Editing Sea of Okhotsk (section)

===Modern===
South Sakhalin was administered by Japan as [[Karafuto Prefecture]] from 1907 to 1949. The Kuril Islands were Japanese from 1855 and 1875 till the end of [[World War II]] in 1945. Afterward, the [[Soviet Union]] occupied the territory.

During the [[Cold War]], the Sea of Okhotsk was the scene of several successful [[United States Navy|U.S. Navy]] operations (including [[Operation Ivy Bells]]) to tap [[Soviet Navy]] undersea communications cables. These operations were documented in the 1998 book ''[[Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage]]''. The sea (and surrounding area) were also the scene of the [[Soviet Anti-Air Defense|Soviet]] attack on [[Korean Air Flight 007|Korean Air Lines Flight 007]] in 1983. The [[Soviet Pacific Fleet]] used the sea as a ballistic missile submarine [[bastion (naval)|bastion]],<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Acharya|first=Amitav|jstor=25797972|title=The United States Versus the USSR in the Pacific: Trends in the Military Balance |journal=Contemporary Southeast Asia|publisher=[[Institute of Southeast Asian Studies]]|volume=9|issue=4|date=March 1988|page=293|issn=1793-284X}}</ref> a strategy that Russia continues.

Despite its proximity to Japan, the Sea of Okhotsk has no native etymology in the [[Japanese language]]; its name, ''{{lang|ja-latn|Ohōtsuku-kai}}'' (''{{lang|ja|オホーツク海|italic=no}}''), is a transcription of the Russian name. This is also reflected in the name of Hokkaido's [[Okhotsk Subprefecture]], which faces the Sea of Okhotsk and is also known as the {{nihongo|Okhotsk region|オホーツク地方|Ohōtsuku-chihō}}.