Kuril conflict

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Area affected by the Kuril conflict

The Kuril conflict is a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia . The subject of the conflict are the southernmost islands of the Kuril archipelago. The islands have belonged to the Soviet Union since the end of World War II or to Russia since its disintegration in 1991, but are claimed by Japan.

Content of the conflict

At the Yalta Conference , Stalin had given in to pressure from the Western Allies to break the neutrality agreement with Japan and the Soviet Union's entry into the Pacific War, and attacked Japan three months after the end of the war in Europe - two days after the atomic bombing on Hiroshima . As a result, the Red Army occupied all of the Kuril Islands that had belonged to Japan since the Treaty of Portsmouth , as well as the Habomai Islands, Shikotan , Kunashiri and Etorofu .

The territorial dispute results from the absence of the Soviet Union from the negotiations on the peace treaty of San Francisco (1951), triggered by the Cold War . In this treaty, Japan renounced the Kuril Islands north of Iturup , but the Soviet Union did not sign the treaty. In 1956 the Soviet Union and Japan signed a joint declaration. In it, the Soviet Union agreed to transfer the Shikotan Islands and the Habomai group to Japan in the event of a peace treaty . However, Japan lays claim to four islands and invokes the Shimoda bilateral trade and border treaty from 1855, in which these islands were recognized as Japanese. In the Treaty of Saint Petersburg in 1875 , Japan had also received the Kuril Islands and in return surrendered its territories to Sakhalin . Japan does not consider the consequences of the decisions of the Yalta Conference to be legally valid.

It concerns the following islands :

  • Etorofu ( 択 捉 島 , -tō ); Russian: Iturup (Итуруп): 3,184.0 km²
  • Kunashiri ( 国 後 島 , -tō ); Russian: Kunashir (Кунашир): 1,498.8 km²
  • Shikotan ( 色 丹 島 , -tō ); Russian: Schikotan (Шикотан): 253.3 km²
  • the island group Habomai ( 歯 舞 群島 , -guntō ); Russian: Chabomai (Хабомай): 99.9 km²

A peace treaty between Japan has not yet come about with either the Soviet Union or the Russian Federation.

Urban district and Rajons (counties) in Sakhalin Oblast. On the southern Kuril Islands claimed by Japan, there are 16 Yuzhno-Kurilski and partially 6th Kurilski

In the administrative structure of the Russian Federation (and also de facto) the islands are part of Sakhalin Oblast in two Rajons (Kurilski and Yuzhno-Kurilski) . Together they take up about half the area of ​​all Kuril Islands.

Parishes in the sub-prefecture of Nemuro of the Hokkaidō according to Japanese law, of which (theoretically) on the southern Kuril Islands: 6. Shikotan-mura in Shikotan-gun on B. Shikotan-tō, 7. Tomari-mura and 9. Ruyobetsu-mura in Kunashiri-gun on C. Kunashiri-tō, 9th Rubetsu-mura in Etorofu-gun, 10th Shana-mura in Shana-gun and 11th Shibetoro-mura in Shibetoro-gun on D. Etorofu-tō as well as the 1959 after 1st Nemuro- shi incorporated former Habomai-mura on A. Habomai-guntō

Japan collectively refers to these four islands as the Northern Territories ( 北方 領土 , hoppō ryōdo ). and considers them unchanged - in 1903 the sub-prefecture Shana ( Shana-shichō , 紗 那 支 庁 ) was incorporated into Nemuro - as part of the sub-prefecture Nemuro of the [prefecture / - dō ] Hokkai [-] dō , where it is divided into seven parishes under Japanese law extend (six - mura in several historical circles ( - gun ) entirely on the southern Kuril Islands as well as part of the - shi Nemuro ) and z. B. also in the electoral law de jure belong to today's 7th constituency of Hokkaidō .

Kunashiri and the Habomai Islands are located just off the Japanese coast: Kunashiri is approx. 10 km, one of the Habomai Islands ( Kaigara ) is just 4 km from the island of Hokkaidō . This area was one of the most heavily guarded state borders during the Cold War .

chronology

Territorial development 1875 to 1945: Russia Japan 1875: Treaty of St. Petersburg 1905: Treaty of Portsmouth 1945: End of the Second World War




  • By the Russian-Japanese trade, shipping and border drawing treaty of February 7, 1855 ( Treaty of Shimoda ), the island chain was divided into a northern, Russian group, and a southern group belonging to Japan. The border was determined between the islands of Urup (Russian) and Etorofu (Japanese).
    On the occasion of the signing of the treaty, Japan celebrates February 7th as Northern Territories Day.
  • In the Treaty of Saint Petersburg , concluded on May 7, 1875 , Russia also transferred all other (northern) Kuril Islands to Japan. In § 2, the contract expressly states “the 18 islands between Uruppu and Shimushu” . In return, Japan gave the previously controversial island of Sakhalin to Russia. The southern part of Sakhalin was restored to Japan in 1905 by the Treaty of Portsmouth , which ended the Russo-Japanese War .
  • On April 13, 1941, the Japanese-Soviet Neutrality Pact was signed. On April 5, 1945, the USSR announced that it would no longer renew the treaty, so that it would become invalid on April 25, 1946.
  • On August 8, 1945, as agreed with the Allies at the Yalta Conference , the Soviet Union entered the war against Japan, initially only on the Asian mainland.
Agreement on the entry of the USSR to the war against Japan
  • On August 18, 1945, after Japan's surrender to the USA on August 14 , Soviet troops began occupying the entire Kuril archipelago as well as Habomai and Shikotan. Only on the three northernmost Kuril Islands were there Japanese garrisons and heavy fighting. The remaining islands were occupied without a fight. The Japanese minority living there to date emigrated to Japan with the Japanese Army .
  • On September 2, 1945, Japan signed the declaration of surrender to the victorious powers.
  • On September 12, 1945 the last Japanese troops surrendered. The war was over.
  • On February 2, 1946, the islands were declared under Soviet territory by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
  • On September 8, 1951, the San Francisco Peace Treaty was signed . The Soviet Union did not sign the treaty, partly because of the Korean War . The treaty states in Article 2 (c) that "Japan relinquishes all rights, titles and claims in relation to the Kuril Islands and that part of Sakhalin and neighboring islands that were ceded to Japan in the Treaty of Portsmouth 1905". No exact geographical borders of the Kuril Islands were defined, but the participants in the peace conference understood and accepted Japan's position that the four islands under discussion should not be counted among the Kuril Islands. The US reiterated this in a note to the USSR dated May 23, 1957, which stated that the word "Kuril" in the Treaty of San Francisco and the Yalta Agreement did not include the Habomai Islands, Shikotan, Kunashiri and Etorofu and that such an inclusion was also not intended. Japan underscores this view by designating the conflict-affected islands as Northern Territories instead of Southern Kuril Islands.
  • On October 19, 1956 - the thaw in the USSR at that time - the Soviet Union and Japan signed a joint declaration in Moscow ( Russian Советско-японская совместная декларация , Japanese 日本国 連邦と ソ ヴ の のエ ト エ ヴ の 共和国エ ト ) both parties restored their diplomatic relations and ended the state of war. After mutual ratification, the declaration came into force on December 12th of that year. The declaration contained in Article 9 the provision that in the event of a peace treaty that had yet to be concluded, the USSR would transfer the Shikotan Islands and the Habomai group to Japan. However, such negotiations were blocked by the US.
  • On January 27, 1960 - in connection with the treaty between Japan and the USA of January 19, 1960 , after which a strong military bond arose between Japan and the "West" and the USA was allowed to expand its military infrastructure on the Japanese islands with practically no restrictions - The Soviet government refused to comply with the obligation set out in Article 9 before the conclusion of a peace treaty provided for in the 1956 Declaration, on the grounds that the treaty of January 19, 1960 was directed against the USSR and the People's Republic of China and through the existing one massive presence of US troops Japan would not remain a sovereign state ( aide-mémoire of the Soviet government to the Japanese government of January 27, 1960, Izvestia of January 29, 1960).
  • On October 13, 1993, Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa for Japan and President Boris Jelzin for Russia signed the "Tokyo Declaration", which contained in Section 2 the agreement of intent to regulate the affiliation of the four islands.
  • In March 2001, President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Yoshirō Mori confirmed in the "Irkutsk Declaration" that the joint declaration of 1956 was still a valid basis for peace negotiations.
  • On June 11, 2009, the lower house of the Japanese parliament passed an amendment to the law, according to which "maximum efforts" should be made to enable the islands to be returned as quickly as possible. According to this law, all official announcements of Japan regarding the four islands have to designate them as Northern Territories . The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation regretted this step and described it as an attempted step towards escalation.
  • On November 1, 2010, Medvedev was the first Russian president to visit Kunashiri Island, reigniting the dispute. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tokyo protested and called in the Russian ambassador. Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan called Medvedev's visit to a parliamentary committee "extremely regrettable". He affirmed that the islands were part of Japan. Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara said the visit hurt the feelings of the Japanese public. On November 2, 2010, Japan withdrew its ambassador from Moscow. Foreign Minister Maehara said that he had ordered the Ambassador Masaharu Kono back "temporarily".
  • On March 25, 2016, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced in Moscow that Bal missile systems and Eleron-3 drones would be stationed on the Kuril Islands within this year.
  • On February 11, 2017, the Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ordered the designation of five uninhabited Kuril Islands, one of them after General Kuzma Derevyanko , who accepted the Japanese surrender for the Soviet Union in 1945, and another after the longstanding Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko - " The name was given a few days after both sides had announced expert talks about joint management of the Kuril Islands for March. "

Despite all negotiations, Japan has so far unsuccessfully requested the return of the southern islands from Russia. There is still no peace treaty between the two states because of this conflict - 70 years after the Second World War.

The negotiating position of the two states varies: Japan ratified the 1956 declaration, but has long called for the return of Etorofu and Kunashiri. Russia, for example, recognized the four islands as belonging together under Yeltsin. Since 2004, however, it has been increasingly striving for an agreement based on the 1956 declaration.

  • In September 2018 at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, President Vladimir Putin, after preliminary talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, offered a peace treaty to further develop Japanese-Russian relations (Abe-Putin summit) to be negotiated by the end of the year, and both delegations affirmed with a road map the Eastern Economic Forum signed a bilateral economic agreement a year earlier on waste reduction , wind power use, greenhouse cultures on the volcanic islands, aquafarming and tourism in the border area, also in order to initiate Japanese investments in the still untouched, less developed eastern part of Russia. The denuclearization of the North Korean peninsula was also a subject connected with the negotiations at this summit, even if only the South Korean Prime Minister and not the North Korean head of state Kim Jong Un, who was also invited , was present at the summit . The simultaneous military maneuver Vostok-2018 in the run-up to the ASEAN summit in November 2018 was closely monitored by Japan.

The New York Times published an article in 1992, the author of which described the legal basis (i.e., the historical basis left out) of the Japanese claims as "quite weak".

Competent Japanese Authorities and Other Companies

In 1972 the Japanese government set up the "Main Department for Affairs of the Northern Territories" ( 北方 対 策 本部 , hoppō taisaku hombu ) first in the office of the Prime Minister , later in the authority for general affairs and finally as a special body of the cabinet office . Since 2001, the main department has been represented by the Minister for Affairs of Okinawa and the Northern Territories, a “Minister for Special Tasks” ( tokumei tantō daijin ) in the cabinet . The "Main Department" is responsible for pooling government efforts to return the South Kuril Islands, and there is also the "Society for Affairs of the Problem of the Northern Territories" ( 北方 北方 問題 対 策 協会 ), a self-governing body of the Cabinet Office, and various associations that have been in existence since 1945 established by Hokkaidō with government support across the country.

Ainu

Members of the Ainu also lay claim to the Kurils. In 2004 a small group of Ainu, who live in Kamchatka Krai, wrote to Russian President Putin. You mentioned the crimes of the Japanese, Tsarist Russia and Soviet Russia against their people. These crimes included forced assimilation, displacement and murder. They called on Putin to recognize the action of the Japanese against the Ainu as genocide, which Putin rejected.

Positions of third countries and organizations

The European Parliament in the resolution adopted on 7 July 2005 on "Relations between [EU], China and Taiwan and security in the Far East" called on Russia to return the "occupied" South Kuril Islands to Japan.

The United States believes that only Japan has sovereignty over the disputed islands.

See also

literature

  • Hasegawa, Tsuyoshi: The Northern Territories dispute and Russo-Japanese relations . University of California at Berkeley, IAS 1998.
  • Hasegawa, Tsuyoshi: Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman and the Surrender of Japan . Harvard University Press, 2006, ISBN 978-0-674-02241-6 .
  • Hasegawa, Tsuyoshi: Russia and Japan: An Unresolved Dilemma Between Distant Neighbors . University of California at Berkeley, IAS 1993.
  • Norbert Adami: The Soviet-Japanese dispute over the Southern Kuril Islands and its historical background (DIJ PDF, 1.5 MB ).

Web links

Individual references, footnotes

  1. ↑ Asian Times: Kosuke Takahashi: Creative thinking on the Kurils (April 20, 2005)
  2. ↑ a b c d e The Brockhaus in Text and Image 2003 [SW], electronic edition for the Office Library, Bibliographisches Institut & FA Brockhaus, 2003; Article: "Kuril Islands"
  3. ↑ Hokkai [-] dōchō (Administration of Hokkaidō or "Prefecture Administration Hokkai"): municipalities according to sub-prefecture with map of sub-prefectures (Japanese)
  4. ↑ Kokudo Chiriin : 平 成 30 年 全国 都 道 府 県 市区 町 村 別 面積 調 ( Heisei-sanjū-nen zenkoku todōfuken-shichōson-betsu menseki-chō , "Compilation of the areas nationwide by prefecture and municipality in the year Heisei 30 [= 2018]" ): P. 7ff., 市区 町 村 別 面積: 01 北海道 (Chapter 3: Areas of the municipalities by prefecture: 01 Hokkaidō; the municipalities marked with a star are partly (★) or entirely (☆) on the southern Kuril Islands) and S. 103 ff., Appendix 3: Main islands and other islands> 1km² by prefecture (for the latter including the municipality (s) to which they belong); Islands in Hokkaidō on p. 103 with sub-prefecture in brackets in front of the municipality
  5. ^ English version of the Yalta Conference Documents on the Kuril Islands: Page 1 ( Memento of December 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), Page 2 ( Memento of December 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ^ A b Gregory Clark: Tokyo's Claim to the Kurils Is Shaky , The New York Times , July 18, 1992, accessed December 23, 2009.
  7. ^ Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between Japan and the United States of America . ( wikisource.org [accessed October 19, 2016]).
  8. ↑ Курильский вопрос решен. В 1945 году. In: Российская газета. Retrieved October 19, 2016 .
  9. ↑ a b Northern Territories Issue. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, accessed November 27, 2016 (Japanese).
  10. ^ Report to Ria Novosti
  11. ↑ 北方 領土 問題 等 の 解決 の 促進 の た め の 特別 措置 に 関 す る 法律 as amended on July 10, 2009 ( memento from January 22, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (Japanese)
  12. ↑ Russia provokes Japan in the dispute over the archipelago on www.zeit.de
  13. ↑ Japan withdraws its ambassador from Moscow ( Memento of November 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) on www.tagesschau.de
  14. ↑ Territorial dispute: Russia gives islands Soviet names orf.at, February 14, 2017, accessed on February 14, 2017.
  15. ↑ Russia offers Japan peace treaty , zdf.de, September 12, 2018.
  16. ↑ Abe and Putin agree to promote economic programs on disputed isles off Hokkaido , Japantimes , September 11, 2018.
  17. ↑ 北方 対 策 本部 : Website (Japanese, English)
  18. ↑ 北方 領土 問題 対 策 協会 : Website (Japanese)
  19. ↑ Terry McCarthy: Ainu people lay ancient claim to Kurile Islands: The hunters and fishers who lost their land to the Russians and Japanese are gaining the confidence to demand their rights . In: The Independent , September 22, 1992. 
  20. ↑ http://kamtime.ru/old/archive/08_12_2004/13.shtml