Treaty of Portsmouth in the context of "Kittery, Maine"

Karafuto Prefecture (樺太庁, Karafuto-chō; Japanese pronunciation: [ka.ɾa.ɸɯ̥.to]) was established by the Empire of Japan in 1907 to govern the southern part of Sakhalin. This territory became part of the Empire of Japan in 1905 after the Russo-Japanese War, when the portion of Sakhalin south of 50°N was ceded by the Russian Empire under the Treaty of Portsmouth.

Karafuto Prefecture was established in 1907 to govern Karafuto, which was part of Japan's External Land (Gaichi), until it was incorporated into an Inner Land (Naichi) of the Japanese metropole in April 1943. Ōtomari (Korsakov) was the capital of Karafuto from 1905 to 1908 and Toyohara (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk) from 1908 to 1945.

The Kwantung Leased Territory (traditional Chinese and Japanese: 關東州; ; pinyin: Guāndōng zhōu; Wade–Giles: Kuan-tung-chou; rōmaji: Kantō-shū) was a leased territory of the Empire of Japan in the Liaodong Peninsula from 1905 to 1945.

Japan first acquired Kwantung from the Qing Empire in perpetuity in 1895 in the Treaty of Shimonoseki after victory in the First Sino-Japanese War. Kwantung was located at the militarily and economically significant southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula at the entrance of the Bohai Sea, and included the port city of Ryojun (Port Arthur/Lüshunkou). Japan lost Kwantung weeks later in the Triple Intervention and the Qing transferred the lease to the Russian Empire in 1898, who governed the territory as Russian Dalian and rapidly developed infrastructure and the city of Dairen (Dalniy/Dalian). Japan re-acquired the Kwantung lease from Russia in 1905 in the Treaty of Portsmouth after victory in the Russo-Japanese War, continued to rapidly develop the territory, and obtained extraterritorial rights known as the South Manchuria Railway Zone. Japan extended the lease with the Republic of China in the Twenty-One Demands and used Kwantung as a base to launch the Second Sino-Japanese War. The Kwantung Leased Territory ceased to exist following the Surrender of Japan in World War II in September 1945 when the Soviet Red Army began to administer the region until Kwantung and the Lüshun base was handed over to the People's Republic of China on 16 April 1955.

Syngman Rhee (Korean: 이승만; Hanja: 李承晚; pronounced [iː.sɯŋ.man]; 26 March 1875 – 19 July 1965), also known by his art name Unam (우남; 雩南), was a South Korean politician who served as the first president of South Korea from 1948 to 1960. Rhee was also the first and last president of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea from 1919 to his impeachment in 1925 and from 1947 to 1948. As president of South Korea, Rhee's administration was characterised by authoritarianism, limited economic development, and in the late 1950s growing political instability and public opposition to his rule.

Born in Hwanghae Province, Joseon, Rhee attended an American Methodist school, where he converted to Christianity. He became a Korean independence activist and was imprisoned for his activities in 1899. After his release in 1904, he moved to the United States, where he received degrees from American universities and met Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. After a brief 1910–12 return to Korea, he moved to Hawaii in 1913. In 1919, following the Japanese suppression of the March First Movement, Rhee joined the right-leaning Korean Provisional Government in exile in Shanghai. From 1918 to 1924, he served as the first President of the Korean Provisional Government until 1925. He then returned to the United States, where he advocated and fundraised for Korean independence. In 1939, he moved to Washington, DC. In 1945, he was returned to US-controlled Korea by the US military. On 20 July 1948, he was elected the first president of the Republic of Korea by the National Assembly, ushering in the First Republic of Korea.