The Kuril Island conflict is a dispute between Japan and Russia over sovereignty over the southernmost Kuril Islands. The disputed islands are currently under Russian administration as part of the Sakhalin Oblast, but are also claimed by Japan, which refers to them as the Northern Territories (北方領土) or Southern Chishima (南千島). The disputed islands are called:
The Habomai rocks in Japanese (歯舞群島) and Russian (Хабомай)
The dispute results from an ambiguity over the Treaty of San Francisco (1951). Under Article 2c), Japan renounces all right, title and claim to the Kuril Islands, and to that portion of Sakhalin and the islands adjacent to it over which Japan acquired sovereignty as a consequence of the Treaty of Portsmouth of 5 September1905.
However, the Soviet Union chose not to be signatory to the San Francisco Treaty. And Article 2 of an earlier (1855) Russo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce, Navigation and Delimitation (the Shimoda Treaty), 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.
Japan mantains its claim to the whole of South Kurile Islands. Russian position varies from administration to administration; as of December 2004, it tends to follow the declaration signed by the USSR and Japan in 1956 which stipulated for the disputed group being divided between the two nations, Russia keeping the two northernmost islands and ceding Shikotan and the Habomais to Japan.
However, the claims of the indigenous Ainu people to the islands have gone largely ignored by the powers that be.
The Kurileislands, now generally written 'Kuril' islands, stretch northeast from Hokkaido, Japan, to Kamchatka; very much as the Ryukyu islands stretch southwest from Saikaido[?] (Kyushu), Japan, to Taiwan.
The islands are renowned for their fogginess but are rich in seaweed and marine life, such as fish and otters.
The southern most Islands are claimed by both Russia and Japan, a continuing KurilIslandConflict[?]
On January 2, 1947, South Sakhalin and the KurilIslands were included as parts of the Sakhalin Region, and the Region was simultaneously designated as a separate territory of the Russian Federation.
The southern cape of Urup is declared the extreme possession of the Russian Empire on the KurilIslands.
Autumn 1918 — the authority of the administration of Admiral A. Kolchak is extended to the island.
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