Japan pushes Russia to return all disputed islands

[Eisuke]

Time is GMT + 8 hours
Posted: 24 December 2004 1555 hrs

Japan pushes Russia to return all disputed islands

TOKYO: Japan held firm to its demand that Russia return all four disputed Pacific islands seized in 1945 after President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was only prepared to return two of them.

"Japan is perplexed as to why (Russia) does not return the four islands," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters.

Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said separately: "Our basic stance has remained the same."

Japan and Russia have yet to sign a treaty formally ending World War II amid Tokyo's demands for the return of the four Kuril islands which were seized by Soviet troops at the end of the war.

Putin said Thursday that Russia was offering to hand back two of the islands in exchange for signing a peace treaty -- as stipulated in a 1956 declaration that the two nations signed.

"If Japan has signed that declaration, why is it now raising the issue of four islands?" Putin told an annual press conference.

The renewed focus on the peace deal comes before a visit planned next year by Putin to Japan, which is meant to commemorate the signing of the first treaty between Japan and tsarist Russia 150 years ago.

The Japanese press has speculated that Putin's visit could be called off if there is no progress on the island dispute.

However, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda, the Japanese government spokesman, said: "We want to hold discussions at various levels and continue preparation toward the president's visit to Japan."

The attention over the islands also comes amid Japanese efforts to outbid China for a new oil pipeline from Siberia that could meet Asia's growing energy needs.

- AFP

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/123871/1/.html

 

[Hiroshi66]

Interesting. I was not aware that Japan and Russia had never formally ended World War II - I knew that the Korean War was not formally over but had no idea that this war was not formally over.

 

[Brooker]

Interesting. I found some maps on the subject. Here's what things looked like in 1905 after the Russo-Japanese War (the maps aren't really to scale)...

Here's what it looked like in 1945 after WWII and still today...

Little story...
I flew over these islands once on my way back from Japan. It was night time and it really freaked me out to see lights down there because I thought we should be over the ocean not over islands or cities. I like to keep track of where the flight I'm on would be on a map, but I didn't know about these islands. My imagination went wild about us being off course or hijacked or something. Then coincidentally some lady started having seizures and fell down in the aisle. That was a nerve racking flight.

 

[Hiroshi66]

Hehe Brooker, was this on a Japanese flight?

Russia has had these islands since 1945.. and pretty much pulled the watter level to the tip of Hokkaido . They have developed those islands to an extent.

 

[lexico]

This is slightly off topic, but if the southern half of Sakhalin Island is returned, Japan will have four ethnic-linguistic subgroups instead of three.

1. Honshu Japanese
2. Okinawan
3. Ainu: now including Sakhalin Ainu
4. Sakhalin Nivx (Gilyak) dialects: 1 of 3 major dialects

Then language studies will get an interesting thrust form the change in the national border line.
And maybe even a 5th, a dash of Russian, although not a native language group of Sakhalin.
Is there a likelihood that this might happen any time soon?

 

[Hiroshi66]

I know - lexico-san - its interesting. There will be Russians who live there - of course. Also Siberians. Japan will sure become more diverse. I am sure young Russians who, hopefully, live under Japanese rule will someday arrive in Tokyo and work and live there.

I hope it happens soon.

 

[lexico]

Yes, Hiroshi-san!
I find that an interesting prospect, actually!
A little excited about about what will happen!
It will probably encourage Japan to become more democratic, more cosmopolitan, I think.
Yes, E Pluribus Unum!

 

[Eisuke]

First Japan's Northern Territories must be returned, after that a peace agreement will be signed, in return Japan will do much needed economic investment into Russia. Later the southern half of Sakhalin could be returned to Japan.

Honshu Japanese are not a subgroup but the main ethnic group. Okinawan people are mostly mixed with Japanese already so in my opinion they don't really count as a minority. The Ainu are in very few and declining numbers. In Japan's Northern Territories and the southern half of Sakhalin don't live alot of people.

 

[lexico]

Honshu Japanese are not a subgroup but the main ethnic group. Okinawan people are mostly mixed with Japanese already so in my opinion they don't really count as a minority. The Ainu are in very few and declining numbers. In Japan's Northern Territories and the southern half of Sakhalin don't live alot of people.

AFIAK diversity is a strength, not a weakness; viewing the cultural and ethnic spectrum as it is is not only scientific but healthy for the future of Japan as a nation, as a member of the Asian region, and of the World.
There's really no need for paranoia of any kind, but perhaps a part of the Japanese population is at odds with some phantom enemy. I hope I am wrong. ;-)

 

[ArmandV]

Last summer, while we were being bused from Kyoto to Osaka Castle, we were on an expressway and a couple of SUVs with banners and loudspeakers passed by. We couldn't understand what they were saying but our tour guide said they were a political "fringe group" that is campaigning for the return of the Russian-held islands. She basically called them extremists. I was surprised as I always thought that the Japanese were pretty much united in their desire for the return of the islands.

 

[Eisuke]

AFIAK diversity is a strength, not a weakness; viewing the cultural and ethnic spectrum as it is is not only scientific but healthy for the future of Japan as a nation, as a member of the Asian region, and of the World.
There's really no need for paranoia of any kind, but perhaps a part of the Japanese population is at odds with some phantom enemy. I hope I am wrong. ;-)

That is your opinion, I am only telling some facts.

 

[Hiroshi66]

Armand-san, what you saw was a right-wing extremist group. Those guys pretty much Japan to control its pre-war empire again: that is the Northern Territories, Taiwan Island, Korea, and possibly even China.

 

[lexico]

Armand-san, what you saw was a right-wing extremist group. Those guys pretty much Japan to control its pre-war empire again: that is the Northern Territories, Taiwan Island, Korea, and possibly even China.

That is scary if what you say is true.
I would like to know the truth, but at the same time, I'm wary of the poison that might harm in the process.
Is it better to ignore, or is it better to confront?
Any constructive ideas, Hiroshi-san?

 

[Eisuke]

Armand-san, what you saw was a right-wing extremist group. Those guys pretty much Japan to control its pre-war empire again: that is the Northern Territories, Taiwan Island, Korea, and possibly even China.

Some Japanese right wing extremist groups may want such things, but those are only very few. Right wing groups and extreme right wing groups aren't the same.

 

[ArmandV]

Some Japanese right wing extremist groups may want such things, but those are only very few. Right wing groups and extreme right wing groups aren't the same.

Well, extremists come in all shades and from all sides.

 

[Nuala]

I find it insane that Russia hasn't given them back yet.

 

[Hiroshi66]

Well, lexico, its true. Right-wing militarism is very scary.. and yes, Eisuke-san, not all right-wing groups want that, but there are a few which do.