Kuril Islands dispute

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Coordinates: 44°6′N, 146°42′E

The Kuril Islands with the disputed islands
The Kuril Islands with the disputed islands

The Kuril Island dispute (Russian: Проблема принадлежности Курильских островов, Japanese: 北方領土問題) is a dispute between Japan and Russia over sovereignty over the southernmost Kuril Islands. The disputed islands, which were occupied by Soviet forces during the August Storm offensive at the end of World War II, are currently under Russian administration as part of the Sakhalin Oblast, but are claimed by Japan, which refers to them as the Northern Territories (北方領土 Hoppō Ryōdo) or Southern Chishima (南千島 Minami Chishima). The disputed islands are:

  • Iturup — ru Итуруп, ja 択捉島 – Etorofu-tō
  • Kunashir — ru Кунашир, ja 国後島 – Kunashiri-tō
  • Shikotan — ru Шикотан, ja 色丹島 – Shikotan-tō
  • the Habomai rocks — ru острова Хабомаи, ja 歯舞諸島 – Habomai-shotō

Contents

[edit] Background

Iturup residents (then called Etorofu) at a riverside picnic in 1933
Iturup residents (then called Etorofu) at a riverside picnic in 1933

The first Russo-Japanese agreement to deal with the status of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands is the 1855 Treaty of Shimoda which first established official relations between Russia and Japan. Article 2 of the Treaty of Shimoda, which provided for an agreement on borders, states "Henceforth the boundary between the two nations shall lie between the islands of Etorofu and Uruppu. The whole of Etorofu shall belong to Japan; and the Kurile Islands, lying to the north of and including Uruppu, shall belong to Russia." The islands of Kunashiri, Shikotan and the Habomai Islands, that all lie to the south of Etorofu, are not explicitly mentioned in the treaty and were understood at the time to be a non-disputed part of Japan. The Treaty also specified that the island of Sakhalin/Karafuto was not to be partitioned but was to remain under a joint Russo-Japanese condominium.

In a subsequent 1875 Treaty of St. Petersburg Russia and Japan agreed that Japan would give up all rights to Sakhalin in favor of Russia in exchange for Russia giving up all rights to the Kuril Islands in favor of Japan.

The Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905 was a military disaster for Russia. The 1905 Treaty of Portsmouth, concluded at the end of this war, gave the southern half of the Sakhalin Island to Japan.

Although Japan occupied parts of Russia's Far East during the Russian Civil War following the October Revolution, Japan did not formally annex any of these territories and they were vacated by Japan by mid 1920's.

There was practically no hostile activity between the USSR and Japan after the Battle of Khalkin Gol ended the Japanese-Soviet Border Wars in 1939 and before the USSR declared war on Japan (Operation August Storm) on August 8, 1945. After capturing the islands between August 18 and September 3, 1945, Russia expelled the Japanese inhabitants two years later.[1]

[edit] The modern dispute

[edit] World War II agreements

The modern Kuril Islands dispute arose in the aftermath of World War II and results from the ambiguities in and disagreements about the meaning of the Yalta agreement (February 1945), the Potsdam Declaration (July 1945) and the Treaty of San Francisco (September 1951). The Yalta Agreement, signed by the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union, stated:

"The leaders of the three great powers - the Soviet Union, the United States of America and Great Britain - have agreed that in two or three months after Germany has surrendered and the war in Europe is terminated, the Soviet Union shall enter into war against Japan on the side of the Allies on condition that: [....] 2. The former rights of Russia violated by the treacherous attack of Japan in 1904 shall be restored, viz.: (a) The southern part of Sakhalin as well as the islands adjacent to it shall be returned to the Soviet Union; [....] 3. The Kurile Islands shall be handed over to the Soviet Union."

Japan, as well as the United States, later claimed that the Yalta agreement did not apply to the Northern Territories since the Northern Territories were technically not a part of the Kuril Islands. The Soviet Union and, subsequently, Russia, rejected this position.

Compared to the Yalta agreement, the text of the Potsdam Declaration contained a more ambiguous passage regarding the Japanese territories: "8. The terms of the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out and Japanese sovereignty shall be limited to the islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku and such minor islands as we determine". The islands comprising the Northern Territories are not explicitly included in this list, but the U.S. subsequently maintained, particularly during the preparation of the Treaty of San Francisco, that the phrase "and such minor islands as we determine" could be used to justify transferring the Northern Territories to Japan. The Cairo Declaration of 1943 did not explicitly mention the Kuril Islands but stated: "Japan will also be expelled from all other territories which she has taken by violence and greed".

Japan later claimed that the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Declaration, that cites it, did not apply to the Northern Territories on the grounds that the Northern Territories never belonged to Russia even before the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese war and were never claimed by Russia since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Russia and Japan in 1855 and thus were not acquired by Japan "by violence and greed".

[edit] San Francisco Treaty

A substantial dispute regarding the status of the Kuril Islands arose between the U.S. and the Soviet Union during the preparation of the Treaty of San Francisco in 1951. The Treaty was supposed to be a permanent peace treaty between Japan and the Allied Powers of World War II. By that time the Cold War already took hold and the position of the U.S. in relation to the Yalta and Potsdam agreements changed considerably. The U.S. now maintained that the Potsdam Declaration should take precedence and that strict adherence to the Yalta agreement was not necessary since, in the view of the U.S., the Soviet Union itself violated several provisions of the Yalta agreement in relation to the rights of other countries.[2] The Soviet Union vehemently disagreed[3] and demanded that the U.S. adhere to its promises made to the Soviet Union in Yalta as a condition of the Soviet Union's entry into the war with Japan. A particular point of disagreement at the time was the fact that the draft text of the treaty, while stating that Japan will renounce all rights to Southern Sakhalin and the Kuril islands, it did not state explicitly that Japan would recognize the Soviet Union's sovereignty over these territories.

The Treaty of San Francisco was officially signed by 49 nations, including Japan and the United States, on September 8, 1951. Article (2c) of the Treaty of San Francisco states: "Japan renounces all right, title and claim to the Kurile Islands, and to that portion of Sakhalin and the islands adjacent to it over which Japan acquired sovereignty as a consequence of the Treaty of Portsmouth of 5 September 1905."

The Soviet Union refused to sign the Treaty of San Francisco and publicly stated that the Kuril Islands issue was one of the reasons for its opposition to the Treaty.

[edit] The 1956 Soviet-Japanese Joint Declaration and a dispute over the composition of the Kuril islands

Japan signed and ratified the San Francisco Treaty. However, both the Japanese government and most of the Japanese media currently claim[4] that already at the time of the 1951 San Francisco peace conference, Japan held that the islands of Kunashiri, Etorofu, Shikotan and the Habomai rocks were technically not a part of the Kuril Islands and thus were not covered by the provisions of Article (2c) of the Treaty. The timing of this claim is disputed by Russia and by some western historians.[5][6] In a 2005 article in "Japan Times", Gregory Clark writes that official Japanese statements, maps and other documents from 1951 and the statements by the head of the U.S. delegation to the San Francisco conference John Foster Dulles make it clear that, at the time the San Francisco Treaty was concluded in October 1951, both Japan and the United States considered the islands of Kunashiri and Etorofu to be a part of the Kuril Islands and to be covered by Article (2c) of the Treaty.[7] Based on the 1966 book by a former Japanese diplomat and a member of the 1956 Japanese delegation for the Moscow peace talks, Clark traces the first time Japan claimed Etorofu and Kunashiri islands not being a part of the Kurils to the 1956 negotiations on the Soviet-Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956. At the time the Soviet Union rejected the view that Etorofu and Kunashiri are not a part of the Kuril Islands and are thus not covered by Article (2c) of the Treaty of San Francisco; the Soviet Union, and, subsequently, Russia, have maintained the same position since then.

During the 1956 peace talks between Japan and the Soviet Union, the Soviet side proposed to settle the dispute by returning Shikotan and Habomai to Japan, but an American intervention[8] warning Japan that a withdrawal of the Japanese claim on the other islands would mean the United States would keep on to Okinawa, caused Japan to refuse these terms. Nevertheless, on October 19, 1956 in Moscow, the USSR and Japan signed the Soviet-Japanese Joint Declaration. The Declaration ended the state of war between the Soviet Union and Japan, which technically still existed between the two countries since August 1945.[9] The Joint Declaration did not settle the Kuril Islands dispute, whose resolution was postponed until the conclusion of a permanent peace treaty between USSR and Japan. However, Article 9 of the Joint Declaration stated: "The U.S.S.R. and Japan have agreed to continue, after the establishment of normal diplomatic relations between them, negotiations for the conclusion of a peace treaty. Hereby, the U.S.S.R., in response to the desires of Japan and taking into consideration the interest of the Japanese state, agrees to hand over to Japan the Habomai and the Shikotan Islands, provided that the actual changing over to Japan of these islands will be carried out after the conclusion of a peace treaty" (see the October 1956 New York Times translation of the Joint Declaration [10]).

The question of whether Etorofu and Kunashiri islands are a part of the Kurils and thus whether they are covered by Article (2c) of the Treaty of San Francisco remains one of the main outstanding issues in the Kuril Islands dispute.

[edit] Recent Developments

The positions of the two sides have not substantially changed since the 1956 Joint Declaration and a permanent peace treaty between Japan and Russia still has not been concluded.

On July 7, 2005, the European Parliament issued an official statement recommending the return of the territories in dispute,[11] to which Russia protested immediately.

As late as 2006, Russia's Putin administration offered Japan the return of Shikotan and the Habomais (about 6% of the disputed area) if Japan renounce its claims to the other two islands, referring to the Soviet-Japanese joint declaration of 1956 signed by the USSR and Japan promised Shikotan and the Habomais to be ceded to Japan after a peace treaty will be signed.[12][13][14]

Recently, Russia's economic boom has spread to the Kurils, leading islanders to turn their backs on Tokyo's trump card of financial aid in a deadlocked territorial row.[15]

February 6, 2008, the Japan Today, an English-language news site in Japan, reported that the Russian president had suggested to Japanese Prime-Minister Yasuo Fukuda to finally settle all territorial disputes over the Kuril Islands and had sent him a letter inviting him to come to Russia for discussions.[16]

[edit] Public attitudes towards the Kuril Island dispute in Russia

In Russia most of the population as well as the mass media strongly oppose any territorial concessions to Japan.[17] Many people oppose any further territorial concessions by Russia to any other countries, particularly after the break-up of the Soviet Union. A common view is that Russia won the Kuril Islands during World War II and is entitled to keep them regardless of the prior history of the disputed territories. Many believe that taking these islands away from Japan was a just reward for Russia's sacrifice's during World War II and for Russia's agreement to enter the war against Japan at the request of its Allies.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Takahara, "Nemuro raid survivor"
  2. ^ Text of Dulles Reply to the Soviet Charges Against Japanese Peace Treaty; THE PRESIDENT ARRIVING TO OPEN PEACE CONFERENCE, New York Times, September 4, 1951; from page 3: "Charge: [...] Likewise, the Treaty States that Southern Sakhalin and the Kurile Islands are to be detached from Japan but does not state, as previously promised by the United States, that these territories should be handed over to the Soviet Union. Reply: [...] As regards South Sakhalin and the Kurile Islands, the treaty carries out the provisions of the Potsdam surrender terms, the only agreement by which Japan and the Allied powers as a whole are bound. So long as other governments have rights under the Yalta Agreement which the Soviet Union has not fulfilled, there is at least question as to whether the Soviet Union can, "with clean hands", demand the fulfillment of the parts of that agreement it likes".
  3. ^ Text of Gromyko's Statement on the Peace Treaty.New York Times, September 9, 1951; From page 26: "The Soviet delegation has already drawn the attention of the conference to the inadmissibility of the situation under which the draft peace treaty with Japan fails to state that Japan should recognize the sovereignty of the Soviet Union over the southern part of Sakhalin and the Kurile Islands. The draft is in flagrant contradiction with the obligations assumed by the United States and Great Britain with regard to these territories under the Yalta Agreement."
  4. ^ The convoluted case of the coveted Kurils. By Kosuke Takahashi. Asia Times. November 25, 2004. "Japan and the Allied Powers, including the US and the UK, signed the peace treaty in San Francisco in 1951, when the Soviet Union participated but did not sign the treaty. At the conference, Japan renounced the "Kuril Islands", excluding Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan, or Habomai islands, which Japan claimed had always been Japanese territories and wished to claim them after the war."
  5. ^ Kimie Hara, 50 Years from San Francisco: Re-Examining the Peace Treaty and Japan's Territorial Problems. Pacific Affairs, Vol. 74, No. 3 (Autumn, 2001), pp. 361-382. Available online at J-STOR.
  6. ^ Northern Territories dispute highlights flawed diplomacy. By Gregory Clark. Japan Times, March 24, 2005.
  7. ^ Northern Territories dispute highlights flawed diplomacy. By Gregory Clark. Japan Times, March 24, 2005. "Japanese materials at the time -- Foreign Ministry maps, statements by former Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida at San Francisco and in his later memoirs, and newspaper reports all make it clear that Etorofu and Kunashiri were most definitely included. The chief U.S. negotiator for the San Francisco treaty, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, agreed. Asked at San Francisco to define the territory of the Kurils, he said only that the Habomais might be excluded (at the time there were suggestions that Shikotan might be part of the Kurils). More was to follow. Questioned in the Diet on October 19, 1951, over whether the word "Kurils" as used in the treaty included Etorofu and Kunashiri, the head of the Foreign Ministry Treaties Bureau, Kumao Nishimura, said unambiguously that both the northern Chishima and southern Chishima (Etorofu and Kunashiri) were included."
  8. ^ Kimie Hara, 50 Years from San Francisco: Re-Examining the Peace Treaty and Japan's Territorial Problems. Pacific Affairs, Vol. 74, No. 3 (Autumn, 2001), pp. 361-382. Available online at J-STOR.
  9. ^ Texts of Soviet-Japanese Statements; Peace Declaration Trade Protocol, page 2, New York Times, October 20, 1956; available for fee from the New York Times electronic archive.
  10. ^ Texts of Soviet-Japanese Statements; Peace Declaration Trade Protocol. New York Times, page 2, October 20, 1956. Subtitle: "Moscow, October 19. (UP) - Following are the texts of a Soviet-Japanese peace declaration and of a trade protocol between the two countries, signed here today, in unofficial translation from the Russian".
  11. ^ European Parliament resolution on relations between the EU, China and Taiwan and security in the Far East #15 [1]
  12. ^ Soviet-Japanese joint declaration of 1956 — full text in Russian at Wiki
  13. ^ declaration of 1956, official Japan site — full text in Russian
  14. ^ declaration of 1956, Japan embassy — full text in Russian
  15. ^ Islands disputed with Japan feel Russia's boom
  16. ^ Japan expects the Kuril Islands return :: In Depth :: Russia International :: Russia-InfoCentre
  17. ^ Russians Want to Keep the Kuril Islands. By E. Vovk. The Public Opinion Foundation Database. November 25, 2004

[edit] Further reading

  • Stephan, John J. The Kuril Islands Russo-Japanese Frontier in the Pacific. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1974. ISBN 0198215630
  • Kimie Hara, 50 Years from San Francisco: Re-Examining the Peace Treaty and Japan's Territorial Problems. Pacific Affairs, Vol. 74, No. 3 (Autumn, 2001), pp. 361-382. Available online at J-STOR. </ref>

[edit] External links