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Kurile Islands - 1990

Kurile Islands - 1990

Jacek Pałkiewicz
2006-06-17 15:59:04

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pressured by the United States, England and Russia to abandon its 300 -year-old isolationist policy. The second claim was that while the treaty acknowledged Etorofu, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai Islands to be Japanese territories, Russia could still claim historical rights to them as a result of having first discovered and explored them. However, these islands, which are so close to Japan that they can be seen with the naked eye from Hokkaido, hardly seem to require any claim of discovery. In fact, even in "Shoho Okuni Ezu," a map published in Japan in the first half of the seventeenth century, Kunashir and Etorofu Islands are clearly indicated as part of Japan.

The 1855 Treaty of Commerce, Navigation and Delimitation left Sakhalin Island as a mixed settlement for Japanese and Russian nationals. In order to resolve the complications arising from these ambiguities, negotiations aimed at a division of the island between the two nations were conducted during the 1870s. In these negotiations, Japan called for a division of the island at the fiftieth parallel of north latitude. But, Russia called for a division at the forty eighth parallel. Neither side could come to terms. By concluding the 1875 Treaty for the Exchange of Sakhalin for the Kurile Islands, Japan and Russia agreed that Japan would hand over title to the Sakhalin Island to Russia. Then, in return, Russia would hand over the Kurile Islands, the eighteen islands from Urup to Shimushu, to Japan. The peaceful negotiations resulted in the Kurile Islands becoming Japanese territory and Sakhalin Island becoming Russian territory.

However, tensions persisted, and in 1904, war broke out. Japan and Russia went to war over Manchuria and other regional interests. As a result of this war, the Portsmouth Peace Treaty was concluded, by which the southern half of Sakhalin Island was ceded by Russia to Japan upon its victory. Although there had been varied developments regarding the territorial delimitation, ...