Image copyright RIA Image caption Before Putin and Abe, the issue of signing a peace treaty between Russia and Japan was discussed by all their predecessors - to no avail
During a two-day visit to Nagato and Tokyo, the Russian president will agree with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on investments. The main question - about the ownership of the Kuril Islands - will, as usual, be postponed for indefinite period experts say.
Abe became the second G7 leader to host Putin after the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014.
The visit was supposed to take place two years ago, but was canceled due to Japanese-backed sanctions against Russia.
What is the essence of the dispute between Japan and Russia?
Abe is making progress in a long-standing territorial dispute in which Japan claims the islands of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan, as well as the Habomai archipelago (in Russia, this name does not exist, the archipelago, together with Shikotan, are united under the name of the Lesser Kuril Ridge).
The Japanese elite is well aware that Russia will never return two large islands, so they are ready to take a maximum of two small ones. But how to explain to society that they forever abandon the big islands? Alexander Gabuev, expert at the Carnegie Moscow Center
At the end of World War II, in which Japan fought on the side of Nazi Germany, the USSR expelled 17,000 Japanese from the islands; no peace treaty was signed between Moscow and Tokyo.
The San Francisco Peace Treaty of 1951 between the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition and Japan established the sovereignty of the USSR over South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, but Tokyo and Moscow did not agree on what to understand by the Kuriles.
Tokyo considers Iturup, Kunashir and Habomai as its illegally occupied "northern territories". Moscow considers these islands part of the Kuril Islands and has repeatedly stated that their current status is not subject to revision.
In 2016, Shinzo Abe flew to Russia twice (to Sochi and Vladivostok), he and Putin also met at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Lima.
In early December, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow and Tokyo had similar positions on the peace treaty. In an interview with Japanese journalists, Vladimir Putin called the absence of a peace treaty with Japan an anachronism that "should be eliminated."
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption In Japan, immigrants from the "northern territories" still live, as well as their descendants, who do not mind returning to their historical homeland.He also said that the foreign ministries of the two countries need to resolve "purely technical issues" among themselves so that the Japanese can visit the southern Kuriles without visas.
However, Moscow is embarrassed that in the event of the return of the southern Kuriles, US military bases may appear there. The head of the National Security Council of Japan, Shotaro Yachi, did not rule out such a possibility in a conversation with Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev, the Japanese newspaper Asahi wrote on Wednesday.
Should we wait for the return of the Kuriles?
The short answer is no. "We should not expect any breakthrough agreements, and ordinary ones too, on the issue of ownership of the southern Kuriles," said former Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Kunadze.
"The expectations of the Japanese side, as usual, are at odds with the intentions of Russia," Kunadze said in an interview with the BBC. "President Putin has repeatedly said in the last days before leaving for Japan that the problem of belonging to the Kuriles does not exist for Russia, that the Kuriles are , in fact, a war trophy following the results of the Second World War, and even the fact that Russia's rights to the Kuriles are secured by international treaties."
The latter, according to Kunadze, is a moot point and depends on the interpretation of these treaties.
“Putin is referring to the agreements reached in Yalta in February 1945. These agreements were political in nature and assumed the appropriate contractual and legal formalization. It took place in San Francisco in 1951. The Soviet Union did not sign a peace treaty with Japan then. , there is no other consolidation of Russia's rights in the territories that Japan renounced under the San Francisco Treaty," the diplomat sums up.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The Russians, like the Japanese, do not expect concessions from their authorities on the Kuriles"The parties are trying as much as possible to blow off the ball of mutual expectations of the public and show that there will be no breakthrough," comments Alexander Gabuev, an expert at the Carnegie Moscow Center.
"The red line of Russia: Japan recognizes the results of the Second World War, renounces claims to the southern Kuriles. As a gesture of goodwill, we give Japan two small islands, and on Kunashir and Iturup we can make visa-free entry, a free zone of joint economic development Anything, he thinks. “Russia cannot give up two large islands, because it will be a loss, these islands are of economic importance, a lot of money has been invested there, there is a large population, the straits between these islands are used by Russian submarines when they go out to patrol the Pacific Ocean.”
Japan, according to Gabuev, in last years softened its position on the disputed territories.
“The Japanese elite is well aware that Russia will never return two large islands, so they are ready to take a maximum of two small ones. But how to explain to society that they are forever abandoning large islands? large. For Russia, this is unacceptable, we want to resolve the issue once and for all. These two red lines are not yet close enough to expect a breakthrough," the expert believes.
What else will be discussed?
The Kuriles are not the only topic discussed by Putin and Abe. Russia needs foreign investment in the Far East.
According to the Japanese edition of Yomiuri, due to sanctions, trade between the two countries has decreased. Thus, imports from Russia to Japan decreased by 27.3% - from 2.61 trillion yen ($23 billion) in 2014 to 1.9 trillion yen ($17 billion) in 2015. And exports to Russia by 36.4% - from 972 billion yen (8.8 billion dollars) in 2014 to 618 billion yen (5.6 billion dollars) in 2015.
Image copyright RIA Image caption As head of the Russian state, Putin last visited Japan 11 years ago.The Japanese government intends to acquire a part of the gas fields of the Russian company Novatek, as well as a part of the shares of Rosneft through the state oil, gas and metals corporation JOGMEC.
It is expected that dozens of commercial agreements will be signed during the visit, and at the working breakfast Russian President and the Prime Minister of Japan will be attended, in particular, by the head of Rosatom Alexei Likhachev, the head of Gazprom Alexei Miller, the head of Rosneft Igor Sechin, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund Kirill Dmitriev, entrepreneurs Oleg Deripaska and Leonid Mikhelson.
So far, Russia and Japan are only exchanging pleasantries. Whether at least part of the economic memorandums will come true, it will become clear whether they can also agree on something.
Statement Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe about the intention to resolve the territorial dispute over the Kuril Islands and again drew the attention of the general public to the so-called "problem of the South Kuriles" or "northern territories".
Shinzo Abe's loud statement, however, does not contain the main thing - an original solution that could suit both sides.
Land of the Ainu
The dispute over the South Kuriles has its roots in the 17th century, when there were no Russians or Japanese on the Kuril Islands yet.
The Ainu can be considered the indigenous population of the islands - a nation whose origin scientists argue to this day. The Ainu, who once inhabited not only the Kuriles, but also all the Japanese islands, as well as the lower reaches of the Amur, Sakhalin and the south of Kamchatka, today have become a small nation. In Japan, according to official figures, there are about 25 thousand Ainu, and in Russia there are just over a hundred of them left.
The first mention of the islands in Japanese sources dates back to 1635, in Russian - 1644.
In 1711, a detachment of Kamchatka Cossacks led by Danila Antsiferova and Ivan Kozyrevsky first landed on the northernmost island of Shumshu, defeating a detachment of local Ainu here.
The Japanese also showed more and more activity in the Kuriles, but there was no line of demarcation and no agreements between the countries.
Kuriles - to you, Sakhalin— us
In 1855, the Shimoda Treaty on Trade and Borders between Russia and Japan was signed. This document for the first time defined the border of the possessions of the two countries in the Kuriles - it passed between the islands of Iturup and Urup.
Thus, the islands of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Habomai group of islands, that is, the very territories around which there is a dispute today, were under the rule of the Japanese emperor.
It was the day of the conclusion of the Shimoda Treaty, February 7, that was declared in Japan as the so-called "Day of the Northern Territories".
Relations between the two countries were quite good, but they were spoiled by the “Sakhalin issue”. The fact is that the Japanese claimed the southern part of this island.
In 1875, a new treaty was signed in St. Petersburg, according to which Japan renounced all claims to Sakhalin in exchange for the Kuril Islands - both Southern and Northern.
Perhaps, it was after the conclusion of the 1875 treaty that relations between the two countries developed most harmoniously.
Exorbitant appetites of the Land of the Rising Sun
Harmony in international affairs, however, is a fragile thing. Japan, emerging from centuries of self-isolation, developed rapidly, and at the same time, ambitions grew. The Land of the Rising Sun has territorial claims against almost all of its neighbors, including Russia.
This resulted in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, which ended in a humiliating defeat for Russia. And although Russian diplomacy managed to mitigate the consequences of military failure, but, nevertheless, in accordance with the Portsmouth Treaty, Russia lost control not only over the Kuriles, but also over South Sakhalin.
This state of affairs did not suit not only tsarist Russia but also the Soviet Union. However, it was impossible to change the situation in the mid-1920s, which resulted in the signing of the Beijing Treaty between the USSR and Japan in 1925, according to which the Soviet Union recognized the status quo, but refused to recognize “political responsibility” for the Treaty of Portsmouth.
In subsequent years, relations between the Soviet Union and Japan teetered on the brink of war. Japan's appetites grew and began to spread to the continental territories of the USSR. True, the Japanese defeats at Lake Khasan in 1938 and at Khalkhin Gol in 1939 forced official Tokyo to slow down somewhat.
However, the "Japanese threat" hung like a sword of Damocles over the USSR during the Great Patriotic War.
Revenge for old grievances
By 1945, the tone of Japanese politicians towards the USSR had changed. There was no talk of new territorial acquisitions - the Japanese side would be quite satisfied with the preservation existing order of things.
But the USSR gave an obligation to Great Britain and the United States that it would enter the war with Japan no later than three months after the end of the war in Europe.
The Soviet leadership had no reason to feel sorry for Japan - Tokyo behaved too aggressively and defiantly towards the USSR in the 1920s and 1930s. And the insults of the beginning of the century were not forgotten at all.
On August 8, 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. It was a real blitzkrieg - the millionth Japanese Kwantung Army in Manchuria was utterly defeated in a matter of days.
On August 18, Soviet troops launched the Kuril landing operation, the purpose of which was to capture the Kuril Islands. Fierce battles unfolded for the island of Shumshu - it was the only battle of a fleeting war in which losses Soviet troops were higher than that of the enemy. However, on August 23, the commander of the Japanese troops in the Northern Kuriles, Lieutenant General Fusaki Tsutsumi, capitulated.
The fall of Shumshu became key event The Kuril operation - in the future, the occupation of the islands on which the Japanese garrisons were located turned into acceptance of their surrender.
Kurile Islands. Photo: www.russianlook.comThey took the Kuriles, they could have taken Hokkaido
On August 22, Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Forces in the Far East, Marshal Alexander Vasilevsky, without waiting for the fall of Shumshu, gives the order to the troops to occupy the Southern Kuriles. The Soviet command is acting according to plan - the war continues, the enemy has not capitulated completely, which means that we should move on.
The original military plans of the USSR were much broader - Soviet units were ready to land on the island of Hokkaido, which was supposed to become a Soviet zone of occupation. How the further history of Japan would develop in this case, one can only guess. But in the end, Vasilevsky received an order from Moscow to cancel the landing operation in Hokkaido.
The bad weather somewhat delayed the actions of the Soviet troops in the South Kuriles, but by September 1, Iturup, Kunashir and Shikotan came under their control. The Habomai group of islands was completely taken under control on September 2-4, 1945, that is, after the surrender of Japan. There were no battles during this period - Japanese soldiers meekly surrendered.
So, at the end of the Second World War, Japan was completely occupied by the allied powers, and the main territories of the country fell under the control of the United States.
On January 29, 1946, by Memorandum No. 677 of the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Powers, General Douglas MacArthur, the Kuril Islands (Chishima Islands), the Habomai (Khabomadze) island group and Sikotan Island were excluded from the territory of Japan.
On February 2, 1946, in accordance with the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Yuzhno-Sakhalin Region was formed in these territories as part of the Khabarovsk Territory of the RSFSR, which on January 2, 1947 became part of the newly formed Sakhalin Region as part of the RSFSR.
Thus, de facto South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands passed to Russia.
Why the USSR did not sign a peace treaty with Japan
However, these territorial changes were not formalized by a treaty between the two countries. But the political situation in the world has changed, and yesterday's ally of the USSR, the United States, has become Japan's closest friend and ally, and therefore was not interested in either resolving Soviet-Japanese relations or resolving the territorial issue between the two countries.
In 1951, a peace treaty was concluded in San Francisco between Japan and the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition, which the USSR did not sign.
The reason for this was the US revision of previous agreements with the USSR reached in the Yalta Agreement of 1945 - now official Washington believed that the Soviet Union had no rights not only to the Kuriles, but also to South Sakhalin. In any case, it was precisely such a resolution that was adopted by the US Senate during the discussion of the treaty.
However, in the final version of the San Francisco Treaty, Japan renounces the rights to South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. But here, too, there is a hitch - the official Tokyo both then and now declares that it does not consider that Habomai, Kunashir, Iturup and Shikotan are part of the Kuriles.
That is, the Japanese are sure that they really renounced South Sakhalin, but they never abandoned the “northern territories”.
The Soviet Union refused to sign a peace treaty, not only because of the unsettledness of its territorial disputes with Japan, but also because it did not resolve similar disputes between Japan and China, then an ally of the USSR, in any way.
Compromise ruined Washington
Only five years later, in 1956, was the Soviet-Japanese declaration on ending the state of war signed, which was supposed to be the prologue to the conclusion of a peace treaty.
A compromise solution was also announced - the islands of Habomai and Shikotan would be returned to Japan in exchange for the unconditional recognition of the sovereignty of the USSR over all other disputed territories. But this could happen only after the conclusion of a peace treaty.
In fact, these conditions suited Japan quite well, but here a “third force” intervened. The United States was not at all pleased with the prospect of establishing relations between the USSR and Japan. The territorial problem acted as an excellent wedge driven between Moscow and Tokyo, and Washington considered its resolution highly undesirable.
It was announced to the Japanese authorities that if a compromise was reached with the USSR on " Kuril problem"on the terms of the division of the islands, the United States will leave the island of Okinawa and the entire Ryukyu archipelago under its sovereignty.
The threat was truly terrible for the Japanese - it was a territory with more than a million people, which is of great historical importance for Japan.
As a result, a possible compromise on the issue of the South Kuriles vanished like smoke, and with it the prospect of concluding a full-fledged peace treaty.
By the way, control of Okinawa finally passed to Japan only in 1972. At the same time, 18 percent of the island's territory is still occupied by American military bases.
Complete stalemate
In fact, no progress has been made in the territorial dispute since 1956. In the Soviet period, without reaching a compromise, the USSR came to the tactic of completely denying any dispute in principle.
In the post-Soviet period, Japan began to hope that Russian President Boris Yeltsin, generous with gifts, would give away the "northern territories." Moreover, such a decision was considered fair by very prominent figures in Russia - for example, Nobel laureate Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
Perhaps at this point, the Japanese side made a mistake, instead of compromise options like the one discussed in 1956, insisting on the transfer of all disputed islands.
But in Russia, the pendulum has already swung the other way, and those who consider it impossible to transfer even one island are much louder today.
For both Japan and Russia, the "Kuril issue" over the past decades has become a matter of principle. For both Russian and Japanese politicians, the slightest concessions threaten, if not the collapse of their careers, then serious electoral losses.
Therefore, the declared desire of Shinzo Abe to solve the problem is undoubtedly commendable, but completely unrealistic.
The problem of the Kuril Islands
Segorskikh A.
group 03 History
The so-called "disputed territories" include the islands of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Khabomai (the Lesser Kuril Ridge consists of 8 islands).
Usually, when discussing the problem of disputed territories, three groups of problems are considered: historical parity in the discovery and development of the islands, the role and significance of the Russian-Japanese treaties of the 19th century that established the border between the two countries, and the legal force of all documents regulating the post-war order of the world. It is especially interesting in this matter that all the historical treaties of the past, to which Japanese politicians refer, have lost their force in today's disputes, not even in 1945, but back in 1904, with the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, because international law says: a state of war between states terminates the operation of all and all treaties between them. For this reason alone, the entire “historical” layer of the Japanese side's argument has nothing to do with the rights of today's Japanese state. Therefore, we will not consider the first two problems, but focus on the third.
The very fact of Japan's attack on Russia in the Russo-Japanese War. was a gross violation of the Treaty of Shimoda, which proclaimed "permanent peace and sincere friendship between Russia and Japan." After Russia's defeat, the Treaty of Portsmouth was signed in 1905. The Japanese side demanded from Russia as an indemnity the island of Sakhalin. The Treaty of Portsmouth terminated the exchange agreement of 1875, and also stated that all trade agreements between Japan and Russia would be canceled as a result of the war. This annulled the Shimoda Treaty of 1855. Thus, by the time of the conclusion on January 20, 1925. convention on the basic principles of relations between Russia and Japan, in fact, there was no existing bilateral agreement on the ownership of the Kuril Islands.
The issue of restoring the rights of the USSR to the southern part of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands was discussed in November 1943. at the Tehran Conference of the Heads of the Allied Powers. at the Yalta Conference in February 1945. the leaders of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain finally agreed that after the end of the Second World War, South Sakhalin and all the Kuril Islands would pass to the Soviet Union, and this was the condition for the USSR to enter the war with Japan - three months after the end of the war in Europe.
February 2, 1946 followed by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, which established that all land with its bowels and waters in the territory of South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands is state property of the USSR.
On September 8, 1951, 49 states signed a peace treaty with Japan in San Francisco. The draft treaty was prepared during the period " cold war"without the participation of the USSR and in violation of the principles of the Potsdam Declaration. The Soviet side proposed to demilitarize and ensure the democratization of the country. The USSR, and with it Poland and Czechoslovakia, refused to put their signatures on the treaty. Nevertheless, Article 2 of this treaty states that Japan refuses from all rights and titles to the island of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.Thus, Japan itself renounced its territorial claims to our country, backing it up with its signature.
But later, the United States began to assert that the San Francisco Peace Treaty did not indicate in whose favor Japan renounced these territories. This laid the foundation for the presentation of territorial claims.
1956, Soviet-Japanese negotiations on the normalization of relations between the two countries. The Soviet side agrees to cede the two islands of Shikotan and Habomai to Japan and offers to sign a Joint Declaration. The declaration assumed first the conclusion of a peace treaty and only then the "transfer" of the two islands. The transfer is an act of goodwill, a willingness to dispose of one's own territory "in meeting the wishes of Japan and taking into account the interests of the Japanese state." Japan, on the other hand, insists that the “return” precede the peace treaty, because the very concept of “return” is the recognition of the illegality of their belonging to the USSR, which is a revision not only of the results of the Second World War, but also the principle of the inviolability of these results. American pressure played its part, and the Japanese refused to sign a peace treaty on our terms. The subsequent security treaty (1960) between the United States and Japan made it impossible for Japan to transfer Shikotan and Habomai. Our country, of course, could not give the islands to American bases, nor could it bind itself to any obligations to Japan on the issue of the Kuriles.
On January 27, 1960, the USSR announced that, since this agreement was directed against the USSR and the PRC, the Soviet government refused to consider the transfer of these islands to Japan, since this would lead to the expansion of the territory used by American troops.
At present, the Japanese side claims that the islands of Iturup, Shikotan, Kunashir and the Habomai ridge, which have always been Japanese territory, are not included in the Kuril Islands, which Japan abandoned. The US government, regarding the scope of the “Kuril Islands” concept in the San Francisco Peace Treaty, stated in an official document: “They do not include, and there was no intention to include (in the Kuriles) the Khabomai and Shikotan ridges, or Kunashir and Iturup, which previously always were part of Japan proper and therefore should rightly be recognized as being under Japanese sovereignty."
A worthy answer about the territorial claims to us from Japan gave in his time: "The borders between the USSR and Japan should be considered as the result of the Second World War."
In the 90s, at a meeting with the Japanese delegation, he also strongly opposed the revision of borders, while emphasizing that the borders between the USSR and Japan were "legal and legally justified." Throughout the second half of the 20th century, the issue of belonging to the southern group of the Kuril Islands Iturup, Shikotan, Kunashir and Khabomai (in the Japanese interpretation - the issue of the "northern territories") remained the main stumbling block in Japanese-Soviet (later Japanese-Russian) relations.
In 1993, the Tokyo Declaration on Russian-Japanese Relations was signed, which states that Russia is the successor of the USSR and that all agreements signed between the USSR and Japan will be recognized by Russia and Japan.
On November 14, 2004, the head of the Foreign Ministry, on the eve of the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Japan, stated that Russia, as the successor state of the USSR, recognizes the 1956 Declaration as existing and is ready to conduct territorial negotiations with Japan on its basis. This formulation of the question caused a lively discussion among Russian politicians. Vladimir Putin supported the Foreign Ministry's position, stipulating that Russia "will fulfill all its obligations" only "to the extent that our partners are ready to fulfill these agreements." Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi replied that Japan was not satisfied with the transfer of only two islands: "If the ownership of all the islands is not determined, the peace treaty will not be signed." At the same time, the Japanese prime minister promised to show flexibility in determining the timing of the transfer of the islands.
On December 14, 2004, US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld expressed his readiness to assist Japan in resolving the dispute with Russia over the South Kuriles. Some observers see this as a US rejection of neutrality in the Japanese-Russian territorial dispute. Yes, and a way to divert attention from their actions at the end of the war, as well as maintain equality of forces in the region.
During the Cold War, the United States supported the position of Japan in the dispute over the South Kuril Islands and did everything to ensure that this position was not softened. It was under pressure from the United States that Japan revised its attitude towards the Soviet-Japanese declaration of 1956 and began to demand the return of all disputed territories. But at the beginning of the 21st century, when Moscow and Washington found a common enemy, the US stopped making any statements about the Russian-Japanese territorial dispute.
On August 16, 2006, a Japanese fishing schooner was detained by Russian border guards. The schooner refused to obey the commands of the border guards, warning fire was opened on it. During the incident, one crew member of the schooner was fatally shot in the head. This caused a sharp protest from the Japanese side. Both sides say the incident took place in their own territorial waters. In 50 years of dispute over the islands, this is the first recorded death.
On December 13, 2006, the head of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Taro Aso, at a meeting of the Foreign Policy Committee of the lower house of representatives of parliament, spoke in favor of dividing the southern part of the disputed Kuril Islands in half with Russia. There is a point of view that in this way the Japanese side hopes to solve a long-standing problem in Russian-Japanese relations. However, immediately after Taro Aso's statement, the Japanese Foreign Ministry disavowed his words, emphasizing that they were misinterpreted.
To be sure, Tokyo's position on Russia has undergone some changes. She abandoned the principle of "inseparability of politics and economics", that is, the rigid linkage of the territorial problem with cooperation in the field of the economy. Now the Japanese government is trying to pursue a flexible policy, which means gently promoting economic cooperation and solving the territorial problem at the same time.
The main factors to be taken into account when solving the problem of the Kuril Islands
· the presence of the richest reserves of marine biological resources in the waters adjacent to the islands;
underdevelopment of infrastructure on the territory of the Kuril Islands, the virtual absence of its own energy base with significant reserves of renewable geothermal resources, the absence of its own Vehicle to ensure freight and passenger traffic;
· proximity and practically unlimited capacity of seafood markets in neighboring countries of the Asia-Pacific region; the need to preserve the unique natural complex of the Kuril Islands, maintain local energy balance while maintaining the purity of the air and water basins, and protect the unique flora and fauna. When developing a mechanism for the transfer of islands, the opinion of the local civilian population should be taken into account. Those who stay should be guaranteed all rights (including property), and those who leave should be fully compensated. It is necessary to take into account the readiness of the local population to accept the change in the status of these territories.
The Kuril Islands are of great geopolitical and military-strategic importance for Russia and affect the national security of Russia. The loss of the Kuril Islands will damage the defense system of the Russian Primorye and weaken the defense capability of our country as a whole. With the loss of the islands of Kunashir and Iturup, the Sea of Okhotsk ceases to be our inland sea. The Kuril Islands and the adjacent water area is the only ecosystem of its kind with the richest natural resources primarily biological. The coastal waters of the South Kuril Islands, the Lesser Kuril Ridge are the main habitats of valuable commercial fish and seafood species, the extraction and processing of which is the basis of the economy of the Kuril Islands.
The principle of the inviolability of the results of the Second World War should form the basis of a new stage in Russo-Japanese relations, and the term "return" should be forgotten. But perhaps it is worth letting Japan create a museum of military glory on Kunashir, from which Japanese pilots bombed Pearl Harbor. Let the Japanese more often remember what the Americans did to them in response, and about the US base in Okinawa, but they feel the tribute of the Russians to the former enemy.
Notes:
1. Russia and the problem of the Kuril Islands. Tactics of upholding or surrender strategy. Narochnitskaya N. http:///analit/
3. The Kuriles are also Russian land. Maksimenko M. http:///analit/sobytia/
4. Russia and the problem of the Kuril Islands. Tactics of upholding or surrender strategy. Narochnitskaya N. http:///analit/
7. Modern Japanese historians about the development of the South Kuril Islands (beginning of the XVII - early XIX century) http://proceedings. /
8. The Kuriles are also Russian land. Maksimenko M. http:///analit/sobytia/
Disputes over the four South Kuril Islands that currently belong to Russian Federation, have been going on for quite some time. This land as a result of signed in different time agreements and wars changed hands several times. Currently, these islands are the cause of the unresolved territorial dispute between Russia and Japan.
Discovery of the islands
The issue of opening the Kuril Islands is controversial. According to the Japanese side, the Japanese were the first to set foot on the land of the islands in 1644. The map of that time with the designations “Kunashiri”, “Etorofu” and others applied to it is carefully preserved in the National Museum of Japanese History. And the Russian pioneers, according to the Japanese, first came to the Kuril ridge only during the time of Tsar Peter I, in 1711, and on the Russian map of 1721 these islands are called "Japanese Islands".
But in reality, the situation is different: firstly, the Japanese received the first information about the Kuriles (from the Ainu language - “kuru” means “a person who came from nowhere”) from the local residents of the Ainu (the oldest non-Japanese population of the Kuril Islands and the Japanese Islands) during an expedition to Hokkaido in 1635. Moreover, the Japanese did not reach the Kuril lands themselves due to constant conflicts with the local population.
It should be noted that the Ainu were hostile to the Japanese, and the Russians were initially treated well, considering them to be their "brothers", because of the similarity in appearance and methods of communication between Russians and small nations.
Secondly, the Kuril Islands were discovered by the Dutch expedition of Maarten Gerritsen de Vries (Vries) in 1643, the Dutch were looking for the so-called. "Golden Lands" The Dutch did not like the land, and they sold a detailed description of them, a map to the Japanese. It was on the basis of Dutch data that the Japanese compiled their maps.
Thirdly, the Japanese at that time did not own not only the Kuriles, but even Hokkaido, only in its southern part there was their stronghold. The Japanese began to conquer the island at the beginning of the 17th century, and the struggle against the Ainu went on for two centuries. That is, if the Russians were interested in expansion, then Hokkaido could become a Russian island. This was facilitated by the good attitude of the Ainu towards the Russians and their enmity towards the Japanese. There are records of this fact. The Japanese state of that time did not officially consider itself the sovereign of not only Sakhalin and the Kuril lands, but also Hokkaido (Matsumae) - this was confirmed in his circular by the head of the Japanese government, Matsudaira, during the Russian-Japanese negotiations on the border and trade in 1772.
Fourthly, Russian explorers visited the islands before the Japanese. In the Russian state, the first mention of the Kuril lands dates back to 1646, when Nekhoroshko Ivanovich Kolobov gave a report to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich about the campaigns of Ivan Yuryevich Moskvitin and spoke about the bearded Ainu inhabiting the Kuriles. In addition, Dutch, Scandinavian and German medieval chronicles and maps report the first Russian settlements in the Kuriles of that time. The first reports about the Kuril lands and their inhabitants reached the Russians in the middle of the 17th century.
In 1697, during the expedition of Vladimir Atlasov to Kamchatka, new information about the islands appeared, the Russians explored the islands up to Simushir (the island middle group Great Ridge of the Kuril Islands).
18th century
Peter I knew about the Kuril Islands, in 1719 the tsar sent a secret expedition to Kamchatka led by Ivan Mikhailovich Evreinov and Fedor Fedorovich Luzhin. The marine surveyor Evreinov and the surveyor-cartographer Luzhin had to determine whether there was a strait between Asia and America. The expedition reached the island of Simushir in the south and brought local residents and rulers to the Russian state.
In 1738-1739, the navigator Martyn Petrovich Shpanberg (a Dane by origin) traveled along the entire Kuril ridge, mapped all the islands he encountered, including the entire Lesser Kuril ridge (these are 6 large and a number of small islands that are separated from the Greater Kuril ridge by the South - Kuril Strait). He explored the lands up to Hokkaido (Matsumaya), bringing the local Ainu rulers to the Russian state.
In the future, the Russians avoided sailing to the southern islands, mastered the northern territories. Unfortunately, at that time, abuses against the Ainu were noted not only by the Japanese, but also by the Russians.
In 1771, the Lesser Kuril Ridge was withdrawn from Russia and passed under the protectorate of Japan. Russian authorities to correct the situation, the nobleman Antipin was sent with an interpreter Shabalin. They were able to persuade the Ainu to restore Russian citizenship. In 1778-1779, Russian envoys brought over 1.5 thousand people from Iturup, Kunashir and even Hokkaido into citizenship. In 1779, Catherine II freed those who accepted Russian citizenship from all taxes.
In 1787, a list of the Kuril Islands up to Hokkaido-Matsumai was given in the "Extensive land description of the Russian state ...", the status of which has not yet been determined. Although the Russians did not control the lands south of Urup Island, the Japanese operated there.
In 1799, by order of the sei-taishogun Tokugawa Ienari, he headed the Tokugawa Shogunate, two outposts were built on Kunashir and Iturup, and permanent garrisons were placed there. Thus, the Japanese secured the status of these territories within Japan by military means.
Space image of the Lesser Kuril Ridge
Agreements
In 1845, the Japanese Empire unilaterally announced its power over all of Sakhalin and the Kuril ridge. This naturally provoked a strong negative reaction from Russian emperor Nicholas I. But, the Russian Empire did not have time to take action, events prevented Crimean War. Therefore, it was decided to make concessions and not bring the matter to war.
On February 7, 1855, the first diplomatic agreement between Russia and Japan was concluded - Shimoda Treaty. It was signed by Vice Admiral E. V. Putyatin and Toshiakira Kawaji. According to the 9th article of the treatise, "permanent peace and sincere friendship between Russia and Japan" was established. Japan moved the islands from Iturup and to the south, Sakhalin was declared a joint, indivisible possession. Russians in Japan received consular jurisdiction, Russian ships received the right to enter the ports of Shimoda, Hakodate, Nagasaki. The Russian Empire received the most favored nation treatment in trade with Japan and received the right to open consulates in ports open to Russians. That is, in general, especially given the severe international position Russia, the agreement can be assessed positively. Since 1981, the Japanese have celebrated the signing of the Shimoda Treaty as the Day of the Northern Territories.
It should be noted that in fact the Japanese received the right to the "Northern Territories" only for "permanent peace and sincere friendship between Japan and Russia", the most favored nation treatment in trade relations. Their further actions de facto annulled this agreement.
Initially, the provision of the Shimoda Treaty on the joint ownership of Sakhalin Island was more beneficial for Russian Empire, which led the active colonization of this territory. The Japanese Empire did not have a good fleet, so at that time it did not have such an opportunity. But later, the Japanese began to intensively populate the territory of Sakhalin, and the question of its ownership began to become more and more controversial and acute. The contradictions between Russia and Japan were resolved by signing the St. Petersburg Treaty.
St. Petersburg Treaty. It was signed in the capital of the Russian Empire on April 25 (May 7), 1875. Under this agreement, the Empire of Japan transferred Sakhalin to Russia in full ownership, and in exchange received all the islands of the Kuril chain.
St. Petersburg Treaty of 1875 (Japanese Foreign Ministry Archive).
As a result of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 and Treaty of Portsmouth On August 23 (September 5), 1905, the Russian Empire, in accordance with the 9th article of the agreement, ceded to Japan the south of Sakhalin, south of 50 degrees north latitude. Article 12 contained an agreement on the conclusion of a convention on fishing by the Japanese along the Russian coasts of the Sea of Japan, the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea.
After the death of the Russian Empire and the beginning of foreign intervention, the Japanese occupied Northern Sakhalin and participated in the occupation of the Far East. When the Bolshevik Party won the civil war, Japan did not want to recognize the USSR for a long time. Only after the Soviet authorities in 1924 canceled the status of the Japanese consulate in Vladivostok and in the same year the USSR recognized Great Britain, France and China, the Japanese authorities decided to normalize relations with Moscow.
Beijing Treaty. On February 3, 1924, official negotiations between the USSR and Japan began in Beijing. Only on January 20, 1925, the Soviet-Japanese convention on the basic principles of relations between countries was signed. The Japanese undertook to withdraw their forces from the territory of Northern Sakhalin by May 15, 1925. In the declaration of the government of the USSR, which was attached to the convention, it was emphasized that the Soviet government does not share with former government The Russian Empire was politically responsible for the signing of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty of 1905. In addition, the agreement of the parties was enshrined in the convention that all agreements, treaties and conventions concluded between Russia and Japan before November 7, 1917, except for the Portsmouth Peace Treaty, should be revised.
In general, the USSR made great concessions: in particular, Japanese citizens, companies and associations were granted the rights to exploit natural resources throughout the territory of the Soviet Union. On July 22, 1925, a contract was signed to provide the Empire of Japan with a coal concession, and on December 14, 1925, an oil concession in Northern Sakhalin. Moscow agreed to this agreement in order to stabilize the situation in the Russian Far East in this way, since the Japanese supported the Whites outside the USSR. But in the end, the Japanese began to systematically violate the convention, create conflict situations.
During the Soviet-Japanese negotiations that took place in the spring of 1941 regarding the conclusion of a neutrality treaty, the Soviet side raised the question of liquidating Japan's concessions in Northern Sakhalin. The Japanese gave their written consent to this, but delayed the implementation of the agreement for 3 years. Only when the USSR began to gain the upper hand over the Third Reich did the Japanese government agree to the implementation of the agreement given earlier. So, on March 30, 1944, a protocol was signed in Moscow on the destruction of the Japanese oil and coal concessions in Northern Sakhalin and the transfer to the Soviet Union of all Japanese concession property.
February 11, 1945 at the Yalta conference three great powers - the Soviet Union, the United States, Great Britain - reached an oral agreement on the entry of the USSR into the war with the Empire of Japan on the terms of the return of South Sakhalin and the Kuril ridge to it after the end of World War II.
In the Potsdam Declaration dated July 26, 1945, it was said that Japanese sovereignty would be limited only to the islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku and other smaller islands, which the victorious countries would indicate. The Kuril Islands were not mentioned.
After the defeat of Japan, on January 29, 1946, by Memorandum No. 677 of the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Powers by the American General Douglas MacArthur, the Chisima Islands (Kuril Islands), the Habomadze Islands (Habomai) and the island of Shikotan (Shikotan) were excluded from Japanese territory.
According to San Francisco Peace Treaty dated September 8, 1951, the Japanese side renounced all rights to South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. But the Japanese argue that Iturup, Shikotan, Kunashir and Habomai (the islands of the Lesser Kuril ridge) were not part of the Tisima Islands (Kuril Islands) and they did not refuse them.
Negotiations in Portsmouth (1905) - from left to right: from the Russian side (far side of the table) - Planson, Nabokov, Witte, Rosen, Korostovets.
Further agreements
joint declaration. On October 19, 1956, the Soviet Union and Japan adopted a Joint Declaration. The document ended the state of war between the countries and restored diplomatic relations, and also spoke of Moscow's consent to the transfer of the Habomai and Shikotan islands to the Japanese side. But they were to be handed over only after the signing of the peace treaty. However, later Japan was forced to refuse to sign a peace treaty with the USSR. The United States threatened the Japanese not to give up Okinawa and the entire Ryukyu archipelago if they gave up their claims to the other islands of the Lesser Kuril chain.
After Tokyo signed the Cooperation and Security Treaty with Washington in January 1960, extending military presence Americans in the Japanese Islands, Moscow said it refused to consider the issue of transferring the islands to the Japanese side. The statement was substantiated by the security of the USSR and China.
In 1993 was signed Tokyo Declaration about Russian-Japanese relations. It said that the Russian Federation is the legal successor of the USSR and recognizes the 1956 agreement. Moscow expressed its readiness to start negotiations on Japan's territorial claims. In Tokyo, this was assessed as a sign of the coming victory.
In 2004, the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergei Lavrov, made a statement that Moscow recognizes the 1956 Declaration and is ready to negotiate a peace treaty based on it. In 2004-2005, this position was confirmed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
But the Japanese insisted on the transfer of 4 islands, so the issue was not resolved. Moreover, the Japanese gradually increased their pressure, for example, in 2009, the head of the Japanese government at a government meeting called the Lesser Kuril Ridge "illegally occupied territories." In 2010-early 2011, the Japanese got so excited that some military experts began to talk about the possibility of a new Russo-Japanese war. Only spring natural disaster- the consequences of the tsunami and the terrible earthquake, the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant - cooled the ardor of Japan.
As a result, the loud statements of the Japanese led to the fact that Moscow announced that the islands are the territory of the Russian Federation on legal grounds following World War II, this is enshrined in the UN Charter. And the Russian sovereignty over the Kuriles, which has the appropriate international legal confirmation, is beyond doubt. Plans were also announced to develop the economy of the islands and strengthen the Russian military presence there.
The strategic importance of the islands
economic factor. The islands are economically underdeveloped, but they have deposits of valuable and rare earth metals - gold, silver, rhenium, titanium. The waters are rich in biological resources, the seas that wash the shores of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands are one of the most productive areas of the World Ocean. The shelves, where hydrocarbon deposits have been found, are also of great importance.
political factor. The cession of the islands will sharply lower Russia's status in the world, and there will be a legal opportunity to review other results of the Second World War. For example, they may demand to give the Kaliningrad region to Germany or part of Karelia to Finland.
military factor. The transfer of the islands of the South Kuril chain will provide the naval forces of Japan and the United States with free access to the Sea of Okhotsk. It will allow our potential adversaries to exercise control over strategically important strait zones, which will drastically impair the deployment of the forces of the Russian Pacific Fleet, including nuclear submarines with intercontinental ballistic missiles. This will be a strong blow to the military security of the Russian Federation.
Kurile Islands- a chain of islands between the Kamchatka Peninsula and the island of Hokkaido, separating the Sea of Okhotsk from the Pacific Ocean. The length is about 1200 km. The total area is 15.6 thousand km. To the south of them is the state border of the Russian Federation with Japan. The islands form two parallel ridges: the Greater Kuril and the Lesser Kuril. Includes 56 islands. Have important military-strategic and economic importance.
Geographically, the Kuril Islands are part of the Sakhalin region of Russia. Southern islands of the archipelago - Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan, as well as the islands MalayaKurilridges.
On the islands and coastal zone industrial reserves of non-ferrous metal ores, mercury, natural gas, and oil have been explored. On the island of Iturup, in the area of the Kudryavy volcano, there is the richest known mineral deposit in the world. rhenium(rare metal, the cost of 1 kg is 5000 US dollars). Thereby Russia ranks third in the world in terms of natural reserves of rhenium(after Chile and the USA). The total resources of gold in the Kuril Islands are estimated at 1867 tons, silver - 9284 tons, titanium - 39.7 million tons, iron - 273 million tons.
The territorial conflict between Russia and Japan has a long history:
After the defeat in 1905 in the Russo-Japanese War, Russia transferred the southern part of Sakhalin to Japan;
In February 1945, the Soviet Union promised the United States and Great Britain to start a war with Japan on the condition that Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands be returned to it;
February 2, 1946 Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on the formation on the territory of South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands of the South Sakhalin Region as part of the Khabarovsk Territory of the RSFSR;
In 1956, the Soviet Union and Japan adopted a Joint Treaty officially ending the war between the two states and transferring the islands of the Lesser Kuril Range to Japan. Signing the agreement, however, did not work out, because it came out that Japan was waiving the rights to Iturup and Kunashir, because of which the United States threatened not to give Japan the island of Okinawa.
Russia's position
The official position of the Russian military-political leadership in 2005 was expressed by President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, saying that the ownership of the islands was determined by the results of the Second World War and that in this sense Russia was not going to discuss this issue with anyone. But in 2012, he made a very reassuring statement for the Japanese people, saying that the dispute should be resolved on the basis of a compromise that suits both sides. "Something like hikiwake. Hikiwake is a term from judo, when neither side managed to win," the President explained.
At the same time, the Government of the Russian Federation has repeatedly stated that sovereignty over the southern Kuriles is not subject to discussion, and Russia will strengthen its presence in them, making all the necessary efforts for this. In particular, the Federal Target Program "Socio-Economic Development of the Kuril Islands" is being implemented, thanks to which the former Japanese "Northern Territories" are actively building infrastructure facilities, it is planned to build aquaculture facilities, kindergartens and hospitals.
Japanese position
Every prime minister, every party that won the elections is determined to return the Kuriles. At the same time, there are parties in Japan that claim not only the southern Kuriles, but also all the Kuril Islands up to Kamchatka, as well as the southern part of Sakhalin Island. Also in Japan, a political movement for the return of the "northern territories" is organized, which conducts regular propaganda activities.
At the same time, the Japanese pretend that there is no border with Russia in the Kuril region. The southern Kuril Islands belonging to Russia are shown on all maps and postcards as the territory of Japan. Japanese mayors and police chiefs are appointed to these islands. Children in Japanese schools learn Russian in case the islands are returned to Japan. Moreover, they are taught to show on the map the "northern territories" and juvenile pupils of kindergartens. Thus, the idea that Japan does not end here is supported.
By decision of the Japanese government, starting from February 7, 1982, the country annually celebrates the "Day of the Northern Territories". It was on this day in 1855 that the Shimoda Treaty was concluded, the first Russian-Japanese treaty, according to which the islands of the Lesser Kuril Ridge went to Japan. On this day, a "nationwide rally for the return of the northern territories" is traditionally held, in which the prime minister and government ministers, parliament deputies from the ruling and opposition political parties, and former residents of the southern part of the Kuriles take part. At the same time, dozens of campaign buses of ultra-right groups with powerful loudspeakers, painted with slogans and under militaristic flags, are leaving on the streets of the Japanese capital, plying between the parliament and the Russian embassy.
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