The story goes on under the ad “All these years later, I still can not forget everything I saw before my eyes,” said Kawata, 87. Now, ‘seeing the Ukrainians… is so close to home. “Something does not seem to be happening at a distance.” Thousands of miles from Ukraine, in this city in northeastern Japan, where many of the approximately 17,200 former inhabitants of the Northern Territories have been resettled, the Russian invasion and the plight of millions of Ukrainian refugees resonate deeply. The war shattered their hopes of ever seeing their homeland again after Russia halted post-war negotiations on the islands in response to Japanese sanctions on Russia for invading Ukraine. The story goes on under the ad For these former residents, whose average age is almost 87, the hope of returning home to their lives has vanished. “The only things left to tell these stories are just the memories of some fifth graders. “The rest have died without being able to share their stories,” said Hiroshi Tokuno, 88, who left Shikotan Island at the age of 13. For years under former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japan sought to improve relations with Russia and prioritize the peace treaty and territorial settlement in a bid to make Moscow a strategic partner and prevent it from moving closer to China. When Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014, concerns about island negotiations shaped Abe’s lukewarm response. But in a dramatic shift from years of rapprochement with Russia, Japan has imposed heavy economic sanctions over the invasion. Although negotiations had stalled since 2020, Moscow said last week that it had no intention of returning to talks and planned to end visa-free travel for Japanese citizens to the islands. He also threatened to withdraw from joint economic projects there. What Japan calls the Northern Territories, the islands of Kunashiri, Etorofu, Habomai and Shikotan, are off the coast of Hokkaido, and some are visible from Nemuro on a clear day. It was part of Japan before World War II, but shortly after its surrender in August 1945, the Soviet Union claimed the islands, which it called the Kuril Islands. The story goes on under the ad These volcanic islands southeast of the Russian island of Sakhalin separate the Ohotsk Sea and the Pacific Ocean and are at the heart of post-war Russian-Japanese relations. The two countries made a joint statement in 1956 to end the state of war between them, but have not signed a peace treaty. This was expected to resolve the dispute for the islands. From Japan’s point of view, the Soviet occupation of the islands was a betrayal, because Japan had already surrendered and the islands were Japanese territory since the first treaty between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan in 1855, said James Brown, an expert on Russia. . -Japanese relations on the campus of Temple University in Tokyo. For Russia, the islands are its rights, which were acquired in exchange for the United States’ accession of Japan to World War II. The abandonment of the islands is considered a betrayal of Soviet soldiers and civilians and the Russian legacy of World War II, Brown said. The islands are also of strategic interest to Russia because they make it easier for Moscow to transport its ships to the Pacific Ocean from the Sea of Okhotsk and have valuable natural resources, including a rare earth metal used in aerospace construction. Tokyo and Moscow have been negotiating peace since the 1956 declaration, but there has been no significant movement. In contrast to Japan’s territorial disputes with China and South Korea over largely uninhabited islands, the scale of the dispute with Russia is different because the islands are larger (Etorofu is almost 2,000 square miles) and thousands of lives are lost. people are directly affected. In Nemuro, it is difficult to travel a few blocks without seeing a huge statue or plaque that demands, in uncharacteristically dynamic Japanese: “The Northern Territories, give it back!” Signs and street names are written in Japanese and Russian, for the benefit of Russian fishermen operating in Nemuro. Here, Russia’s announcement of its withdrawal from the negotiations has consequences. It prevents the former inhabitants from visiting the graves of relatives on the islands. He also ends cultural visits to the Russian inhabitants of the islands by the Japanese, hoping that the two populations could one day coexist if the dispute was ever resolved. The story goes on under the ad “It is extremely unjust and unacceptable, undermining the efforts of the people of both countries who are working hard to promote an exchange,” Hokkaido Governor Naomichi Suzuki said in a statement. With Russia considering ending its economic deal with Japan, the fishing industry is also at the forefront because it relies on the waters between Japan and Russia – considered one of the best places on the planet for fishing, with 3 million tonnes of fish. and other seafood are caught annually. Less than 5,500 former Northerners are still alive. They have clear eyes for what Japan’s toughest response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine means for the future of negotiations on the islands, but some continue to support Japan’s stance on Russia. At the Nemuro Museum dedicated to the controversy, residents and visitors left messages insulting Russian President Vladimir Putin and expressing their solidarity with Ukraine. The story goes on under the ad Some residents said they hoped to see Prime Minister Fumio Kishida take a tougher line with Russia to resolve the Northern Territory dispute. “What Russia is doing in Ukraine, trying to change the status quo by force, can never be justified,” said Yasuji Tsunoka, 84, who was eight years old when Soviet forces occupied the tiny island of Yuri. of the Habomai complex. islets that had 70 houses. “Kishida has imposed strong sanctions and we understand that. “But now, more than ever, we want the negotiations to be immediate and strong, without trying to be constantly sensitive to Russia.” “The situation in Ukraine is again a matter of land, as are the northern islands with Japan.” After the Soviets occupied the islands, some Japanese families remained for a few years, living next to the Soviet families who moved there. Tokuno recalled going to school with Soviet children and his experience later turned into a children’s animated film entitled Giovanni Island. The story goes on under the ad But, eventually, to make room for the Soviets, the Japanese were evicted from their homes and pushed into sheds and horse stables. By October 1947, all the Japanese who had remained in the northern territories were removed from the islands by Soviet ships. This group included Tokuno, who recalled that they first endured the exhausting conditions in Sakhalin before reaching Nemuro. Some died on the trip. It was not until 1964 that Russia and Japan agreed to allow limited numbers of humanitarian trips to the islands so that former residents could visit relatives’ burial sites. The former residents said they hoped future generations of Japanese, as well as US leaders, would take the fight. “We will continue to share the movement with the next generation to continue for as long as it takes,” Chunoka said. “Japan must never stop.”
