Why does Japan need the Kuril Islands. The problem of the Kuril Islands in relations between Russia and Japan

Signed the surrender and ended World War II. It would seem that the enmity and conflicts of those years have long been forgotten. However, disputes on some issues related to the war years have not subsided so far. After the Second World War (then the USSR) received part of the Japanese territories, Kurile Islands. Japan still cannot come to terms with the loss and is trying its best to regain its lands back. The Japanese are already experiencing a clear lack of land and will fight to the last for every piece of land. Japan still refuses to conclude a peace treaty with Russia, and the ceasefire agreement was signed by Japan only in 1956, 11 years after the end of the war!

Based on the above assumptions, the reaction of the Japanese Foreign Ministry to the desire of the Russian president to visit the Kuril Islands is quite understandable. Dmitry Anatolyevich during his visit to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky openly declared his desire to visit the Kuril Islands. Medvedev complained about non-flying weather, but promised to pay a visit to this important region for Russia in the very near future. The Japanese immediately expressed . Japanese spokesman Yoshito Sengoku said that the Japanese were concerned about the Russian president's statement. Official Tokyo has already sent a protest to the Kremlin and has openly stated that Medvedev's visit to the Kuril Islands will cause serious damage to relations between Japan and Russia, because. the trip will have a negative impact on the countries' negotiations to resolve territorial disputes. The Prime Minister of Japan, Naoto Kann, in his next speech stated that Japan does not intend to give up its claims in relation to the South Kuriles under any pretext.

Many world experts believe that Russia would quite possibly agree to hand over several of the southern islands of the chain in exchange for improved strategic relations with the Japanese. Both parties will benefit from such a deal. However, according to experts, Russia will make concessions only if it guarantees itself a serious economic benefit. Japan is able to invest heavily in the Russian Far East. Japanese tech and money could help dwindling aluminum and fishing industries get back on their feet Far East. Yes, and the renewal of the technological park of mining enterprises located in Siberia will obviously not hurt Russia. Experts almost unanimously declare the need to look for common ground and resolve the issue, which has not lost its urgency for more than 50 years, in the very near future.

Russia, in turn, has repeatedly noted its unwillingness to part with part of its own territories.. IN Russian history There have already been similar territorial concessions. In 1867, Russia handed over Alaska for 7.2 million, 1.9 cents per acre of land. After 30 years, oil fields were discovered in Alaska, and even later, oil fields, which are estimated at 100-200 billion dollars.

Mainichi Newspaper Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said that the country's course is to return four South Kuril Islands will be unchanged. Such a statement by Nakasone was a reaction to an interview with Deputy Foreign Minister Yachi Shiotaro, who proposed returning "three and a half islands" - Shikotan, Kunashir, Habomai and part of Iturup Island.

"The chosen course determines Japan's ownership of all these four islands and the signing of a peace treaty remains unchanged," he summed up, pointing out the sequence of the course chosen by the government.

According to the analysts of the Faculty of Investments of the Masterforex-V Trading Academy, The Russian Federation is developing the Far East extremely sluggishly. Mostly all are either intra-regional in nature or are in the nature of targeted actions without much benefit to the region. A gold mine is being developed the main income from developments goes to the center. A hydroelectric power station is being built, while the environment is suffering, and electricity prices are only growing, and the prices at which electricity is exported are 2-3 times lower than for enterprises located near the station. The population is increasingly moving closer to the administrative center of the country. Undoubtedly, the territories of the Far East are extremely attractive for such economic giants as Japan and China. From the point of view of the development of the region and in the absence of a clear policy of the center regarding the development of territories, it would probably make sense to find mutually beneficial points of intersection of interests and come to a consensus.

Maksim Gan, Head of Volume Analysis Department, notes that the road causes great damage to exports, which form the basis of the national economy of Japan. The intervention did not bring tangible results. Under the current conditions, a brewing conflict of interest may become one of the catalysts for the movement of the Japanese currency.

So far, there has been no reaction from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the President of the Russian Federation D. Medvedev on this issue. Experts have no doubt that the reaction will be tough: it is Russia’s business, not Japan’s, where its President travels on an official visit to Russia

The Southern Kuril Islands are a stumbling block in relations between Russia and Japan. The dispute over the ownership of the islands prevents our neighboring countries from concluding a peace treaty, which was violated during the Second World War, negatively affects the economic ties between Russia and Japan, contributes to an ever-preserving state of distrust, even hostility, of the Russian and Japanese peoples

Kurile Islands

Disputed islands - Kunashir, Shikotan, Iturup, Habomai

Kunashir Island

Habomai

The history of the discovery of the Kuril Islands

- In October-November 1648, he was the first of the Russians to pass through the First Kuril Strait, that is, the strait separating the most north island Kuril ridge Shumshu from the southern tip of Kamchatka, under the command of the clerk of the Moscow merchant Usov Fedot Alekseevich Popov. It is possible that Popov's people even landed on Shumshu.
- The first Europeans to visit the Kuril Islands were the Dutch. On February 3, 1643, the two ships Castricum and Breskens, which left Batavia in the direction of Japan, under the general command of Martin de Vries, approached the Lesser Kuril Ridge on June 13. The Dutch saw the shores of Iturup, Shikotan, discovered the strait between the islands of Iturup and Kunashir.
- In 1711, the Cossacks Antsiferov and Kozyrevsky visited the Northern Kuril Islands Shumsha and Paramushir and even unsuccessfully tried to rip off tribute from local population- Ainu.
- In 1721, by decree of Peter the Great, an expedition of Evreeinov and Luzhin was sent to the Kuriles, who explored and mapped 14 islands in the central part of the Kuril ridge.
- In the summer of 1739, a Russian ship under the command of M. Spanberg rounded the islands of the South Kuril ridge. Spanberg mapped, although inaccurately, the entire ridge of the Kuril Islands from the Kamchatka nose to Hokkaido.

Ainu lived on the Kuril Islands. Ainu - the first population of the Japanese islands - was gradually forced out by newcomers from Central Asia north to the island of Hokkaido and further to the Kuriles. From October 1946 to May 1948, tens of thousands of Ainu and Japanese were taken from the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin to the island of Hokkaido

The problem of the Kuril Islands. Briefly

- February 7, 1855 ( a new style) - V Japanese port Shimoda signed the first diplomatic document in relations between Russia and Japan, the so-called Treaty of Simond. On behalf of Russia, it was endorsed by Vice-Admiral E. V. Putyatin, on behalf of Japan - authorized Toshiakira Kawaji.

Article 2: “From now on, the borders between Russia and Japan will pass between the islands of Iturup and Urup. The whole island of Iturup belongs to Japan, and the whole island of Urup and the other Kuril Islands to the north are the possession of Russia. As for the island of Crafto (Sakhalin), it remains undivided between Russia and Japan, as it has been until now.

- 1875, May 7 - a new Russian-Japanese treaty "On the exchange of territories" was concluded in St. Petersburg. On behalf of Russia, it was signed by Minister of Foreign Affairs A. Gorchakov, and on behalf of Japan, by Admiral Enomoto Takeaki.

Article 1. “His Majesty the Emperor of Japan ... cedes to His Majesty the All-Russian Emperor part of the territory of the island of Sakhalin (Krafto), which he now owns .. so that from now on the aforementioned Sakhalin Island (Krafto) will completely belong to the Russian Empire and the border line between the Empires of Russia and The Japanese will pass in these waters through the La Perouse Strait "

Article 2. “In return for the cession of rights to Sakhalin Island to Russia, His Majesty the All-Russian Emperor cedes to His Majesty the Emperor of Japan a group of islands called the Kuril Islands. ... This group includes ... eighteen islands 1) Shumshu 2) Alaid 3) Paramushir 4) Makanrushi 5) Onekotan, 6) Harimkotan, 7) Ekarma, 8) Shiashkotan, 9) Mus-sir, 10) Raikoke, 11) Matua , 12) Rastua, 13) the islets of Sredneva and Ushisir, 14) Ketoi, 15) Simusir, 16) Broughton, 17) the islets of Cherpoy and Brother Cherpoev, and 18) Urup, so that the border line between the Russian and Japanese Empires in these waters will pass through the strait located between Cape Lopatkoy of the Kamchatka Peninsula and Shumshu Island"

- May 28, 1895 - An agreement between Russia and Japan on trade and navigation was signed in St. Petersburg. On behalf of Russia, it was signed by Minister of Foreign Affairs A. Lobanov-Rostovsky and Minister of Finance S. Witte; on behalf of Japan, it was signed by Nishi Tokujiro, Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Russian Court. The treaty consisted of 20 articles.

Article 18 stated that the treaty supersedes all previous Russo-Japanese treaties, agreements and conventions

- 1905, September 5 - Portsmouth Peace Treaty was concluded in Portsmouth (USA), which completed. On behalf of Russia, it was signed by Chairman of the Committee of Ministers S. Witte and Ambassador to the United States R. Rosen, on behalf of Japan by Foreign Minister D. Komura and envoy to the United States K. Takahira.

Article IX: “The Russian Imperial Government cedes to the Imperial Japanese Government in perpetual and complete possession the southern part of the island of Sakhalin and all the islands adjacent to the latter .... The fiftieth parallel of northern latitude is taken as the limit of the ceded territory.

- 1907, July 30 - An agreement between Japan and Russia was signed in St. Petersburg, consisting of a public convention and a secret treaty. The convention stated that the parties were obliged to respect the territorial integrity of both countries and all the rights arising from the agreements existing between them. The agreement was signed by Minister of Foreign Affairs A. Izvolsky and Ambassador of Japan to Russia I. Motono
- 1916, July 3 - in Petrograd Petrograd established the Russo-Japanese alliance. It consisted of a vowel and a secret part. In the secret one, the previous Russian-Japanese agreements were also confirmed. The documents were signed by Minister of Foreign Affairs S. Sazonov and I. Motono
- 1925, January 20 - the Soviet-Japanese Convention on the Basic Principles of Relations, ... the declaration of the Soviet government ... was signed in Beijing. The documents were endorsed by L. Karahan from the USSR and K. Yoshizawa from Japan

convention.
Article II: “The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics agrees that the treaty concluded at Portsmouth on 5 September 1905 shall remain in full force and effect. It is agreed that the treaties, conventions and agreements, other than the said Treaty of Portsmouth, concluded between Japan and Russia before November 7, 1917, will be revised at a conference to be held subsequently between the Governments of the Contracting Parties, and that they may be amended or canceled as necessary. changing circumstances require."
The declaration emphasized that the government of the USSR does not share political responsibility with the former tsarist government for the conclusion of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty: “The Plenipotentiary of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics has the honor to declare that the recognition by his Government of the validity of the Treaty of Portsmouth of September 5, 1905 does not in any way mean that The government of the Union shares with the former tsarist government the political responsibility for the conclusion of the said treaty.

- 1941, April 13 - Neutrality Pact between Japan and the USSR. The pact was signed by Foreign Ministers Molotov and Yosuke Matsuoka
Article 2 "In the event that one of the contracting parties becomes the object of hostilities by one or more third powers, the other contracting party shall remain neutral throughout the entire conflict."
- 1945, February 11 - at the Yalta Conference of Stalin Roosevelt and Churchill, an agreement was signed on the Far East.

"2. The return of the rights that belonged to Russia, violated by the perfidious attack of Japan in 1904, namely:
a) the return to the Soviet Union of the southern part of about. Sakhalin and all adjacent islands, ...
3. Transfers of the Kuril Islands to the Soviet Union"

- 1945, April 5 - Molotov received the Japanese ambassador to the USSR, Naotake Sato, and made a statement to him that in the conditions when Japan was at war with England and the USA, allies of the USSR, the pact loses its meaning and its extension becomes impossible
- August 9, 1945 - The USSR declared war on Japan.
- 1946, January 29 - Memorandum of the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces in the Far East, American General D. MacArthur, to the Government of Japan determined that the southern part of Sakhalin and all the Kuril Islands, including the Lesser Kuril Ridge (the Habomai group of islands and Shikotan Island), are withdrawn from sovereignty Japanese state
- 1946, February 2 - By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, in accordance with the provisions of the Yalta Agreement and the Potsdam Declaration, the South Sakhalin (now Sakhalin) Region of the RSFSR was created in the returned Russian territories

Return to line-up Russian territory South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands made it possible to provide access to Pacific Ocean ships of the Navy of the USSR, to acquire a new frontier of forward deployment of the Far Eastern group of ground forces, which has been carried far beyond the continent, and military aviation Soviet Union and now Russian Federation

- 1951, September 8 - Japan signed the San Francisco Peace Treaty, according to which it renounced "all rights ... to the Kuril Islands and to that part of Sakhalin ..., sovereignty over which it acquired under the Portsmouth Treaty of September 5, 1905." The USSR refused to sign this treaty, because, according to Minister Gromyko, the text of the treaty did not enshrine the sovereignty of the USSR over South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.

The San Francisco Peace Treaty between the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition and Japan officially ended the Second world war, fixed the procedure for paying reparations to allies and compensation to countries affected by Japanese aggression

- 1956, August 19 - in Moscow, the USSR and Japan signed a declaration ending the state of war between them. According to it (including) the island of Shikotan and the Habomai ridge were to be transferred to Japan after the signing of a peace treaty between the USSR and Japan. However, soon Japan, under pressure from the United States, refused to sign a peace treaty, since the United States threatened that if Japan withdraws its claims to the Kunashir and Iturup islands, the Ryukyu archipelago with the island of Okinawa would not be returned to Japan, which, on the basis of Article 3 of the San Francisco Peace the treaty was then administered by the United States

“President of Russia V.V. Putin has repeatedly confirmed that Russia, as a successor state of the USSR, is committed to this document…. It is clear that if it comes to the implementation of the 1956 Declaration, a lot of details will have to be agreed upon ... However, the sequence that is set out in this Declaration remains unchanged ... the first step before everything else is the signing and entry into force of a peace treaty "(Russian Foreign Minister S . Lavrov)

- 1960, January 19 - Japan and the United States signed the "Treaty of Interaction and Security"
- January 27, 1960 - The government of the USSR announced that since this agreement was directed against the USSR, it refuses to consider the transfer of the islands to Japan, since this will lead to the expansion of the territory used by American troops
- 2011, November - Lavrov: "The Kuriles were, are and will be our territory in accordance with the decisions that were made following the results of the Second World War"

Iturup, the largest of the South Kuril Islands, became ours 70 years ago. Under the Japanese, tens of thousands of people lived here, life was in full swing in the villages and markets, there was a large military base from where the Japanese squadron left to smash Pearl Harbor. What have we built here over the past years? Recently, here is the airport. A couple of shops and hotels also appeared. And in the main settlement - the city of Kurilsk with a population of just over one and a half thousand people - they laid an outlandish attraction: a couple of hundred meters (!) Of asphalt. But in the store, the seller warns the buyer: “The product is almost expired. Do you take it? And he hears in response: “Yes, I know. Of course I will." And how not to take it if there is not enough food (with the exception of fish and what the garden gives), and there will be no delivery in the coming days, more precisely, it is not known when it will be. Local people like to repeat: we have 3,000 people and 8,000 bears here. There are more people, of course, if you count the military and border guards, but no one counted the bears - maybe there are more of them. From the south to the north of the island, one has to get along a harsh dirt road through the pass, where hungry foxes guard each car, and roadside burdocks are the size of a person, you can hide with them. Beauty, of course: volcanoes, hollows, springs. But it is safe to ride on the local dirt trails only during the day and when
there is no fog. And in rare settlements the streets are empty after nine in the evening - curfew in fact. A simple question - why did the Japanese live well here, while we only get settlements? - most of the inhabitants simply do not occur. We live - we guard the earth.(“Rotational sovereignty”. “Spark” No. 25 (5423), June 27, 2016)

Once a prominent Soviet figure was asked: “Why don't you give Japan these islands. She has such a small territory, and you have such a large one? “That’s why it’s big because we don’t give it back,” the activist answered.

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 point is that on southern part This island was claimed by the Japanese.

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. Territorial claims from the Country rising sun appeared almost to all 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 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 current state of affairs, but refused to recognize “political responsibility” for the Portsmouth Treaty.

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 of the 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 - this was the only battle of a fleeting war in which the losses of the Soviet troops were higher than those 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.

They 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.

Bad weather somewhat delayed the actions of the Soviet troops on Southern Kuriles, however, 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, a South Sakhalin Region as part of Khabarovsk Territory The RSFSR, which on January 2, 1947 became part of the newly formed Sakhalin Oblast 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 revision by the United States 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 the rest. 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 has the most important historical meaning 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 in territorial dispute hasn't happened 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 Kuril question has become a matter of principle over the past decades. 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 peace treaty between the victorious powers and Japan was signed in San Francisco on September 8, 1951. Japan, according to this document, renounced all rights to the Kuril Islands. However, the Soviet delegation did not sign this treaty. A number of researchers consider this a serious mistake of Soviet diplomacy, but there were very good reasons for this.

Firstly, the document did not specify what the Kuril Islands were with their enumeration - the American side stated that only a special international court could establish this. Yes, and the head of the Japanese delegation, at the suggestion of the Americans, said that Kunashir, Iturup, Shikotan and Khabomai are not included in the Kuril Islands.

Secondly, it is interesting that Japan refused the rights to the islands, but the document did not indicate to whom these islands were transferred .... in fact, the agreement did not confirm the right of the USSR to the Kuriles, but transferred the problem into an indefinite direction.

"Favorite Japanese Document"

On October 19, 1956, a Soviet-Japanese declaration was signed, designed to prepare the basis for the preparation of a peace treaty. On this wave Soviet side, "according to the wishes of Japan and taking into account the interests of the Japanese state, agrees to the transfer of the islands of Habomai and Shikotan (Shikotan) to Japan, however, that the actual transfer of these islands to Japan will be made after the signing of the peace treaty."

How many legal documents, the declaration, which Japanese politicians are so fond of recalling these days, has a number of subtleties.

Firstly, if the USSR is ready to transfer, then such a document recognizes the very belonging of the islands to the Soviet Union.

Secondly, the transfer must take place after the signing of the peace treaty. And thirdly, there were only two southern islands Habomai and Shikotan.

For 1956, both sides assessed such a declaration as a positive breakthrough in Soviet-Japanese relations, which alarmed the United States to no small extent. Under pressure from Washington, the Cabinet of Ministers of Japan was replaced, and the course was taken to sign the US-Japanese military treaty, which was finalized in 1960.

Then for the first time since Japanese side, not without the help of the United States, demands were voiced for the transfer of not two, but all four islands. The United States, however, pointed out that the Yalta agreements were declarative, but by no means binding.

Since the treaty included clauses on the deployment of American bases in Japan, a memorandum from the USSR government to the government of Japan dated January 27, 1960 noted: “The new military treaty signed by the government of Japan is directed against the Soviet Union, as well as against the Chinese People's Republic, cannot contribute to the expansion of the territory used by foreign troops by the transfer of the islands indicated to Japan. In view of this, the Soviet government considers it necessary to declare that only on the condition of the withdrawal of all foreign troops from the territory of Japan and the signing of a peace treaty between the USSR and Japan, the islands of Habomai and Sikotan will be transferred to Japan, as provided for by the Joint Declaration.

But, as you know, American troops are still stationed on the Japanese islands, and the Japanese government, constantly referring to the declaration, demands the transfer of not two, but four islands before the signing of peace.

From "perestroika" to our days

In the context of the weakening of the USSR, in the second half of the 1980s, the issue of the transfer of the Kuril Islands was again raised by Japan. Unfortunately, a number of steps taken by Soviet and young Russian diplomacy did not meet the interests of the state. One of the key points was the recognition of the problem of the islands and the conduct in a beneficial way for opposite side key.

In fact, the topic of the Kuril Islands could become a bargaining chip in the politics of both Gorbachev and Yeltsin, who counted on decent financial compensation in exchange for the islands. And if the former led an accelerated process, then Yeltsin allowed the transfer of the islands in the distant future (15-20 years). However, it was impossible not to take into account the colossal costs that would inevitably manifest themselves inside the country in the event of territorial concessions.

Such a pendulum policy continued for almost the entire “Yeltsin era”, Russian diplomacy avoided a direct solution to the problem, which, in the context of the crisis, had a negative impact in all respects. On present stage there is no serious progress in the issue of the Kuril Islands due to the extremely uncompromising position of Japan, which puts as a preliminary condition the transfer of all four islands, and then the discussion of the signing of a peace treaty. What further conditions the Japanese Foreign Ministry can put forward can only be guessed at. In any case, the immediate solution of this issue is unlikely.

TASS-DOSIER. On December 15, 2016, the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Japan begins. It is assumed that one of the topics during his talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will be the question of ownership of the Kuril Islands.

Japan is currently making territorial claims to Russian islands Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and a group of small islands of the Lesser Kuril ridge ( Japanese name Habomai).

The TASS-DOSIER editors have prepared material on the history of this problem and attempts to solve it.

background

The Kuril archipelago is a chain of islands between Kamchatka and the Japanese island of Hokkaido. It is formed by two ridges. The largest of the islands of the Great Kuril ridge are Iturup, Paramushir, Kunashir. Most big Island Small Kuril Ridge - Shikotan.

Initially, the islands were inhabited by the Ainu tribes. The first information about the Kuril Islands was received by the Japanese during the expedition of 1635-1637. In 1643 they were surveyed by the Dutch (led by Martin de Vries). First Russian expedition(under the leadership of V.V. Atlasov) reached the northern part of the Kuriles in 1697. In 1786, by decree of Catherine II, the Kuril archipelago was included in Russian Empire.

On February 7, 1855, Japan and Russia signed the Shimodsky Treaty, according to which Iturup, Kunashir and the islands of the Lesser Kuril Ridge were transferred to Japan, and the rest of the Kuriles were recognized as Russian. Sakhalin was declared a joint possession - an "undivided" territory. However, some unsettled questions about the status of Sakhalin led to conflicts between Russian and Japanese merchants and sailors. The contradictions of the parties were resolved in 1875 with the signing of the St. Petersburg Treaty on the exchange of territories. In accordance with it, Russia transferred all the Kuril Islands to Japan, and Japan renounced claims to Sakhalin.

On September 5, 1905, as a result of the Russo-Japanese War, the Treaty of Portsmouth was signed, according to which part of Sakhalin south of the 50th parallel passed into the possession of Japan.

return of the islands

At the final stage of the Second World War, during the Yalta Conference in February 1945, the USSR named the return of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands among the conditions for the start of hostilities against Japan. This decision was enshrined in the Yalta Agreement between the USSR, the USA and Great Britain of February 11, 1945 ("Crimean Agreement of the Three Great Powers on the Far East"). On August 9, 1945, the USSR entered the war against Japan. From August 18 to September 1, 1945, Soviet troops carried out the Kuril landing operation, which led to the surrender of the Japanese garrisons in the archipelago.

On September 2, 1945, Japan signed the Act of Unconditional Surrender, accepting the terms of the Potsdam Declaration. According to the document, Japanese sovereignty was limited to the islands of Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku and Hokkaido, as well as less large islands Japanese archipelago.

On January 29, 1946, the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces in Japan, American General Douglas MacArthur, notified the Japanese government of the exclusion of the Kuril Islands from the territory of the country. On February 2, 1946, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Kuril Islands were included in the USSR.

According to the San Francisco Peace Treaty of 1951, concluded between the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition and Japan, Tokyo renounced all rights, titles and claims to the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin. However, the Soviet delegation did not sign this document, since it did not stipulate the question of the withdrawal of the occupying troops from the territory of Japan. In addition, the treaty did not specify which islands Kuril archipelago there was a speech and in whose favor Japan refuses them.

This was the main reason for the existing territorial problem, which is still the main obstacle to the conclusion of a peace treaty between Russia and Japan.

The essence of the disagreement

The principal position of the USSR and Russia was and is that "the belonging of the southern Kuril Islands (Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Khabomai) to the Russian Federation is based on the generally recognized results of the Second World War and the unshakable post-war international legal basis, including the UN Charter. Thus, Russian sovereignty over them has a corresponding international legal form and is beyond doubt" (statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry dated February 7, 2015).

Japan, referring to the Shimodsky Treaty of 1855, claims that Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and a number of small islands never belonged to the Russian Empire and considers their inclusion in the USSR illegal. In addition, according to the Japanese side, these islands are not part of the Kuril archipelago and therefore they do not fall under the term "Kuril Islands", which was used in the San Francisco Treaty of 1951. Currently, in Japanese political terminology disputed islands commonly referred to as the "Northern Territories".

Declaration of 1956

In 1956, the USSR and Japan signed a Joint Declaration that formally declared the end of the war and restored bilateral diplomatic relations. In it, the USSR agreed to transfer the island of Shikotan to Japan and uninhabited islands(reserving Iturup and Kunashir) after the conclusion of a full-fledged peace treaty. The declaration was ratified by the parliaments of the two states.

However, in 1960, the Japanese government agreed to sign a security treaty with the United States, which provided for the preservation of the American military presence in Japanese territory. In response, the USSR annulled the obligations assumed in 1956. At the same time, the Soviet Union stipulated the transfer of the islands by the fulfillment by Japan of two conditions - the signing of a peace treaty and the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country's territory.

Until the early 1990s. the Soviet side did not mention the 1956 declaration, although Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka tried to return to discussing it during his visit to Moscow in 1973 (the first Soviet-Japanese summit).

Intensified dialogue in the 1990s

The situation began to change with the beginning of perestroika in the 1980s, the USSR recognized the existence of a territorial problem. Following the visit of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to Japan in April 1991, the joint communiqué included a provision on the intention of the parties to continue negotiations on the normalization of relations and on a peaceful settlement, including territorial issues.

The presence of the territorial problem was also confirmed in the Tokyo Declaration, signed following negotiations between Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Japanese Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa in October 1993. The document recorded the desire of the parties to resolve the issue of territorial affiliation disputed islands.

In the Moscow Declaration (November 1998), President Yeltsin and Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi "confirmed their determination to make every effort to conclude a peace treaty by the year 2000." At that time, for the first time, the Russian side expressed the opinion that it was necessary to create conditions and a favorable atmosphere for "joint economic and other activities" in the South Kuriles without prejudice to the legal positions of both sides.

Modern stage

In 2008, Japanese politicians began to introduce the term "illegally occupied northern territories" in relation to the islands of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Khabomai. In June 2009, the Japanese Diet passed amendments to the Law on Special Measures to Promote the Solution of the "Northern Territories Problem", in accordance with which Japanese government agencies are required to make every effort to return the "Japanese ancestral lands" as soon as possible.

Visits to the islands by top Russian officials provoke a negative reaction in Tokyo (Dmitry Medvedev visited the islands in 2010 as president, in 2012 and 2015 as prime minister; the first two times he was in Kunashir, the last in Iturup). Japanese leaders periodically make "inspections of the northern territories" from an airplane or boat (the first such inspection was made by Prime Minister Zenko Suzuki in 1981).

The territorial issue is regularly discussed at Russian-Japanese talks. It was especially often raised by the administration of Shinzo Abe, who again took over as prime minister in 2012. However, it has not yet been possible to finally bring positions closer together.

In March 2012, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin stated that on the territorial issue it is necessary "to achieve an acceptable compromise or something like a hikiwake" ("draw", a term from judo). In May 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Japanese Minister Shinzo Abe agreed on the need to develop dialogue in a "constructive manner, without emotional outbursts, public controversy" and agreed on a "new approach" to solving bilateral problems, but the details of the agreements were not reported.