Japanese demand Islands from Russia

[Hafizzz]

Japanese rally for return of islands from Russia
Japanese rally for return of islands from Russia - CTV News

Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan led a large rally Monday demanding the return of several islands held by Russia since the end of World War II and calling the recent visit there by Russia's president an outrage.

The dispute over the southern Kuril islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories, has long been a sticking point in relations between the two countries and has kept them from signing a formal peace treaty ending their World War II hostilities.

Japan has designated Feb. 7 as "Northern Territories Day," saying that a treaty dating back to that day in 1855 supports its claim to the islands.

Kan was the top speaker at a government-backed rally of about 1,500 people in Tokyo that has been held annually since 1981 to mark the anniversary. He vowed that Japan will not back down from its claim and said visits there by Russian leaders are "an unforgivable outrage."

A smaller rally and march were held on the northern island of Hokkaido.

Asked about Kan's statements, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said they were "undiplomatic" and contrasted sharply with the positive tone of a meeting between Kan and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Yokohama last fall.

Lavrov said that Russia was ready to cooperate with Japan and continue talks on a peace treaty.

"The most important thing now is to develop economic, social and investment ties, cultural and humanitarian cooperation as well as cooperation on international issues, then it will be easier to conduct a dialogue on more difficult issues," Lavrov said.

Russia's position on its own claim to the islands appears to be getting more assertive in recent months.

In November, Medvedev became the first Russian or Soviet leader to visit the islands. Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov inspected military garrisons on the islands last week and said Moscow is planning to upgrade the troops' weapons there.

Both trips generated sharp protests from Tokyo, which claims Soviet army occupation of the territory just before Japan's surrender in 1945 was an act of illegal aggression.

The islands are surrounded by rich fishing grounds and are believed to have offshore oil and natural gas reserves, plus gold and silver deposits. They lie as close as six miles (10 kilometers) to Japan's Hokkaido island and are also near undisputed Russian territory.

Japan's foreign minister is scheduled to visit Moscow from Thursday and the islands dispute is likely to be at the top of his agenda. Progress is not expected.

Russia has said that it is tired of discussing the issue. Medvedev said after his visit that he considered the islands part of Russia's sovereign territory and will return there whenever he pleases.

Russia is seeking increased economic ties with Japan to help develop its Far East, and has tried to keep the territorial issue separate from economic relations. But Japan has been slow to embrace fuller trade and growth without progress toward an agreement on the islands.

Japan also has longstanding disputes over islands with China and South Korea.

When will Japan return Islands that she took from China ?

 

[Developereo]

This could get ugly.

Russia is still nursnig its wounded pride after being demoted from superpower status. It is spoiling for a fight to restore national pride.

 

[ChinaToday]

This could get ugly.

Russia is still nursnig its wounded pride after being demoted from superpower status. It is spoiling for a fight to restore national pride.

The senario is if russia and japan go to war which country will india support. since india always claim they are her allies.

 

[cross1993]

With the money to buy it...

 

[Obambam]

It will not result in war. Japan cannot afford war with Russians.
The Russians are very aggressive when they need be and the Japanese will not want to risk that happening.
Russians will build a naval base there and is improving infrastructures and trying to get more people to live there. They are not likely to back away from Kuril now. It is too late for that.

 

[Dalai Lama]

The senario is if russia and japan go to war which country will india support. since india always claim they are her allies.

I assume India would choose to stay neutral if such a conflict was to occur. Russia will always be India's biggest ally but India also has a strategic interest with Japan's friendship. My guess would be that India would declare it's neutrality and stay out of it.

Regards.


PS: It wouldn't really matter who India supports anyway since it's a bilateral issue between Russia and Japan.

 

[Dalai Lama]

These are the islands for anyone wondering.

 

[DV RULES]

Lavrov considers Japan’s statements on Kurile not diplomatic

07.02.2011, 15.29


MOSCOW, February 7 (Itar-Tass) - Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said statements by Japanese officials on trips to South Kurile Islands by Russian leaders “are clearly not diplomatic in nature”.

Lavrov commented on Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s statement. Kan considered Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s trip to South Kurile Islands “impressible disrespect”.

“I read reports on the expression uttered by the Japanese prime minister. These expressions are clearly not diplomatic in nature. They form a contrast to the polite tone, which was proper to the talks between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and the Japanese prime minister in Yokohama last autumn,” the minister said.

Lavrov said, “This is conditioned by the fact that today Japan has marked the day of the so-called ‘Northern Territories’. Maybe, the Japanese leadership has decided to keep up with non-governmental organisations, which show their attitude in an absolutely unacceptable form.”

“It is regrettable that the Japanese leadership finances these non-governmental organisations,” Lavrov stressed.

Last week the Russian president stressed that it was important to speed up the social and economic development of South Kurile Islands and the whole Sakhalin region. “We are ready to closely cooperate with our Japanese neighbours in order to implement concrete projects in this region and maintain a multilateral dialogue, including on the signing of a peace treaty in compliance with the agreements reached by Dmitry Medvedev and the Japanese prime minister in Yokohama,” Lavrov said.

Japanese right-wing campaigners dragged the Russian flag along the ground outside the Russian Embassy in Tokyo on Monday and called for the return of a group of disputed islands.

The Day of Northern Territories is marked annually in Japan on February 7. On Monday, as happens every year, right-wing activists cruised the streets in vans equipped with loudspeakers to play nationalist music and chants.

“Return the Northern Territories!” and “You are illegally occupying our land!” were just some of the slogans broadcast before the activists approached the embassy, guarded heavily by police, with a Russian flag.

On Saturday, February 5, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Moscow hoped that a reasonable and weighty approach towards territorial realities prevails in Tokyo.

Commenting on Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov’s trip to South Kurile Islands, the ministry said, “Tokyo continues to comment on Russian leaders’ trips to South Kurile Islands. The Foreign Ministry reacted on such comments several times. We are disappointed with the fact that Japan repeated them due to the trip to the islands by Anatoly Serdyukov.”

Russia hopes that “a reasonable and weighty attitude towards territorial realities will prevail in Japan. Japan’s refusal to lay emphasis on the ‘island’ issue would facilitate the calm and constructive bilateral dialogue,” the ministry said.

The ministry said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev “intends to continue discussions on the development of Russian-Japanese relations, including a peace treaty in order to reach a new level of cooperation”.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s trip to Kunashir that Japan describes as its Northern territories evoked protests in Tokyo, however they were rejected by Russia. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Russian leader plans to visit other islands of the South Kurils.

Naoto Kan said he saw no prospects for finding fast solutions to the territorial dispute and called for changing the tactics in the dialogue with Moscow.

“This is not the issue that can be resolved by one round of talks, by one meeting,” he said. “We have to change the strategy and take all efforts to return the islands.”

Kan did not disclose how he would change his approach to the dialogue with Moscow.

The Kuril Islands dispute, also known as the Northern Territories dispute, is a dispute between Russian and Japan over sovereignty over the South Kuril Islands.

The disputed islands, which were occupied by Soviet forces during the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation at the end of World War II, are under Russian administration as South Kuril District of the Sakhalin region, but are claimed by Japan, which refers to them as the Northern Territories, being part of the Nemuro Subprefecture of Hokkaido Prefecture.

The San Francisco Peace Treaty between the Allied Powers and Japan from 1951 states that Japan must give up all claims to the Kuril Islands, but it also does not recognize the Soviet Union's sovereignty over the Kuril Islands.

Russia maintains that the Soviet Union's sovereignty over the islands was recognized following agreements at the end of the Second World War. However, Japan has disputed this claim.


ITAR-TASS

 

[DV RULES]

Japan PM describes RF pres trip to S Kurils as “unforgivable outrage”

07.02.2011, 12.23

TOKYO, February 7 (Itar-Tass) - Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Monday criticised Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit last November to one of four Russian-held islands claimed by Japan as an “unforgivable outrage” and vowed to tenaciously seek the settlement of the bilateral territorial dispute.

However, he calls for continuing negotiations with Moscow on a peace treaty and economic cooperation. The Japanese government head made this statement in Tokyo at a “nationwide rally for the return of the Northern Territories.” By decision of the government, he it is held annually on February 7 in memory of the first Russian-Japanese treaty of 1855, which left the Southern Kurils in Japan.

Kan told the annual rally to press for the early return of the four islands off Hokkaido that the territorial row is “a very important challenge for Japanese foreign affairs” and said that his government will work “with a strong will” to conclude a peace treaty with Russia after clarifying the claims to the isles, the Kyodo news agency reported. The Japanese premier also indicated Tokyo’s intention to continue talks with Moscow on expanding economic cooperation during his remarks at the government-organised gathering in Tokyo, which was attended by about 1,500 former islanders, politicians and activists.

Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara, who will visit Moscow from Thursday for talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on matters including the territorial dispute, also said he will stake his political life on realising the early return of the islands. “I will wholeheartedly devote myself to resolving the territorial issue,” he said. The foreign minister added he will try to lay the groundwork for Kan's summit talks with Medvedev during his upcoming visit to Russia to help settle the row.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, who also serves as minister in charge of Northern Territories issues, said the government has doubled its spending for awareness-raising activities on the territorial row to 2.07 billion yen in the fiscal 2011 budget plan from the current year to make stronger calls for the return, according to Kyodo.

Nemuro Mayor Shunsuke Hasegawa lambasted Medvedev's trip to Kunashiri Island, saying the Russian president “ignored laws and international justice by justifying the illegal occupation” of the islands by Russia and “repeated the same mistake as the one made 65 years ago by infringing upon Japan's sovereignty.”

The Soviet Union seized the islands of Etorofu (Iturup), Kunashiri (Kunashir), Shikotan and the Habomai islet group shortly after Japan’s surrender in World War II on August 15, 1945. The territorial spat has prevented the two countries from signing a post-war peace treaty. The islands are known in Japan as the Northern Territories and in Russia as the Southern Kurils.

Cape Nosappu on the eastern tip of Nemuro, an eastern Hokkaido city, is about 3 kilometres from one of the Habomai islets. The rally is held every year in Japan to mark Northern Territories Day, which commemorates the conclusion of the Treaty of Commerce, Navigation and Delimitation on February 7, 1855, in which Japan and Russia confirmed that the four islands are Japanese territory.

Since Medvedev’s trip (Nov 1), the Japanese government has been irked by a series of visits to the disputed islands by high-ranking Russian officials including First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, Regional Development Minister Viktor Basargin and Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov. However, Tokyo until now has not used such strong words as “unforgivable outrage.”


ITAR-TASS

 

[DV RULES]

This could get ugly.

Russia is still nursnig its wounded pride after being demoted from superpower status. It is spoiling for a fight to restore national pride.

Nothing bad if Russia went to restore their pride, it is question of state sovereignty. Not like us sitting & negotiating 63 years.

 

[pmukherjee]

When will Japan return Islands that she took from China ?

Who told you that Japan took them from China??? It is simply a case of 'Jiski lathi Uski Bhains', right now the 'lathi' happens to be with China. This is pure Realpolitik, let us not get moralistic about it.

 

[applesauce]

Who told you that Japan took them from China??? It is simply a case of 'Jiski lathi Uski Bhains', right now the 'lathi' happens to be with China. This is pure Realpolitik, let us not get moralistic about it.

hmm history says japan took em from china, the peace treaty ending WW2 says they are suppose to be returned to china and as for the "whip" the USA still has that

 

[CardSharp]

The senario is if russia and japan go to war which country will india support. since india always claim they are her allies.

Hell India claims half the world as her ally when they bring up dreams of a war with China. USA, Russia, Israel, Vietnam, Japan, SK... name a neighbour of China's and apparent that neighbour is willing to stick their neck out for India.

 

[pmukherjee]

hmm history says japan took em from china, the peace treaty ending WW2 says they are suppose to be returned to china and as for the "whip" the USA still has that

History also says that they were useless piles of volcanic rock lying uninhabited in the middle of the ocean about half way between Japan and Taiwan which no one cared for or claimed till Japan claimed them in 1880 and tried commercial fishing based on these islands.

History also says that after WW-II, USA administered these islands till 1972 and then returned them to Japan.

 

[CardSharp]

History also says that they were useless piles of volcanic rock lying uninhabited in the middle of the ocean about half way between Japan and Taiwan which no one cared for or claimed till Japan claimed them in 1880 and tried commercial fishing based on these islands.

History also says that after WW-II, USA administered these islands till 1972 and then returned them to Japan.

Just be thankful that Pakistan granted you guys independence in the 1776. Hmmph.


See I too can make s hit up on subjects I know nothing about.