| Disputed island Native name: Kunashiri (Ainu) Other names: Japanese: 国後島; Russian: Кунаши́р |
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| Kunashir coastline on a photo taken by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in November 2010. | |
| Geography | |
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Kunashir Island
Kunashir Island (off the coast of Hokkaidō)
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| Location | Sea of Okhotsk |
| Archipelago | Kuril Islands |
| Area | 1,490 square kilometres (370,000 acres) |
| Length | 123 kilometres (76 mi) |
| Width | from 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) to 30 kilometres (19 mi) |
| Highest point | Tyatya/爺爺岳/Тятя 1,819 metres (5,968 ft) |
| Administered by | |
| Russia | |
| Oblast | Sakhalin |
| Claimed by | |
| Japan | |
| Prefecture | Hokkaidō |
| Russia | |
| Oblast | Sakhalin |
Kunashir Island (Russian: Кунаши́р; Japanese: 国後島, Kunashiri-tō; Ainu: クナシㇼ or クナシㇽ, Kunasir), possibly meaning Black Island or Grass Island in Ainu, is the southernmost island of the Kuril Islands, which are controlled by Russia and claimed by Japan (see Kuril Islands dispute).
It lies between the straits of Kunashir, Catherine, Izmena, and South Kuril. Kunashir is visible from the nearby Japanese island of Hokkaidō from which it is separated by the Nemuro Strait.
Kunashir is formed by four volcanoes which were separate islands but have since joined together by low-lying areas with lakes and hot springs. All these volcanoes are still active: Tyatya (1,819 m), Smirnov, Mendeleev (Ruasu-yama), and Golovnin(Tomari-yama)).[1]
The island is formed with the volcanic and crystalline rocks. The climate is humid continental with very heavy precipitation especially in the autumn and a strong seasonal lag with maximum temperatures in August and September. The vegetation mostly consists of spruce, pine, fir, and mixed deciduous forests with lianas and Kuril bamboo underbrush. The mountains are covered with birch and Siberian Dwarf Pine scrub, herbaceous flowers or bare rocks.
Tree cores of century-old oaks (Quercus crispula) were found in July 2001 on Kunashir Island.[2]
The primary economic activity is fishery and fishing industry. The island has a port next to Yuzhno-Kurilsk, administrative center of Yuzhno-Kurilsky District and the island's main settlement. Administratively this island belongs to the Sakhalin Oblast of the Russian Federation.
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In 1789 Kunashiri was one of the settings of the Menashi-Kunashir Battle in which Ainu revolted against Japanese tradespeople and colonists.
Russian navigator Vasily Golovnin attempted to map and explore the island in 1811, but was apprehended by Japanese authorities and spent two years in prison.
On September 1, 1945, or one day before the surrender documents of World War II were signed on September 2, 1945, after the denounciation of the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact in April 1945 and the declaration of war on Japan on August 9, 1945 (formally, the pact itself remained in effect until April 13, 1946), according to decisions of the Yalta Conference, Soviet Union annexed the Kuril Islands and the mainly disputed Northern territories, which Japanese government claims that they are not parts of Kurile Islands for historical reasons, and landed on the disputed island.
After the 1994 earthquake, about one-third of Kunashir's population left, and did not come back. By 2002, the island's population is around 7,800. The total population of the disputed Kuril islands is approximately 17,000.[3]
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