Kuril Islands Dispute

The Japanese profess, as currently seen on their Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, that the Kuril Islands are an "inherent" part of Japan that have "never been held by foreign countries" ("Northern territories").

This brazen statement is completely incorrect, as the first peoples of the islands were actually the Ainu ("Kuril Islands," Encyclopedia Brittanica). As the Japanese began to colonize the southernmost Kurils in the 17th century, these people were subsequently displaced (Jozuka, "Japan's 'Vanishing' Ainu"). Thus, these islands cannot be considered "inherently" Japanese, as they were populated by the Ainu for several centuries before (Graf, 12).

Furthermore, the Japanese were not the only peoples exploring these islands in the 17th century. At the same time, Russians were also assimilating the islands, from the 17th to 18th centuries (Graf, 11).

In 1855, the Treaty of Shimoda assigned ownership of the four southernmost Kuril Islands to Japan, while Russia received the northern islands (Hara, 12). Both countries had joint control over Sakhalin Island. This treaty marks the first legitimate ownership over the four southern islands that is currently being disputed today.

In 1875, the Treaty of St. Petersburg established Japanese ownership of all territory in the Kuril Islands except for Sakhalin, which remained under Russian administration (Gorenburg, 1). By 1905, Japan also gained control of the southern half of Sakhalin Island with the Treaty of Portsmouth (Hara, 12).

These three official documents acknowledge Japan's legal and rightful claims to the Kuril Islands, especially the four southernmost islands. These islands have only ever been declared Russian territory after Russia broke the 1941 Neutrality Pact, making Russian ownership far less legitimate than that of Japan (Pike).

At the time of their making, the treaties of 1855, 1875, and 1905 did demarcate the legitimate border between Japan and Russia. They do not, however, set the modern status quo for demarcation after the events that transpired during World War II.

Due to several international agreements formed at the end of World War II, there are no legitimate territorial issues between Russia and Japan. The first of these agreements was the Cairo Declaration, which was the outcome of a meeting between the Allies in 1943 (Hara, 45). At this meeting, the Allies declared Japan should be stripped of all its islands in the pacific, and all other territories that she had taken through violence (Hara, 45).

Then in February, 1945, the leaders of the three great powers, Stalin, Churchill, and F.D.R., came together at the Yalta Conference (Graf, 17). At this conference, the Allies promised the U.S.S.R. possession of the entire Kuril Chain in exchange for entering into a Pacific war against Japan (Graf, 17). The Yalta Accords, signed by the U.S., Great Britain, and the U.S.S.R., ratified this agreement. Under articles 2a and 3, the accords declared that all of the U.S.S.R.'s former rights that Japan violated in their 1904 attack would be restored, including Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands (Hara, 45).

Following the Yalta Conference, the Potsdam Declaration of July 1945 further reinforced Russia's right to the Kurils (Hara, 45). In the Potsdam Declaration, it was stated that the terms of the Cairo agreement were to be carried out, and that Japanese sovereignty would only be limited to a select number of islands - the Kurils not namely included (Hara, 45).

Thus, following all of these international agreements, the Soviets entered into war in the Pacific against Japan on August 8, 1945 (Graf, 18). On August 18, the Soviets began occupying the Kuril Islands, and formally integrated them into the Soviet Union in 1947 (Graf, 18).

In 1941, after years of border conflicts and violence, the Soviet Union and Japan established a Neutrality Pact (Trenin, 5).

However, in the summer of 1945, the Soviets were quick to violate this official agreement, when the Soviet Union attacked the Japanese forces in Manchuria and Sakhalin ("Kuril Islands," New World Encyclopedia). Within four days of Japan's inevitable defeat, the Red Army began invading and conquering the Kuril Island chain (Trenin, 5). This seize of territory was completely illegal considering the violation of the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact, as well as the fact that Japan didn't officially surrender until September of that year (Hara, 16).

By 1947, the Kuril Islands were officially a part of the U.S.S.R even though the illegal integration of this territory was unjustified in the eyes of the Japanese (Pike).

Due to the Yalta Accords, the Cairo Declaration, and the Potsdam Agreement, the Soviet Union had a very legitimate backing to then annex the Kurils. Additionally, after World War II and the 1947 incorporation, the 1951 San Francisco Peace Conference further cemented the U.S.S.R.'s claim to the Kurils ("Kuril Islands Dispute"). Under article 2c of this treaty between the Allies and Japan, Japan renounced all rights and claims to Southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands ("Kuril Islands," New World Encyclopedia).

It was only years after this treaty, in effort to regain a portion of the lands they lost as a consequence of WWII, that Japan denounced what was ratified in the Peace Treaty, claiming that it does not refer to the four southern islands still in dispute today (Graf, 19). Japan claimed that in their view, the four southern islands had "'never been part of the Kuril Chain'" (19).

At the conclusion of WWII, Japan signed the San Fransico Peace Treaty, in which they ceded southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, but the beneficiary was not indicated in the treaty (Sacko). The Soviet Union, upset that the treaty did not legitimately grant them ownership of the islands, refused to sign and rejected these terms (Pike).

Furthermore, the Treaty never explicitly defines, lists, or mentions Kunashiri, Shikotan and Habomais Islands (Trenin, 5). Based on this treaty, the Soviet Union does not have any legitimate guarantee of sovereignty over the southern Kuril Islands in question, nor has Japan lost all of its claim over them.

Therefore, based on the truly legitimate demarcations of territory laid out in earlier treaties, Japan's claim over the southern four islands is still legally supported.

In 1956, after the Soviet Union incorporated the Kuril Islands as a legal act of winning the war, the U.S.S.R. and Japan had a breakthrough in communications ("Kuril Islands Dispute"). A peace declaration between the two states restored diplomatic ties, and ended the state of war. The Soviet Union offered to return two of the smaller Kuril Islands, Habomai and Shikotan ("Kuril Islands Dispute").

While this declaration was signed and ratified by both parties, Japan later rejected this proposal as, due to a matter of national pride, they did not want to accept that the U.S.S.R. had justifiably taken the Islands as a consequence of losing WWII ("Preface" and "Kuril Islands Dispute"). Additionally, in 1960 the Soviets also recalled this offer of the two Islands as a matter of grave national security (Graf, 20). With the conclusion of the new Japanese-US Security Treaty at the outset of the Cold War, the U.S.S.R. declared that all foreign troops (American troops) must leave Japan before negotiations could resume on returning any of the Islands ("Preface" and Graf, 20).

In 1956, when Japanese negotiators reached an agreement with their Soviet counterparts to settle the territorial dispute, it was determined that Shikotan and the Habomai Islets would be transferred to Japanese control (Mikovic). In return, Japan would also have to renounce all claims to the much larger islands of Kunashir and Iturup (Pike).

However, even after a joint declaration was established between the two countries, the transfer of territory was halted until a formal peace treaty could be reached ("Kuril Islands, New World Encyclopedia). This is because Japan decided not to accept this deal due to foreign threats. The United States pressured Japan out of this deal, threatening to keep control of Okinawa if Japan accepted this compromise (Gorenburg, 2).

Furthermore, the deal was never equitable to begin with. The two islands that Russia agreed to transfer over to Japan only accounts for 7% of the Kuril Island territory (Gorenburg, 4). The other 93% would remain under Russian control, where most of the economically profitable resources and processes exist.

To this day, Russia has still not honored their commitment to find a compromising solution, as no peace treaty has been reached (Sacko). As the legal successor to the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation is obliged to scrupulously observe all of past obligations, including the unfulfilled compromise on the territorial issue (Mikovic).