The Northern Territories in Japanese-Soviet Relations

Abstract

A LTHOUGH 31 years have elapsed since the end of World War II, Japan and the Soviet Union still have not concluded a formal peace treaty. The key issue in treaty negotiations has been a dispute over four islands-Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan, and the Habomai group-located just to the northeast of Hokkaido. The strategic, political, and emotional importance of the islands, which have a total land area of some 5,000 square kilometers, far exceeds their economic worth, although they are surrounded by rich fishing grounds and have some mineral resources. The Soviet Union claims that the islands form part of the Kurile Islands chain awarded to it in the Yalta Agreement, and has occupied them since the end of the war. The Japanese refer to them as the Northern Territories, and regard them as part of Japan's inherent territory. The depth of the antagonism on both sides, and the rigidity of their respective positions on the subject, have never been more apparent than at the conclusion of the latest peace treaty discussions conducted during the January 1976 visit of Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko to Tokyo. The Northern Territories issue has now spilled over into the balance of power politics of the Pacific Basin, in which Japan occupies a cardinal position. The Kurile Islands became the frontier between Japan and Russia in the 18th century, during Russia's great expansion to the Pacific Ocean. Traditional Japanese apprehensions concerning the fierce Ainu tribes of the north carried over to the Russians, who pressed the Tokugawa Shogunate for trading concessions. The first formal delimitation of boundaries between the two countries was made in the 1855 Treaty of Shimoda, by which all of the Kurile Islands north of Etorofu were recognized as Russian and those from Etorofu south as Japanese-the