Ruins of the Japanese Paper Mill in Dolinsk

The remains of a pulp and paper mill lie on the outskirts of Dolinsk, a town in Sakhalin Oblast within the Dolinsky municipal district, about 40 kilometers from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. The mill was built by the Japanese company Oji during the Karafuto period, and today the once sizeable plant has been reduced to concrete workshop foundations, broken walls, and bricks still bearing Japanese markings.

History

The paper mill in what was then called Ochiai (the Japanese-era name for Dolinsk) was officially commissioned on April 15, 1917. It was one of nine paper-producing plants built in southern Sakhalin during the Karafuto period, when the island belonged to Japan. The mill was built and operated by the Japanese company Oji (also rendered as Odai in some sources). Its first director was Ringo Takahashi, with Tomaji Uda as his deputy.

The plant operated until the end of World War II, supplying paper and cardboard to the Japanese market. After southern Sakhalin passed to the Soviet Union as a result of the war, the enterprise was nationalized on February 22, 1946, and placed under the Sakhalinbumprom trust. The pulp and paper mill was formally registered with the Dolinsk financial department on August 23, 1946, and from that point operated as a Soviet enterprise under new management. Production at the site was later shut down, the buildings and equipment were gradually dismantled, and the grounds fell into disuse.

What remains today

Fragments of foundations and workshop walls survive, along with concrete structures and broken bricks of Japanese manufacture that can still be found on the site. The ruins continue to deteriorate and be dismantled, and some surviving structures are unsafe and call for caution when exploring them. In winter, ground collapses hidden under a layer of ice and snow occur on the site, making a walk among the ruins in cold weather riskier — the ground underfoot can give way.

Getting there

The mill ruins lie within the town of Dolinsk, on Sakhalin's western coast, in the Dolinsky municipal district, about 40 kilometers from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. The site is close to the Dolinsk railway station. The town is reachable by the road connecting Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk with the island's western coast, or by suburban train.