there.
Do you work for Exxon or one of its subsidiaries? They have MAJOR business interests there.
No, Chekov went to the penal colony Alpha Ceti V.
Chekhov did not visit Sakhalin for health reasons–he went purely to write about the penal colonies there, and the harsh conditions were not good for his health. He went to Yalta frequently for health reasons.
No, that was the Kamchatka peninsula.