As a result, at the end of 1929, the government partially lifted the blockade of the northern and southern blockaded fields and tenders were held for the issuance of licenses for the development of new coal deposits. Under the terms of the auction, the participant who won the right to obtain a license for coal mining was obliged to pay a mineral extraction tax of 60 yen per 1000 tsubo of the leased territory of the deposit. and to pay 6 sen for each ton of coal mined. Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Okura, Oji Paper, Karafuto Kogyo and Toho Coal Mine (Fuji Paper Co., Ltd.) took part in the auction.

On December 5, 1928, Mitsubishi received license number 86 for coal mining in the southern Naihoro coal basin, with a total area of 2389.9 hectares, and coal reserves in the mine area amounted to 99,442,000 tons. According to the terms of the license, the beneficiary had to pay a deposit in cash or government bonds equivalent to 10000 yen within 3 days after winning the auction. Coal mining was to begin within a year after obtaining the permit. In the first year, the company had to produce 20 thousand tons of coal, in the second - 30 thousand tons, in the third - 50 thousand tons, for the fourth - 70 thousand tons, for the fifth - 100 thousand tons of coal.

Officially, the company began preparatory work on January 17, 1929, starting the construction of a 12-kilometer railway line from Naihoro to Honto. In July of the same year, the construction of a mine, a coal factory and barracks for workers began, and by October the first stage of production work was completed. The mined coal was transported for sale to Honto and Otomari, and from 1931 a contract was signed for the purchase of coal for the needs of the Karafuto railway. In February 1932, the mine and all facilities were completed Nayhoro Coal Mine Railway was transferred to its territory , which was renamed Minami Karafuto Coal Mine Railway on January 15, 1935.

On December 5, Mitsui Kozan Co., Ltd received license number 87 for coal mining in the northern blockade area with a total area of 2597.25 hectares near the village of Naikawa. On January 23, 1929, work began on preparations for the opening of a mine in the northeastern coal basin in Naikava (Tikhmenevo). Under the terms of the license, the recipient of the license had to make a deposit in cash or government bonds equivalent to 15,500 yen within 3 days after winning the auction. Coal mining was supposed to begin within a year after obtaining the permit. In the first year, the company was supposed to produce up to 10 thousand tons of coal, in the second - over 10 thousand tons, in the third - 20 thousand tons, in the fourth - 30 thousand tons, in the fifth - 50 thousand tons of coal. The mined coal was delivered to the Oji pulp and paper mill on an 18-kilometer narrow-gauge railway. Part of the coal went to the needs of the local population.

In the early 30s, about 20 mines were already operating in South Sakhalin, and the average annual production was 600-700 thousand tons of coal. However, the vast majority of coal enterprises on the island were small-scale. The owner of the acquired coal plot limited himself to laying one mine, which he operated, regardless of any rules for conducting mine workings.

After the second half of the 1920s, Japan's coal industry entered an era of full-scale technological innovation focused on the mechanization of the coal mining process. The following factors contributed to this.

For example, the price per ton of Kyushu prime coal peaked at 28.55 yen in 1920 and then plummeted to 20.20 yen in 1921 and was maintained at 16 yen in 1922, but the price of first-class coal continued to fall even after 1922. In 1921, the "Coal Mining Association" was created in Japan, which included all large coal mining enterprises and actually performed a cartel function, that is, monitoring sales and production levels. In Karafuto, such a regional association was established only on March 16, 1928 by the administration of the governorate and representatives of the coal industry with the aim of "promoting the mutual friendship of Sakhalin miners, warming relations and discussing important issues of common interest to the industry, to promote and develop the Sakhalin mining industry." The association was a non-profit organization. additional funds. Each year, the association awarded prizes to mining engineers who have worked for more than five years in the same mine and who have made outstanding improvements or inventions, or who have contributed to the prevention of accidents and disasters, or who have distinguished themselves in other fields of activity. At the expense of the association, a monthly Mining Journal was published. The chairman of the board of the association was the head of the mining department of the governorate Kano Shinichi, the members of the council were Sanjozo Akasako, Takashi Watanabe, Shun Imamura, the trustees of this organization were geologists of the Japan Geological Committee Kawasaki Masaru and Nishida Fujichi.

In June 1935, under the auspices of the Karafuto Mining Association, a grand celebration was held on the island to celebrate reaching the 1 million ton production mark. Coal.

In May 1938, with the assistance of the association, a school for training mining engineers was opened on the basis of the high school in the city of Toyohara. The main purpose of opening the school was "to give those working in the coal mining industry the necessary knowledge and skills, and at the same time to cultivate their moral and spiritual development, as well as to train engineers who will participate in underground work in the mines of the island."

Secondary school graduates or similarly qualified individuals with practical experience in mines for a certain period of time could enter the school. The training lasted 2 semesters. The 1st semester was from May to October and included a theoretical course, the second lasted from October to April and included practical classes at island coal enterprises. After completing the training, students took final exams and received a diploma. At the same time, from 30 to 40 people studied at the school. In the year of opening, 38 people studied at the school. Students studied 12 subjects: mining, geology, geodesy, explosives and blasting, safety rules, electrical engineering, civil engineering, metrology, mining law, music, fundamentals of analysis, physical education. The total number of hours of training was 780, or 39 hours per week.

The association also engaged in projects related to the dissemination and development of knowledge about mining, including "technical seminars, technical training groups and practical exercises on the use of rescue equipment."

However, while mainly engaged in educational projects and grants, the Karafuto Mining Association, unlike the Japan Coal Mining Association, did not have the ability to influence the pricing and level of coal production on the island in any way.

But the All-Japan Association of Coal Mining, on the one hand, by limiting the price of coal by reducing coal production itself, on the other hand, obtained the exact opposite effect, expressed in the intensification of the import of imported coal into the country.

As can be seen from the table, coal imports increased sharply from 1922 onwards and exceeded exports in 1923-1924, and after 1927, Japan's coal industry, which had been export-oriented, turned into an import industry for the first time. This rapid increase in coal imports was caused by the low cost of Fushun coal due to "open-pit mining and the use of low-wage colonial labor." As mentioned above, the market price of coal has further declined, and the industry has found itself in an even more difficult position. The increasing competitive pressure of imported coal in the context of a chronic recession was the first factor that pushed for full-scale technological innovation in the coal industry.

But while coal imports to Japan grew, imports to the Karafuto Governorate steadily decreased, and from 1930 the coal needs of South Sakhalin began to be met at the expense of domestic resources, and in 1931 the governorate turned from a coal-importing region into a coal-exporting region. By 1937, coal production in the island colony amounted to 7% of the total coal production in Japan. It should be noted that coal was exported not only to Japan. Ships from Korea, Hong Kong, Portugal, Belgium, Holland, Egypt, as well as the Philippines and East Africa arrived for coal from southern Sakhalin.

The second factor that pushed the coal industry to radically modernize production processes was the development of mining legislation on labor protection. As early as 1905, the Mining Act recognized the liability of mine owners for accidents and occupational diseases of workers. On August 3, 1916, the Decree of the Ministry of Agriculture and Trade No. 21 "Rules on Labor Assistance to Miners" was promulgated, which came into force on September 1 of the same year hours, they were also given additional days off. Minors and women were prohibited: repair of machinery and electrical equipment, handling of explosives, steam engines, winches, support poles, work in places with harmful emissions of gas, dust, poisonous substances. According to the rules, persons suffering from mental and infectious diseases, tuberculosis, leprosy, syphilis, scabies, etc. were not allowed to work in the mines.

Medical care for a sick miner was provided at the expense of the mine owner. In case of injury, illness or death of a miner, the owner of the mine was obliged to provide the family with financial assistance. Sickness benefit for 3 months from the date of incapacity for work was paid in the amount of 50% of earnings, after 3 months - 1/3 of earnings. The payment of disability benefits was calculated in the amount of earnings from 30 to 170 days, depending on the severity. In the event of the death of an employee, the family was paid 170 days' wages and a funeral allowance of at least 10 yen. Violators of the rules faced a fine of up to 100 yen.

On October 29, 1919, the First International Labor Conference opened in Washington , at which conventions were adopted on the limitation of working hours, on the prohibition of night work, on the minimum age of workers, on the provision of leave to women before and after childbirth, the prevention of occupational diseases, etc. In 1883, with the passage of the German Workers' Insurance Act, it spread both inside and outside Europe. The spread of social insurance in developed countries also put international pressure on Japan, which was experiencing rapid industrial growth due to World War I.

In 1921, the "Employment Law" was adopted in Japan, which provided for the creation of state employment agencies. In April 1922, the law on health insurance for workers was adopted, which came into force on July 1, 1926. Insurance payments included payment for medical care, benefits for injuries or illness, funeral expenses, maternity benefits of the insured person. Initially, the insurance premium was 4% of earnings and the insured person and the employer bore the costs on an equal basis. In 1922, Japan ratified the ILO Convention on the Minimum Age for Workers, on the Prohibition of Night Work in Factories and Mines for Minors. On March 29, 1923, a ban on hiring children under 14 years of age was introduced, night work of women and minors under 15 years of age was prohibited. A provision on employment contracts has appeared. But all these laws were constantly violated by industrialists.

On September 1, 1928, the Minister of the Interior issued Order No. 30, introducing amendments to the Miners' Assistance Regulations of 1916. They introduced a ban on night work (from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.) for minors under 16 years of age, women with children and other privileged categories, and the work of women in underground work was completely prohibited from 1932 Leave after childbirth. The working time of ordinary miners was limited to 10 hours. This was the first regulation of working hours for adult men in Japan. In 1930, when the problem of unemployment came to the fore in connection with the world economic crisis, the first Unemployment Insurance Act appeared. In the same 1930, another important law was adopted. This is the Law on Severance Pay from Enterprises, which began a new direction of labor policy in Japan. On 2 April 1931, the Accident Insurance Act and the Accident Assistance Act (entered into force on 11 July 1931) were promulgated.

However, the implementation of these laws in colonial territories required special orders from local authorities, which, as a rule, followed with a significant delay. Only on November 3, 1929, Governor Karafuto signed Order No. 38 "Regulations on Supporting the Employment and Labor of Miners", which introduced additional days off for minors and women, prohibited hiring people suffering from serious illnesses to work in mines, and shortened the working day for underage girls. Order No. 39 "Changes in the Rules for the Application of the Law on Mining Industry" established the rules for the payment of benefits to sick miners, employees who have been injured and mutilated, as well as the payment of funeral benefits, benefits to the disabled and dependents. In the event that the owner of the mine delayed payments, he had to pay a fine of 85 yen. In fact, it was these orders that introduced the law on health insurance and amendments to the rules for providing assistance to Japanese miners on the island.

To ensure the improvement of the quality of labor protection, Order No. 37 amended the rules "On Mountain Police" (in our understanding of labor protection and safety departments). The rules themselves were spelled out in Order No. 41 of November 1913, but since then the mining industry on the island has undergone rapid development and the adopted norms have become outdated. Now each coal enterprise had to hire a special mining engineer responsible for safety at its own expense. Moreover, very high requirements were imposed on the candidate for the position, in particular, he had to have a diploma in mining technologies and work experience from 1 to 5 years, depending on the level of education. His duties included keeping a special "safety log", in which all observations were recorded during the daily rounds of the mine sections. In case of detection of danger, such as the smell of gas, violation of the fastening of the racks, signs of a possible collapse, etc., the engineer was obliged to immediately stop work on this section and report it to the Department of Mining, which, after an appropriate inspection, decided to resume work processes in this area or to close it completely or partially. He also ensured the inspection of the machines and mechanisms available at the mine and, in the event of a malfunction, prohibited their operation until the breakdown was completely eliminated. If blasting operations were carried out in the mine, then the engineer was entitled to a special assistant who separately kept a blasting log and controlled all issues related to explosives: monitored their purchase, delivery, storage conditions, etc. Fines for non-compliance were ridiculous, and employers calmly paid them.

The fact that there was practically no rescue equipment in the mines of the south of the island also speaks of the disregard for the life of ordinary miners. In 1936, only 4 out of 31 coal mines had 6 Brato self-rescuers, 11 Draeger oxygen respirators (manufactured by Kawasaki Shipbuilding), 10 Kokumin carbon monoxide gas masks (manufactured by Shigematsu Seisakusho), 9 conventional gas masks. A total of 36 units. In 1937, self-rescuers and gas masks were already at 5 mines of the island in a total of 66 pieces. This equipment was used exclusively by emergency rescue teams at mines, while ordinary miners did not have access to gas masks and self-rescuers.

The third factor that influenced the need to modernize the coal industry was undoubtedly wages. It should be noted that for such a low-profit industry as the coal industry, cheap labor was needed.

It should be noted that in Japan the forms of exploitation of miners in the late 19th and early 20th centuries can be conditionally divided into three types. The first form was reduced to the complete dependence of the workers on the capitalist. Under this form, he personally recruited labor and dealt with labor and housing issues, as well as the payment of wages. The second included a form of exploitation when the company hiring workers paid wages itself, but labor, housing, as well as the recruitment of workers were handled by contractors who entered into contracts with the company. This was the so-called "semi-feudal outsourcing". At the same time, recruitment agencies received a certain share of workers' earnings from both the workers themselves and the employers. Contractors received this share from entrepreneurs under contracts. They charged the workers much more than the established "share", since contracts as such with workers were usually not concluded at the time of recruitment, but were limited to verbal promises. Sometimes miners were given so-called "tickets" instead of money, which could not be exchanged for money and were used to obtain food in the company's stores. It was not until 1905 that the law required workers to be paid only in yen, prohibiting the use of local "quasi-money," but in some parts of the country such "receipts and checks" continued to be used until 1919.

In another case, the company contracted with the owner of the mine to extract coal at a certain price per tonne, hired workers at an hourly rate, and then sold the coal to the owner of the mine, and the difference between the contract price and the cost of production was its profit. This form of exploitation was prevalent until the end of the 1920s. In the third form of exploitation, all issues were resolved by the company with the help of its counterparties, and not by third-party contracting firms. This form was most common in Japan. In the mines of South Sakhalin, it became the main one only on the eve of and during the Second World War. At the same time, it is necessary to consider the methods of exploitation of miners. The measure for determining the volume of coal mined in a number of shifts was a box of a set volume. When checking the amount of coal mined, the standardizer could always find fault either with the volume or with the presence of stones in the coal. Moreover, if the tag attached to the box was lost, the rationer did not take into account the mined coal. All this indicates that the forms and methods of exploitation of the miners were very disguised and cruel.

In addition, the miners of South Sakhalin had to work in extremely difficult conditions. Many mines had very few ventilation units, although almost all of the mines in South Sakhalin were gas-hazardous. Until the mid-30s, in terms of the degree of mechanization and electrification, the mines of the southern part of Sakhalin lagged behind the mines of the metropolis, coal was extracted in them by hand. In addition, safety at many mines was very unsatisfactory. In such conditions, the working time of miners lasted 12 hours with a two-shift system with one day off. Due to this, miners could not work in the mines for more than 8 years and were dismissed for health reasons. According to Japanese data, in the early 1930s, 75% of miners left the mines after 3 years or moved to another job.

The average daily wage of Japanese coal miners in Japan in 1926 was 1.75 yen, in 1929 - 1.89 yen, in 1933 - 1.11 yen, in 1936 - 1.68 yen. The earnings of women employed in the coal industry were much lower and amounted to 1.34 yen in 1926, 1.1 yen in 1929, and 0.73 yen in 1933.

In 1933, in terms of Soviet money, a man earned 45-50 kopecks, and a woman - 25-30 kopecks per day. For comparison, let's say that the average earnings of factory workers at that time was 2.43 yen. In the same 1933, the daily wage of a British coal miner in terms of Japanese currency was 5.70 yen, and a coal miner from the Ruhr - 4.37 yen. At the same time, their working day was much shorter.

The remuneration of miners in South Sakhalin was much higher than in Japan. However, if you look at the data in the table below, you can see that the earnings of Karafuto miners fit into the average wages of other workers on the island.

TABLE XLI

Average daily (*monthly) wage in Karafuto in 1914-1940

It should also be borne in mind that prices for goods and food in the south of the island were significantly higher than the average Japanese ones, which negated the higher wages of Karafuto residents. For example, if 1 ce of rice in Japan in 1930 cost 0.18 yen, then in Karafuto it cost 0.33, refined sugar cost 17 sen in the Tokyo market, and 24 sen in the Toyohara market. Soy sauce cost 63 and 80 sen, and wheat flour 18 and 27 sen, respectively. The cost of imported sake was more than 2 times higher than the cost of rice vodka made directly in the colony. Moreover, in Tokyo, a bottle of sake cost 1.4 yen, while on the island the same bottle was sold for 2.5 yen. A package of paper (20 sheets) in the Tokyo market cost 7 sen, while in the Sakhalin market it cost 30 sen. Even firewood, which cost 2 yen in Tokyo, cost 7.3 yen on the "most forested island in the world". More detailed prices for goods and products of the Toyohara Market are shown in the table below.

It should also be noted that the wage system in the Karafuto mines, while giving great advantages to the management and engineering and technical workers, when their wages were 4-5 times higher than the official rates and amounted to 1200-2400 yen per month, at the same time enslaved the worker through all kinds of allowances at the discretion of the management and together with them amounted to 135 to 172 yen per month for production workers, and for the most skilled workers up to 270 yen. Allowances were given: for good work - 15 yen, for long-term work - from 5 to 20 yen, for the quality of products - from 15 to 30 yen, for wife and children - up to 5 yen per month. In addition, the so-called six-month allowances were paid twice a year (in June and December): for 1 year of work - 6 percent, from 1 to 3 years of work - 12 percent, from 3 to 11 years - 18 percent and over 11 years - 24 percent of the six-month salary. It should be noted that women in the island coal industry, however, as well as in the metropolis, received 50 percent less than men.

A completely reasonable question arises, why were all these "incentive" allowances and payments introduced? The answer to this question is quite obvious if you look closely at the data in the table below - a colossal turnover of labor at coal mining enterprises.

* - mine workers, engineers, employees are indicated.

** - mine workers, engineers, employees and mobilized workers from Korea are indicated.

High norms of exploitation, low wages, high prices for food and basic necessities, as well as unsatisfactory working conditions in enterprises both in Japan itself and, of course, in its colonies, caused a high turnover of the labor force and the activation of the labor movement.

In addition, there were few skilled workers in the coal mines of the island. Mostly a motley audience worked. They were factory workers, craftsmen, carpenters, clerks, barbers, peasants, fishermen... Most of them were seasonal workers who came to the island from the interior of Japan, seduced by high wages. After working for several weeks and "tasting" all the delights of miners' skills, these people understood that such hard work would quickly make them disabled and quit production. As eyewitnesses wrote, "workers were replaced quickly, and no matter how many of them were replenished, it was not enough."

It must be said that even in the Meiji era, a certain idea of paternalism appeared in the ruling circles on the issue of labor relations, but it was paternalism, similar to the relationship of master and servant, based on the large status inequality between labor and capital. After the First World War, when this gap narrowed due to the rise of democracy in the Taish era and the spread of education, paternalism changed to the "principle of the family", which imitated the relationship between labor and capital as the relationship between parents and children. This idea was also associated with the values of the national traditional family (onjiteki ie), the modern hypostasis of which was proposed to be a capitalist industrial enterprise. In the spirit of this idea, it was proposed to develop a concept of social policy, according to which the provision of social benefits and payments to employees would be carried out not by the state, but by entrepreneurs as a concern of the head of the "patriarchal family" in relation to their households. So, this management principle was based on the concept of "the company is a family", where the workers involved in production are children, and the administrators and managers are caring parents. But many workers were well aware that in this family they were assigned only the role of Cinderella. And instead of a ball gown, a carriage, a fairy godmother and a handsome prince, they were offered an extensive system of allowances, payments and allowances "for diligence and obedience".

During the 5 years of the First World War, prices in the Japanese markets almost tripled, but instead of raising wages, employers preferred to introduce all kinds of allowances and "incentive" payments. Thus, during this period, there was a transition from the Western style of fixed wages and effective piecework and hourly wages to the unique wage system of Japan, consisting of complex systems of allowances, when they tried to retain qualified workers through a system of special benefits or privileges.

Employees were given a housing allowance, a travel allowance, an allowance for the purchase of work and casual clothes... And, of course, the most noticeable phenomenon in the field of labor relations during this period was the formation of an age-based wage system, which by the end of World War II had become an almost universal means of material incentives at heavy industry enterprises in Japan. Employees could be even more securely tied up by a system of monetary settlements, which considers the length of service at one place of work as the main criterion of wages. A constant increase in wage rates depending on age was the most effective means against staff turnover and, in addition, solved the problem of increasing labor productivity in conditions when it still largely depended on the length of service. If an employee was fired, or he quit himself, then in another company he was treated as a person whose career begins in the "middle of the road", i.e. everything that was earned for seniority in one company did not matter in another company. Thus, the remuneration system became the main means of correcting discipline, increasing efficiency and productivity, control of labor mobility. Workers, on the other hand, were deeply dissatisfied with the devaluation of prices and unstable incomes under the piece-work system, the lack of transparency in the standards of bonuses and raises, and the arbitrary assessments of managers' merit.

And nevertheless, this system, having taken root in Japan, gradually migrated to the south of Sakhalin. As a result, the number of workers in the coal industry in the second half of the 30s began to increase sharply. It should be noted that if in 1930 the coal industry of South Sakhalin employed 0.9% of the total population of the island (not counting children, the elderly and dependents), then by 1941 this figure increased to 7%, that is, the number of people employed at coal enterprises increased more than 7 times!

It is important to note that Karafuto's workforce was highly mobile. People who called their main occupation "agriculture" in the census often worked part-time, and also took seasonal work in fisheries and forests. As such, the above statistics show the flexibility of many workers who have moved between different sectors and across the island as opportunities have arisen.

The total number of workers and specialists in the coal industry, including employees, in August 1941 was over 32 thousand people, including underground workers 16812 people and surface workers 13937 people. Miners and tunnellers accounted for over 36% of the total number of workers. During the Second World War, the coal industry of South Sakhalin employed more workers in the Pacific basin than in any other industry on the island.

Thus, the import of cheap coal from the colonies, the increase in the cost of wages and labor protection put the country's coal industry on the brink of survival. Under these conditions, it was necessary to reduce the cost of production, and this required a radical modernization of the entire industry, the replacement of expensive manual labor with machine labor, the use of mechanization and technological innovations. In particular, many American-made drilling machines, such as Hammer and German Siemens machines, were imported. Progress in mechanization was overwhelmingly dependent on the import of coal mining equipment from abroad. Prior to 1932, the level of domestic self-sufficiency in coal mining machinery was less than 20%, and more than 80% was imported from the United States and Germany. This was facilitated by deflationary processes and falling prices for imported products. However, after 1933, the internal level of self-sufficiency in coal mining machinery increased dramatically, and in 1935 it reached 50%. Domestic manufacturers that supported technological innovation were Hitachi and Komatsu, Sumitomo Machinery, Miike and Ashio. By 1936, there were 91 coal miners, 2751 augers (drilling machines), 1525 pneumatic perforators, 139 main and 741 auxiliary fans in the mines of Japan. In order to demonstrate the technological growth of the industry, let's take the example of the northernmost Japanese region Hokkaido. If in 1925 the mines of Hokkaido had only 44 units of coal mining equipment such as augers, combines, milling machines, etc., then in 1935 there were already 896 of them. That is, the number of equipment used has increased 20 times in 10 years. It should be noted that the introduction of new machines and mechanisms required a sharp increase in the throughput of the face, which led to the abandonment of the traditional method of mining and the introduction of longwall and long-wall mining methods, which in turn made it possible to introduce various downhole transportation machines such as coal conveyors. Electric equipment was also widely introduced, as it was more energy-efficient and safer. And to improve the quality of coal, the modernization of washing plants was carried out.

Of course, the modernization of coal mines and open-pit mines in the southern part of Sakhalin required significant investment, and so the "sharks" of Japanese business Mitsui and Mitsubishi, as well as electrochemical companies such as Nippon Soda and Showa Fertiliser, entered the game Corporation, as well as Sokuho Electric Power Company, Nippon Senshu Electric Power Co, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Co. In particular, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, which found a way to increase its electricity supply in Sakhalin coal as Japan's "national electricity policy agency", said: "It is necessary to purchase a large amount of high-quality coal and... to get coal, as cheap as possible from the point of view of management and calculation of the company..." The company's activities were based on the principle that "the coal mined on the island was not sold on the open market, but was sent directly to the factories of various development companies that did not have production bases on the island."

For its part, the colonial administration also began to support industrialists. In December 1931, the Governor's Office for the first time created a "10-year comprehensive colonization strategy" with the aim of "formulating comprehensive measures for the colonization of land, improving and developing various facilities based on these measures, and taking positive measures for the colonization of land through the rational improvement and development of existing industries and supporting the establishment of new industries", with a total budget of 115521434 yen (11552143 yen per year). The emphasis in the 10-year plan for the development of South Sakhalin was on coal mining and sugar beet production.

In 1934, the Japanese parliament approved the "15-year investment plan for the development of Karafuto", in which the financial aspect shifted from the coal industry to the development of transport infrastructure, namely: road construction (2.701 million yen), construction of railways (17701427 yen) and modernization of rolling stock (8578442 yen), reconstruction and repair of seaports (21.525 million yen). Most of the money was allocated to the development of forestry (23.99 million yen). Of the 162918650 yen provided for in the 15-year investment program, only 22865270 yen was allocated for the development of industrial enterprises on the island, and of this amount, the coal industry received only 1430240 yen and 1.5 million yen went to finance geological exploration.

Japanese demand for coal, which had stagnated amid the depression in the early 1930s, rose sharply in 1933 due to measures to emerge from the depression, the global promotion of export industries caused by the so-called "Manchurian Incident" of 1931, the ban on gold exports, and the intensive development of the country's heavy and chemical industries. And after the reduction in imports of Fushun coal in the 1930s, Sakhalin coal became the most popular coal in the region.

In the mid-1930s, the island's coal industry ranked second in terms of capital investment, which amounted to approximately 132 million yen by 1938. Over the 10 years, from 1928 to 1938, the amount of investment in the mining industry of South Sakhalin increased by 2.5 times. It should be noted that from 1932 to 1945, up to 20 Japanese coal mining joint-stock companies were engaged in coal mining in South Sakhalin. The figures from the table below show how serious their achievements were.

From the second half of the 30s, Japan one after another opened "reserve coal basins" of the entire southern part of Sakhalin. New mines were opened mainly in the northwestern coal basin, where the highest quality coal was found, as well as in a number of other areas. So, in 1939, there were already 28 mines, which gave 5 million tons. Coal.

Thus, thanks to the investments of large Japanese companies and the allocation of funding from the budget of the governorate, from the beginning of the 30s on the island there were conditions for the full-scale mechanization of coal mines. Prior to that, only in large mines it was possible to find a very small number of machines and mechanisms used in the extraction and delivery of coal to the surface and the haulage of wagons. In most mines, hard physical labor prevailed. Delivery of coal to the stopes with the help of conveyors was carried out only in four mines out of 30. As early as 1945, manual haulage was the main mode of transport in three mines, and in 13 mines it was used as an auxiliary means of transport.

The average output of 1 worker with a 12-hour working day in 1926 was 0.78 tons, and in 1930 - 1.29 tons; per 1 underground worker - 1.91 and 2.92 tons, respectively (which was slightly higher than the average Japanese - 0.5-0.6 tons per shift), while in the German coal industry with an 8-hour working day, productivity was 1.3-2 tons per shift, and in the British - 1.2-1.5 tons.

Some researchers believe that the growth of coal production in South Sakhalin, which took place in the period from 1919 to 1936, was achieved mainly due to an increase in the number of workers with low labor productivity, both in the leading professions and in general for underground workers. Statistics show that if in Japan the number of workers in the coal industry in 1919 was 348 thousand people, then in 1932 this number decreased to 138 thousand people, that is, more than 2.5 times, at the same time in South Sakhalin the number of coal miners for the same time period increased from 909 to 1632 people, that is, increased by 1.5 times. However, labor productivity in the Japanese coal industry from 1919 to 1932 increased by 2.26 times, and productivity in Karafuto - by 2.69 times. The reason for this was that the condition of the coal seams on Karafuto made mining relatively easy, and most of the island miners worked much better than the miners in Japan.

It should be noted that despite the introduction of mechanization in the coal mines of the island, labor productivity in 1936 amounted to 3.75 tons for underground workers and 1.35 tons on average for mine workers, that is, it not only did not increase, but even decreased in comparison with 1932. This is due to the fact that the number of operating mines on the island has doubled in 6 years, and the number of workers has increased 3.5 times. Coal production during this period increased by 3.21 times. At the same time, the process of mechanization of production processes affected only 11 mines out of 31 or 34% of the total. For example, at the Taihei Mine in 1936, the labor productivity of underground workers was 4.23 tons, at the Toro Mine - 2.75 tons, at the Kawakami Mine - 2.67 tons, at the Naihoro Mine - 2.43 tons, at the Naikawa Mine - 2.38 tons. Moreover, the cost of coal production at these mines was also the lowest on the island - from 0.62 to 1.17 yen per ton. But at the Hokushin mine in 1936, the labor productivity of underground workers was 0.58 tons, at the Khoronai mine - 0.56 tons, at the Chinnai mine - 0.72 tons, at the Noda mine - 0.84 tons, at the Nayoshi mine - 0.9 tons.

The low degree of mechanization of the mines of South Sakhalin until the mid-30s of the twentieth century is also evidenced by the level of their electrification. By 1935, only 4 coal mines (Kawakami, Esutoru, Naihoro and Shiraura) had their own power plants with a total capacity of 2110 kW. The rest of the mines received electricity from power plants at pulp and paper mills. But already in 1936, power plants were built at the Mita, Ambetsu, Naikawa mines and the total capacity increased 2.5 times - up to 5384 kW. In 1936, 14 electric generators in 7 coal mines generated 5220512 kWh in the amount of 229097 yen. The cost of a kilowatt-hour ranged from 4 to 8.5 sen. In 1937, 25 electric generators located in 13 coal mines (the total capacity increased to 7879 kW) generated 5649965 kWh in the amount of 283561.81 yen. The cost of 1 kWh ranged from 4 to 16 Sen. However, despite a significant increase in power capacity (by 46.34%), electricity generation increased insignificantly, by only 8.22%, which can be explained by the fact that most of the power plants were put into operation in the second half - end of 1937.

By 1938, 2 CHPP units with a capacity of 500 kW each were built at the Toro mine (Shakhtersk). each. By 1941, 19 mines already had their own power plants.

In many mines, due to the lack of vertical, skip and klent entrances, mechanical descent and lifting of people was not carried out. Workers walked on foot along inclined shafts and slopes up to 20R a distance of about 1000 meters In addition, the ascents and mine yards were not connected by telephone either to each other or to the surface. Telephone installation was generally poorly developed, and there was no warning system at all, which was often the reason for untimely assistance in case of accidents. It should also be noted that the lighting network in many mines was poorly made, there were almost no central grounding, and there were no local grounding at all.

In addition, the mines of South Sakhalin were extremely insufficiently equipped with ventilation units, which are of great importance in the safety and health of miners. Thus, despite the fact that almost all the mines of the island were gas-bearing, only 8 large mines (Toro, Naihoro, Kawakami, etc.) were equipped with appropriate ventilation installations for central ventilation. Most of the mines had low-power installations of a district nature. Even such a large mine as Naibuti had only diagonal ventilation. Moreover, there were no backup ventilation units in the mines. Of the 29 mines, 11 operated under natural ventilation until 1945. Such poor technical equipment with ventilation units could not but lead to frequent accidents. In 1925-1945, 42 outbreaks and 10 gas explosions were recorded in the mines of South Sakhalin. For example, on April 10, 1940, 10 miners died in a gas explosion at the Naihoro mine. On November 29, 1943, a gas explosion at the Shiratorizawa mine claimed the lives of 60 people. The heaviest explosions were recorded in Toro in 1941 and 1943, where 96 people died. During the period 1925-1945, 194 people died from methane explosions. In the mines of Naihoro alone, 35 fires were registered. It was this mine that had reserves of the so-called "spontaneously combustible" coal and therefore the issues of fire hazard and fire extinguishing should have been put in the 1st place. Alas, the mine management preferred to save money on preventive measures.

From the middle of the 30s , machines and mechanisms for the extraction and delivery of coal, haulage of wagons, steam and electric winches, electric fans, electric and pneumatic drills, electric trolleys, jackhammers and cutting machines appeared in the mines. As a device for coal enrichment, a number of mines used rock sampling plants, there were installations for washing coal. Thus, in 1936, an enrichment plant with a capacity of 25 tons per hour was installed at the Mita mine. 2 units with a capacity of 75 and 45 tons each were installed at the Naihoro and Esutoru mines, the Ambetsu mine acquired a processing plant with a capacity of 35 tons per hour, and the construction of coal preparation complexes was also completed at the Toro and Chitori mines.

A 3.6 km cable car was built between the Daiei (Ugolnoye) mine and Okuzawa (Artyomovskoye) to deliver coal. The road was powered by an 80 hp engine and operated at an average speed of 265 shaku (80 meters) per minute (1 shaku = 30.3 cm). During the day, the road transported about 350 tons of coal. For underground haulage of coal from the faces to the mouths of the tunnels, electric locomotives were used in some mines, of which there were 58 by the end of 1945. Mechanization made it possible to increase the production of "black gold" by an order of magnitude.

Some researchers believe that the equipment was imported to the coal enterprises of Karafuto mainly worn out, after many years of work in the mines of Japan, which could not but affect its performance. However, this applied only to the mechanisms of American and German production, which were used in the mines of Japan since the beginning of the twentieth century. The Japanese industry began to actively produce equipment for coal mining only in 1933 and therefore it is simply not "old and worn-out" It could be. In particular, drilling rigs of Japanese companies Hojo, Nippon Air Machinery Co., Hitachi, Miike, Mitsubishi, jackhammers of Showa, Izumi, Ashio, Nakayama, Chiyoda, Nagoya FK Manufacturing, Fuji and others were supplied to the island.

It should also be borne in mind that mechanization affected only the largest mines, of which there were only 15 in South Sakhalin. The rest of the mines were small and could not afford mechanized mining. In these mines, coal was excavated with the help of explosives.

A completely natural question arises: was it possible to reduce the cost of production with the help of the program for the mechanization and modernization of the coal industry of the governorate? We will find the answer in the table below.

As you can see, the cost of production not only did not decrease, but even increased, since it was necessary to pay for the equipment for coal mining purchased and brought to the island. However, the share of wages in the cost of production decreased from 65% to 50.4%.

It should be noted that not only the cost, but also the market value of coal grew.

From 1938, market prices were eliminated in connection with the order to "freeze" prices.

To transport the mined coal, railway lines were brought to the mines, or narrow-gauge railways were built. Some coal enterprises were located near highways, and a number of mines had cable cars at their disposal. Coal warehouses were built to store coal.

However, with the increase in coal production, problems arose with the transport component. There were not enough wagons for transporting coal, there were not enough large-capacity ships for transporting coal from the island. In addition, seasonal restrictions applied to the transportation of coal. In most ports, navigation began at the end of March and ended in October, averaging 180 days a year.

To solve this problem, in July 1928, the construction of a loading complex with an average capacity of 120 tons per hour began in the port of Otomari for loading coal and pulp onto steamships. The complex was intended exclusively for the use of Mitsui Mining Company Co., Ltd. The work was completed in August 1930 and cost approximately 640,000 yen.

From 1934 in the port of Honto, and in 1935 in the ports of Otomari and Maoka, dredging works were carried out in the area of the berths, which made it possible to use vessels of larger tonnage. In 1939, construction began on the port of Esutoru with an initial construction estimate of 35 million yen, but it was not completed until 1945.

Many newly opened mines were located near the coastline, but it was quite far from the nearest port, so the owners of the mines solved the problems of transportation in much the same way as it was solved in Northern Sakhalin. A coal warehouse was built on the shore, from which transport communications went to the mine itself, in the form of a road or a narrow-gauge railway. And in the immediate vicinity of the warehouse, a wooden pier was arranged. from where it was reloaded onto barges. To the north of Esutoru, there were 14-15 such loading facilities. In summer, from 1 pier, the daily loading was from 3 to 5 thousand tons of coal. It should be noted that the cost of chartering ships transporting Karafuto coal to the interior of Japan was very high. On this occasion, on June 13, 1935, the Karafuto Nichinichi Shimbun wrote: "To supply coal to Japan from the island, when the cost of freight is so high, is ... extremely uneconomical. It would be very useful to process coal where it is mined, make it a high-value fuel, and then transport it to the interior of the country (Japan)..."

It should be noted that in the early 30s in Japan much attention was paid to the issue of obtaining liquid fuel from coal. Experimental work of the Fuel Research Institute under the Ministry of Trade and Industry, carried out on Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk coal, showed that the latter is a very suitable raw material for these purposes. In 1934, the joint-stock company "Naihoro Tanko Tetsudo Kabushiki Kaisha" initiated the construction of a dry coal distillation plant at the Naihoro mine production of liquid fuels. This plant was one of the first in the country, and technical assistance in its construction was provided by the Fuel Department of the Ministry of the Navy of Japan, which indicates the military importance of this plant. 96 million yen was spent on the construction of the plant, including the cost of building a power plant with a capacity of 550 kW, an oil pipeline, and so on. A significant monetary subsidy was allocated by the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Japan for the construction of the plant. The planned production capacity of the plant was 100 thousand tons of coal per year. In June 1934, construction work began, in December the necessary equipment arrived from Japan and its installation began, and on April 1, 1935, the plant was put into operation. During the first 9 months of operation, due to the need for commissioning, the plant processed only 30 thousand tons of coal, in 1936 - 78 thousand tons, and since 1937 it has reached full capacity - 120 thousand tons. During 1936, they were paid 52,877 yen, and the average daily wage of a worker was 1.32 yen. Since 1938, the staff has expanded to 115 units. In 1944, about 2 thousand people worked at the plant. The work went on around the clock, in three 8-hour shifts.

Two furnaces of the Lurgi type of the German company Metallgesellschaft AG with a patented internal heating system were installed at the plant. Each furnace consisted of 2 parts a thermal dryer, where the coal was first dried and heated to 200 degrees, and a distillation furnace, in which the main chemical processes of obtaining liquid fuel and coke took place. 165 tons of coal each. Thus, taking into account the maximum load of the furnaces, the plant could process about 100 thousand tons of coal annually. During distillation, they gave 50 thousand tons of semi-coke, 7500 tons of heavy oils, 5000 tons of fuel oil, 900 tons of gasoline, 600 tons of paraffin. Hydrogen was extracted from water gas, by adding it to tar, many first-grade oils were obtained. By chemical synthesis, the plant produced valuable medicines: menthol, formalin, berkalite and special paints. Coal dust and lump coal of medium size were used as raw materials for distillation. It should be noted that the 15-year colonization plan of the Karafuto Governorate, adopted in 1934, provided for the allocation of a subsidy of 715,120 yen for the coal processing industry of the island for 7 years. On January 25, 1935, the "Low-Temperature Coal Distillation Subsidy Ordinance" was issued, and the company began to receive a subsidy of 1.5 yen for each ton of coal processed, and from 1936 the subsidy was increased to 2 yen. To encourage coal processing on the island, in 1938, the 72nd Sejm of the Japanese Diet passed a law on the provision of coal-bearing sites in the blockaded areas of Karafuto to enterprises intending to build synthetic oil plants. Such plots were to be provided without competitive bidding.

Trial operation of the plant in the period from 1935 to 1937 gave a positive technical and economic result.

On August 18, 1937, Mitsubishi Mining established Mitsubishi Coal Oil Chemical Co., Ltd., with a registered capital of 20 million yen and a paid-up capital of 10 million yen, which absorbed the Minami Karafuto Tanko Tetsudo Kabushiki Kaisha Joint Stock Company and continued to work on the expansion of the coal processing plant. On September 20, 1937, the company additionally acquired the Morotsu and Kitakozawa mines.

In 1938, the construction of the second stage of the plant began to expand the capacity to 250 thousand tons, which was completed in June 1939 In 1940, the plant processed up to 800 tons of coal per day. In 1942, this plant produced up to 8 tons of gasoline per day. For the entire period of operation, it processed 1545 thousand tons of coal and produced 14 thousand tons of gasoline. The total yield of semi-coke amounted to 817 thousand tons or 52.7% of raw coal. For the enrichment of solid fuel, a dry-type steam sampling unit with a capacity of 500 tons for 10 hours of operation was used.

On August 10, 1937, Law No. 52 "On the Production of Artificial Oil" was published in the Official Gazette. According to Article 6, companies producing artificial oil were exempt from income tax and operating profit tax for a period of 10 years, as well as for a period of 7 years from import tax (Article 8) when purchasing equipment and materials abroad from the date of entry into force of the law. The law came into force on January 25, 1938.

In May 1939, a new joint-stock company, Karafuto Artificial Petroleum Co., Ltd, began operating on the island with a registered capital of 40 million yen, specializing in the production of synthetic oil. In 1940, the construction of another coke plant began in Higashi-Naibuchi (Uglezavodsk) at an estimated cost of 40 million yen. Karafuto Petroleum Naibuchi Plant It was designed to process 2000 tons of coal per day, but due to the war in 1942, it was put into operation with a capacity of 700 tons per day. By 1945, the plant produced 420 tons of semi-coke and 5.6 tons of gasoline daily.

Both plants produced 4,000 tons of gasoline, 10,000 tons of fuel oil and 240,000 tons of coxin per year. All equipment, spare parts and components necessary for the operation of factories were imported from Japan.

Gasoline produced by the factories was used by the colony's vehicle fleet, and solar oil was used by diesel plants. Fuel oil was exported to Japan for combustion in furnaces or mixed with asphalt, and was used for the construction of airfield sites. Semi-coke was exported to Japan for briquetting and the needs of the chemical industry, but on the spot it was used in gas-generator cars and boats. The paraffin produced by the factories was exported to Japan until 1943, and since 1943 it has been used at candle factories in Toyohara (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk), Otomari and Honto.

In March 1945, Karafuto Artificial Petroleum Co., Ltd. merged with Teikoku Fuel Industries Co., Ltd. to form Karafuto synthetic petroleum Co., Ltd. with a capitalization of 7,0481,000 yen divided into 800,000 shares. The main shareholders were Imperial fuel enterprise (599,800 shares), Oji brokers (79,600 shares), Mitsubishi Mining Co., Ltd. (39900 shares), Mitsui mining Co Ltd. (29900 shares). Obuchi Sanki was elected president of the company, Yamanaka Masayuki was elected executive director, and Fukunaga Tsutomu and Cho Mangi were directors.

In 1936, in honor of the 30th anniversary of the ownership of South Sakhalin, the governorship of Karafuto issued an anniversary historical and statistical collection, which, in particular, indicated the main mines operating on the island as of January 1, 1936. We have added to this list the mines that opened later.