If any of Russian observers had illusions that the new ruling party of Japan will be more realistic regarding the South Kuril islands dispute these illusions might vanish after October 17, when Japan’s Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Seiji Maehara named the islands “illegally occupied territories”. On watching the Russian islands from a patrol motor boat Maehara said: “I saw those islands and I understood that they are our territory from time immemorial!”

After a rebuke from Russia’s Foreign Ministry Maehara said that his statement about the status of four Kuril Islands was fully in line with the foreign policy course of new Prime Minister Yukio Khatoyama. We can interpret it as follows: Moscow may not expect that with the ruling Democratic party Japan will become more cooperative. It is Russia which is expected to be more cooperative.

Japanese politicians are very consistent trying to win back “the northern territories”. For more than 20 years they have been trying to influence the public opinion in Russia to justify the transfer of the Kuril islands to Japan. Any arguments? A lot of them. The first argument – Look, how big is Russia and how small is Japan! Why does Russia need these four small islands on its outskirts? No oil, no gas. Give them back to Japan and that is all. In return you will get loads of investments from Japanese companies. And we will finally sign the peace agreement which is not a minor thing. In the times of Gorbachev’s ruling the Izvestia daily newspaper used to receive letters from Russian citizens who supported the idea to give the islands back to Japan. One of the letters was even signed by a worker who had been a member of the Communist party since 1956.

Some Russian oriental scientists also support the idea. These were mainly those scientists who got addicted to the grants they received from Japanese scientific foundations when the Soviet state stopped financing the science. Scientists and diplomats are digging deeper than common workers and they come with legally grounded arguments in favor of regarding the South Kurils as the Japanese territory. In the result we have the picture like this: Japan is the victim and the Soviet Union is the aggressor, which took the territories it had never had the right for. The official position of Tokyo has become dominating in Russian scientific and pseudoscientific circles. Even the wide use of the term “Northern territories” brings grist to the mill of new Japanese imperialism because this term was borrowed from the language of the opponent which leads to reprogramming of consciousness of those who borrowed it.

The history of the sovereignty of islands Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai is controversial and you can interpret it differently depending on your position. One of the arguments in favor of Japan in this territorial dispute is their claim that it was Japanese people who discovered the islands. This version is weak and not very convincing to prove the rights of Japan to rule the South Kuril Islands.

Indeed Japanese people were the first who received the data about the islands during their expedition in 1653 to the Hokkaido Island which at that time was almost the same for Japan as the Wild West for the United States. Japan did not fully control Hokkaido at that time and it was due to the conflict with local residents that the Japanese expedition failed to reach the Kuril Islands. Japanese people only found out that the islands existed.

The first foreigners who visited the disputed islands were Dutch gold hunters from the expedition of Maarten Gerritsen de Vries. They explored small Kuril chain in 1643 and made a detailed map of the area. The Dutchmen failed to find gold there and sold the map to Japan. Having this map in their disposal Japanese people are trying to prove that they were the first on those islands. This argument is more than controversial. Dutchmen could make the islands part of the Netherlands and than cede them to Japan. But they did not make them part of their country so they could not cede them to Japan either. And Japanese sailors did not set their feet on the islands.

After Dutchmen the first travelers who came to the islands were Russians. It happened in 1738-1739 during the voyage of Martyn Shpanberg. His ship sailed along the Kuril chain up to Hokkaido. Shpanberg made a map of the area and he also made local rulers give oath of allegiance to the Russian czar. Since then the South Kurils had been the Russian territory.

However later Japan became stronger and braver and decided that it could rule the Far East region as it pleased. In 1845, the Japanese Empire unilaterally proclaimed its sovereignty not only over the four islands of the Kuril chain but over all Kuril islands and the island of Sakhalin. Russian czar Nicolas I was furious but at that time the situation in the Crimea was getting worse and the Russian czar had to focus all forces there. The Crimean war did not let Russia take efficient steps to restore its sovereignty over the Far East territories. However Russia did not recognize the sovereignty of Japan over those territories either.

The first Russo-Japanese agreement to deal with the status of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands was the 1855 treaty of Shimoda. Under the treaty the border between Russia and Japan was to lie between the islands of Etorofu and Uruppu and the island of Sakhalin/Karafuto was to remain under a joint Russo-Japanese condominium. The whole of Etorofu shall belong to Japan as well as the islands of Kunashiri, Shikotan and the Habomai Islands.

In all diplomatic disputes Japanese diplomats always refer to the treaty of Shimoda which first established official relations between Russia and Japan. In Japan people annually celebrate February 7 as the day of Northern territories.

In a subsequent 1875 Treaty of Saint Petersburg Russia and Japan agreed that Japan would give up all rights to Sakhalin in exchange for Russia giving up all rights to the Kuril Islands in favor of Japan. This treaty was valid till 1905 when after the Russo-Japanese war the Treaty of Portsmouth gave the southern half of the Sakhalin Island to Japan. Though Sergius Witte who was then Chairman of Council of Ministers said that it contradicted the St. Petersburg Treaty, Japan responded “The war cancels all the treaties. You have lost the war so let’s face the new reality”. It was very difficult to Russia to keep the Northern part of the Sakhalin Island.

During the Second World War, in 1943, the Unites States, Great Britain and China signed the Cairo declaration. The declaration did not explicitly mention the Kuril Islands but stated: "Japan will also be expelled from all other territories which she has taken by violence and greed".

The Yalta agreement stated that the Kuril Islands were to be given to the Soviet Union. The Potsdam Declaration defined that the Japanese sovereignty shall be limited to the islands of Honshū, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku and such minor islands as we determine. The islands of the Kuril chain were not mentioned in the declaration.

In August 1945, the Soviet Union entered the war with Japan and in September liberated South Kuril Islands including the four islands Japan has been trying to return. In 1951, Japan and its former enemies in the Second World war signed the San Francisco Peace Treaty. Under this treaty Japan renounced rights for South Sakhalin and Kuril Islands. By that time the Soviet Union and the United states had been already in a state of the Cold War and the Soviet Union did not sign the treaty due to some reasons. Later Japan claimed that Kunashiri, Etorofu, Shikotan and the Habomai rocks were technically not a part of the Kuril Islands and thus were not covered by the provisions of the San Francisco Treaty and that is why it had not renounced its rights for them.

In 1956 the Soviet Union and Japan signed a declaration, which ended the state of war between them and restored diplomatic relations. In this declaration the Soviet Union expressed readiness to return the islands of Shikotan and Habomai to Japan as soon as the peace treaty is signed but in return it expected Japan to become a neutral state and demand the US to withdraw troops from its territory. But the US which wanted to keep tension near the eastern borders of the USSR threatened Japan saying if Japan waived its rights for Iturup and Kunashir the US would not return Okinawa. That is why Tokyo rejected the Soviet proposals. Soon after that the US and Japan signed a military agreement which put a lid on the plans of making Japan a neutral state. And the Soviet Union withdrew its proposals.

Summing it all up we see that Russia has solid grounds to own Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai.

First: the first foreigners who set foot on the ground of the islands were Russian sailors. They also made local citizens give oath of allegiance to the Russian czar.

Second: The Treaty of Shimoda under which Russia recognized Japanese sovereignty over the islands and Japan tends to refer to has been legally inefficient for quite a long time. The first provision of the treaty says: From now on it shall be peace and sincere friendship (between Russia and Japan). Japan broke this provision in 1904. Besides that admitting the legal status of the Treaty of Shimoda would threaten the Russian status of the Sakhalin Island, which is unacceptable.

Third: Japan started an aggressive war against Russia. By that time Japan owned all Kuril Islands and the name of the Kuril Islands comprised both the islands it received under the Saint Petersburg Treaty and four islands which are disputable now. No division was made between these islands. In the course of the war Japan also took the South Sakhalin and then Russia had to put up with it because it was exhausted to continue the war. Later when Russia got stronger again, namely in 1945, the time had come to get a compensation for the occupation. The USSR demanded the Kuril Islands and the fact that since 1855 Russia had not owned them does not mean that they could be transferred to the USSR. Eastern Prussia had never been the Russian territory but under the Yalta and Potsdam declarations it was given to the USSR. Let alone the islands which used to be part of the Russian Empire.

Strictly speaking in 1945 the USSR could have demanded Hokkaido as well because the damage from the Japanese occupation was enormous and the winners have the right to define terms (The war cancels all previous agreements). However now instead of being grateful to Stalin for his “modesty” Japanese politicians are still trying to make global community forget the lessons of history.