Sangara Strait, otherwise known as Tsugaru, is located between the Japanese islands of Honshu and Hokkaido. It connects the Sea of Japan and the Pacific Ocean, while beneath it lies the Seikan, a railway tunnel that stretches from Aomori Prefecture to the city of Hakodate.
Information about the Strait
The width of Tsugaru varies from 18 to 110 km depending on the place of measurement, the length is 96 km. The depth of the navigable part depends on the time of high and low tides, therefore it can vary from 110 to almost 500 meters.
The strait got its name in honor of the Tsugaru peninsula, located on the northern tip of Honshu. The same one was so named from the ethnonym of the tribe that lived in the area.
Until the middle of the twentieth century. the Sangar Strait was considered the official name, since the first map with its image was compiled by Admiral Kruzenshtern, who gave it just such a toponym.
Despite the abundance of anchorages, Tsugaru is well blown by the winds due to the lack of closed places. Both banks adjacent tothe strait, have uneven terrain (mostly mountainous), covered with dense forest.
The closest cities to Tsugaru are Aomori, located on the south side, and Hakodate on the island of Hokkaido (Japan). Sapporo and Yubari are also relatively close.
The main current in Tsugaru is directed to the east, but tends to branch and change its course, reaching a speed of about 6 km/h, while the tidal wave moves at a speed of 2 m/s.
Sangara Strait regime
Until the period of World War II, the passage of merchant and military ships through the Sangar Strait was free. Since up to that time not a single agreement had been concluded that regulated the Tsugaru regime, the Land of the Rising Sun actively used this omission against the USSR. So, with the onset of World War II, Japan closed access to the strait to all foreign ships, declaring it a defensive zone of the state.
For many years, Soviet ships lost the opportunity to pass a short route to the Pacific Ocean. This was of great importance, since the Sea of Japan (it is easy to find on the map) is closed and Tsugaru was the only strait connecting it to open waters.
Because after the end of the war, along with the defeat of imperialism in the Land of the Rising Sun, the question of the mode of passage of ships was put differently. As a result, at the 1951 conference in San Francisco on a peace treaty with Japan, the USSR put forward a proposal to demilitarize the strait and open it to merchant ships of all countries and militarytransport of coastal states. However, the initiative of the Soviet Union was rejected, despite its prudence in terms of ensuring the freedom and safety of navigation.
Today, the Sangarsky Strait is a free zone for the passage of any ships, but its regime largely depends on the discretion of Japan and can change at any time.
Tsugaru and the Sea of Japan
On the map, this reservoir is located in the Pacific Ocean, separated from it by the islands of Japan and Sakhalin. Its area is 1.062 million square meters. km.
In winter, the northern part of the waters is ice-bound, and the only non-freezing area of the sea in this direction is the Tsugaru Strait. This makes it extremely popular for merchant ships in the coastal regions of Russia as the shortest route to the Pacific Ocean. In addition, the current Japanese military policy has greatly reduced territorial waters - to 3 nautical miles (instead of 20) from the coast, so that the US Navy can freely pass through the Sangar Strait without violating the law banning the presence of nuclear weapons on the territory of the Land of the Rising Sun.
The Sea of Japan, otherwise called the East Sea, washes the shores of Russia, Korea and Japan - the warships of these states, according to the plan of the USSR, were to gain access to Tsugar.
Also, the Sangar Strait is used for fishing, crabs and algae.
Seikan
The 53.85 km long Seikan Railway Tunnel with a 23.3 km section submerged to a depth of 100 meters below the seabed,before the construction of the Gotthard Base Tunnel, it was considered the longest in the world. Due to the low cost of air travel within Japan, it is not popular among local residents, as it is significantly inferior in travel time.
This tunnel runs under the Sangar Strait, forming a railway connection between the islands of Honshu and Hokkaido, being part of the Kaikyō (Kaikyo) line. Its name is formed from the abbreviation of the names of the cities between which it is spread - Aomori Prefecture and Hakodate.
Besides, Seikan is the second longest underwater tunnel after Kammon, connecting the islands of Honshu (Japan) and Kyushu.
History of the tunnel
The Seikan took 9 years to design. It took 24 years to build between 1964 and 1988. More than 14 million people took part in the construction, laying a seamless path.
This is a special type of railroad construction that uses welded rail spans that are much longer than standard. Due to this technology, the seamless path is more durable and reliable in operation, however, it requires special attention and care, since the consequences of a malfunction are often fatal.
The impetus for the construction of the tunnel was the event of 1954: a large-scale maritime disaster occurred in the Tsugaru Strait, which claimed more than 1000 lives. All these people were passengers on five ferries that ran between Honshu and Hokkaido. The Japanese government reacted to the incident almost immediately - already inThe following year, survey work was completed, on the basis of which it was decided to build the Seikan. The cost of its construction in the prices of that time amounted to about 4 billion dollars.
On March 13, 1988, the tunnel was opened for freight and passenger traffic.
Modernity
On March 26 this year, the Shinkansen, a high-speed train, was launched in the Seikan Tunnel, covering a distance of about 900 km between Tokyo and Hakodate (Hokkaido) in 4 hours.
As mentioned above, now the tunnel continues to be relatively free, since even the replacement of the ferry with a railway tunnel could not stop the decline in passenger traffic in this direction. In the eleven years since the start of operation of the Seikan, it has decreased by more than 1 million people. Previously, the flow was more than 3 million passengers, but by 1999 it had fallen to less than 2 million.
