How a war in Ukraine crushed the hopes of thousands of elderly Japanese

Thousands of miles from Ukraine, in this city in the far northeast of Japan where many of the roughly 17,200 former residents of the Northern Territories resettled, the Russian invasion and the plight of millions of Ukrainian refugees resonate deeply.

The war has crushed their hopes of ever seeing their homeland again after Russia broke off the post-war negotiations over the islands in response to Japan’s sanctions on Russia for invading Ukraine.

For these former residents, whose average age is nearly 87, the hope of returning home in their lifetimes has vanished.

“The only ones left to tell these stories are just the recollections of some fifth-graders. The rest have all passed away unable to share their stories,” said Hiroshi Tokuno, 88, who fled Shikotan island at 13.