Southern Kuril Islands in exchange for a peace treaty: an endless story
On November 14, Russian President Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Abe met in Singapore at the ASEAN summit and held negotiations, one of the main topics of which was a discussion of the future fate of the two islands of the Kuril chain - Shikotan and Habomai.
Let us recall that Japan demands the return of these two islands, citing the mutually ratified Soviet-Japanese declaration of 1956, in exchange for the signing of a peace treaty.
As a result of the negotiations, the Kremlin press service released a message that for the sake of a peace treaty, the Russian side is ready to compromise, unless it conflicts with the national interests of any of the parties. In addition, it was emphasized that the heads of foreign affairs agencies were instructed to increase the intensity of the dialogue on the peace treaty.
The icing on the cake was the statement of Japanese Prime Minister Abe, who generously promised that if the two South Kurile islands were returned, Japan would under no circumstances allow the United States to place military bases on them.
All these statements taken together had the effect of an exploding shell, giving rise to a lot of rumors in the media and social networks, in the spirit of “Russia is ready to surrender two disputed islands to the Japanese,” with sad parallels being drawn about the supposed “imminent return of Shikotan and Habomai to their native harbor.”
Experts who were all-consuming, like the ever-memorable “El-Murid” Nesmiyan and the non-brotherly “spilnota,” were especially furious on the topic. There were even cases of making clinical bets: “this time Raska will definitely give up the islands.”
It seemed that the “experts” either forgot how to read official messages, or listened to them with their asses, or only the first part of the message about the compromise fit into their memory, but the rest was carried out of their heads in a draft, without affecting their brains.
The vandals also ignored Putin’s important remark regarding the 1956 declaration: “not everything is clear in this document.”
And in fact, the Japanese side, relying on the 1956 document, puts forward a demand: first the transfer of the islands, and then a peace treaty. Whereas the Khrushchev compromise consisted of the opposite: first a peace treaty, and then the transfer of the islands, which was reflected in the document. Moreover, the Japanese additionally had to officially renounce territorial claims to the other two islands - Kunashir and Iturup.
But that's not all. Article 9 of the joint declaration required Japan to withdraw foreign troops from its territory. In fact, Khrushchev pushed Japan to accept the status of a neutral state, but then the United States intervened, for which the peace treaty between the USSR and Japan on these terms was like a sharp knife. The Americans demanded that the Japanese side not withdraw territorial claims to Kunashir and Iturup, promising that otherwise the Ryukyu Archipelago and the island of Okinawa, which were under US control based on the 1951 treaty signed in San Francisco, would not be returned to Japan.
Further more. On January 19, 1960, the United States forced Japan to sign the Treaty of Cooperation and Security, according to which the Americans were allowed to use military bases on their territory and maintain units of the Air Force, Navy and Ground Forces on them.
This situation, of course, did not suit the Soviet leadership in any way, and on January 29, 1960, a statement was made in which the USSR officially refused to consider the issue of transferring the promised Kuril Islands to Japan, since this would lead to a likely expansion of the American military presence in the region and would negatively affect security of the USSR and China.
Now appreciate how ridiculous and pitiful the promise of the Japanese vassal Prime Minister Abe not to let the American military into the suddenly acquired islands sounds.
Thank you, bitch-san, we already went through this scam almost 30 years ago, when the “Western partners” promised Gorby not to expand NATO to our borders. And to step on the same rake twice would be the height of cretinism.
Actually, Russia last year tried to find a compromise with Japan on the islands, proposing their joint development. And then she was faced with the machinations of the samurai. The fact is that Russia, as the constitutional owner, reasonably invited Japanese representatives to work in the Kuril Islands within the framework of Russian jurisdiction. But for some reason, Tokyo decided that on the islands, which belong to them only on paper, they should develop activities according to their own laws.
In general, the compromise died without really hatching.
Thus, the situation with the conclusion of the Russia-Japan peace treaty is increasingly looking like a stalemate. Since the 1956 agreement with Japan was concluded under N.S. Khrushchev, a lot of water has passed under the bridge and a lot has changed in the world. You can make heartfelt speeches a thousand more times about how the 62-year-old document lies at the heart of the Russian-Japanese dialogue, but everyone has long understood that there are no other agreements that can move the process forward from a dead point, and there are no other agreements in sight, since things are constantly there is a third party whose geopolitical interests nullify in advance all attempts by Russia and Japan to come to an agreement.
The transfer of Shikotan and Habomai automatically entails a new problem: the ownership of Kunashir and Iturup. And after them, a chain reaction will begin - give up Crimea, give up Kaliningrad, give up Primorye. What did you think? The Chinese comrades are very closely monitoring the progress of negotiations on small islands of great importance and drawing appropriate conclusions.
Having lost even two islands, Russia will lose an important gain - the status of an internal Sea of Okhotsk, and in addition, it will lose control over the ice-free deep-sea straits through which the Navy's strategic submarines enter the Pacific Ocean underwater.
The fact that the Americans will certainly install observation stations for our submarines on the islands wrested from Russia is no need to go to grandma. The Americans are supported by constant protests from the Japanese population of Okinawa, demanding the immediate removal of American bases from the island. Kuril Islands - why not an option?
Many citizens are wondering: since the situation is stalemate, why the hell are all these meetings and negotiations needed?
The answer is simple: a bad peace is always better than a good quarrel. Dialogue allows the parties, especially Japan, where the topic of returning the Kuril Islands is among the top national issues, to let off steam of public indignation. Otherwise, the Japanese prime minister will be shredded into noodles by local revanchists. And these are not empty words. Various opinion polls show that from 60 to 80% of the Japanese are categorically in favor of the return of the islands to Russia.
In principle, the current situation plays rather into Russia’s hands. Although Japan supported American sanctions, it is ready not to comply with them where possible. Take, for example, the proposal of the Kawasaki company, which expressed its readiness to supply turbines for two new Crimean power plants to replace the disgraced Siemens. And then, Japanese companies risk being left broke in their joint development with Russia of the untold riches of Siberia and the Far East. Especially looking at what activities their competitors from China and South Korea have developed.
And in conclusion.
There are too many mourners on social networks about the unfair insults inflicted on the samurai by our country. They say, yes, they are bastards. But they are still not Adolf, they did not attack us. And when the battle near Moscow was going on, the USSR was not attacked. On the contrary, it was us, the unfortunate ones, who attacked them. And in general, the Kuril Islands must be given back - these are “illegally squeezed territories.”
To the sons of bitches who want to squander state-owned territories, I would like to remind you that: A) the Kuril Islands were transferred to Japan by the Russian Tsar as a sign of strengthening friendship between the Russian and Japanese empires (which did not happen), and B) before the signing of the Non-Aggression Pact between the USSR and Germany, Japan was one of the most aggressive allies of the Nazis. The conclusion of the Pact in Japan was regarded as a betrayal of Germany, and since then the militarists there have taken a wait-and-see attitude. However, given the “peaceful” nature of the island regime, the USSR had to keep dozens of fully deployed divisions in the Far East, which would not have been superfluous at Moscow or Stalingrad.
That is, the Japanese militarists fought against our country, only in a different way.
The USSR was forced to declare war on Japan by an agreement with the allies reached at the Tehran Conference in 1943. The USSR pledged to enter the war with Japan within six months after the victory over Nazi Germany in order to support the allies.
Let us not forget that the Soviet Army crushed the Kwantung group not in Hokkaido or Okinawa, but in China, where the Japanese occupation authorities for many years pursued a policy of genocide that even the Nazis could envy. The Nanjing massacre of 1937–1938 alone, during which at least 300 thousand (according to other sources, up to half a million) civilians were killed, remains an unsurpassed atrocity in human history. As did the genocide of more than 20 million non-combatants killed by the Japanese military during the occupation of Southeast Asia.
Japanese soldiers practiced a similar approach to civilians in Korea, Burma, the Philippines and many other places. A separate article is the crimes of the so-called “Detachment 731”, which surpassed the famous ghoul Mengele with its monstrous experiments on people.
And, characteristically, the Japanese public is not too repentant about this until now.
In addition, the entry of the USSR into the war against Japan contributed to the liberation of China from intervention and subsequently to the victory of friendly forces in the civil war. And this ultimately works to the benefit of modern Russia.
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