On remote Sakhalin Island, near Russia’s eastern edge, tales of longing and splintered identity are embedded in people’s very names.
Some people here have three different names — Russian, Korean and Japanese — each representing a different chapter of the island’s centurylong history of forced resettlement and war.
Taeko Nisio got her name from Japanese authorities in 1939 after she arrived on Sakhalin, at 8 years old, when it was a part of Japan’s empire. The Soviets captured the island at the end of World War II, and her new Russian friends started calling her Tanya. But in the beginning, Nisio’s name was Jeon Chae-ryeon, and after eight decades, she is finally making plans to return to where she was born — South Korea.