Shana

Shana stands at a river mouth on Etorofu's northwestern shore, beside a bay facing the Sea of Okhotsk. An Ainu settlement occupied this coast before the Japanese shogunate established a post here in 1800. Officials and guards oversaw the island's fisheries and administration. In 1807 Russian forces attacked and burned the post, a violent episode in the growing rivalry between Japan and Russia in the southern Kurils.