The Hobomai Rocks (Russian: Хабомай (Khabomai), Japanese: ??? (Habomai)) are a group of islets in the very south end of the Kuril Islands. They are currently under Russian administration, but are, together with Iturup, Kunashir and Shikotan, claimed by Japan. For more information on the dispute, see Kuril Islands dispute. This page is a candidate to be moved to Wiktionary. ... The Kuril Islands The Kuril Islands (Russian: Кури́льские острова́, Kurilskie ostrova), also known as Kurile Islands, stretch northeast from Hokkaidō, Japan, to Kamchatka, separating the Sea of Okhotsk from the North Pacific Ocean. ... Iturup (Ainu イト゚ルㇷ゚; Japanese 択捉島, Etorofu; Russian Итуруп) is the biggest island of the Kuriles, located in the Sakhalin Oblast of Russia. ... Kunashir Island (国後島:Kunashiri in Japanese, Кунашир (Kunashir) in Russian, Black Island in Ainu language), a southwestern island of the Kuril Islands, located in the Sakhalin Oblast of the Russian Federation. ... Shikotan (色丹島) (Shikotan in Japanese, Шикотан in Russian), one of the bigger islands of the Kuril Islands, located in the Sakhalin Oblast of Russia. ... The Kuril Islands with the disputed islands highlighted The Kuril Island conflict is a dispute between Japan and Russia over sovereignty over the southernmost Kuril Islands. ...
The Hobomai Rocks consist mainly of ten islets, the biggest being Seleni (Jap.: Shibotsu) with an area of 51 km².
And Article 2 of an earlier (1855) Russo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce, Navigation and Delimitation (the Treaty of Shimoda), which provided for an agreement on borders, states "Henceforth the boundary between the two nations shall lie between the islands of Etorofu and Uruppu.
The whole of Etorofu shall belong to Japan; and the Kurile Islands, lying to the north of and including Uruppu, shall belong to Russia." Note that Kunashiri, Shikotan and Habomais Islands are not explicitly mentioned in the treaty.
The Soviet-Japanese joint declaration of 1956 signed by the USSR and Japan promised at least Shikotan and the Habomais to be returned to Japan before a peace agreement could be made.
Asked at San Francisco to define the territory of the Kurils, he said only that the Habomais might be excluded (at the time there were suggestions that Shikotan might be part of the Kurils).
Matsumoto says that when he began the talks in London in June 1955 his brief was simply to demand the return of the Habomais and Shikotan on the grounds that before 1945 the two territories had administratively been part of Hokkaido rather than the Kurils.
The Soviet side rejected this demand, saying both territories were included in the Kurils promised to Moscow at Yalta in February 1945 as a condition for Moscow entering the war against Japan (in Russia, the two territories were called the Lesser Kurils).
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