  Correcting Stalin's wrongdoing is key to Chishima question -- Akahata editorial, February 23This year marks the 150th anniversary of the conclusion of the peace and friendship treaty between Japan and Russia in 1855 and the 130th anniversary of the treaty for exchange between Sakhalin and the Chishima (Kurile) Islands in 1875. Both treaties served to peacefully establish borders and territories between Japan and Russia. Russian foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will visit Japan in March and there is talk about Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Japan. However, there is no progress in sight in negotiating a settlement of the territorial issue. Peacefully established borders President Putin stated on December 23, 2004 that the precondition for the transfer to Japan of the Habomai Islands and Shikotan Island is the conclusion of a peace treaty. He referred to the 1956 Japan-Soviet Joint Declaration as the grounds for a settlement. The Habomai Islands and Shikotan Island are part of Hokkaido and should therefore be returned to Japan even before a peace treaty is concluded. It is unacceptable that Russia argues that it can only think of returning the Habomai and Shikotan Islands after a peace treaty is concluded, and that return of the Chishima Islands is out of the question. The territorial question between Japan and Russia arose when the former Soviet Union under Stalin participated in the war against Japan near the end of the Second World War. Stalin carried out a military occupation of the whole of the Chishima Islands, Shikotan Island and the Habomai Islands, and later unilaterally annexed these islands to the Soviet Union. The Chishima Islands, from Shumushu Island at the northern end and Kunashiri Island at the southern end, were historically considered Japan's territory, peacefully established through diplomatic negotiations between Japan and Russia. By the treaty of peace and friendship concluded between Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate and czarist Russia, the Southern Chishima Islands (Etorofu Island and Kunashiri Island) belonged to Japan, and the northern Chishima Islands (excluding the above-mentioned two islands) belonged to Russia. That was agreed to be the border between the Russian and Japanese territories. It was also agreed that there should be no borderline on Sakhalin because it was a mixed-residence quarter for both Russians and Japanese. Twenty years later, the treaty for the exchange of Sakhalin with the Chishima Islands concluded between the Meiji Government of Japan and the czarist Russia demarcated the Chishima Islands as Japanese territory and Sakhalin as Russian territory. At the outbreak of the Second World War, the Allied Powers advocated "territorial non-expansion" and in the 1943 Cairo Declaration agreed as postwar disposition with Japan that "They covet no gain for themselves and have no thought of territorial expansion." However, in talks with the U.S. and British leaders in Yalta in February 1945, Stalin demanded that the Chishima Islands be handed over to the Soviet Union as a premise of Soviet participation in the war against Japan, and concluded a secret agreement with the U.S. and Britain to that effect. Stalin's demand amounted to a flagrant violation of the principle of postwar disposition, "territorial non-expansion." President Putin has asserted that Russia is a successor to the former Soviet Union. However, Stalin's error of taking legitimate Japanese territory should be corrected. The error of annexing the three Baltic countries was corrected following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Most of the Soviet errors of territorial expansion and annexation were corrected. Only the issue of Habomai and Shikotan Islands and the Chishima Islands remains unsolved. In order to resolve the Russo-Japan territorial issue, Japan must call for Stalin's errors of territorial expansion to be corrected. Japan in the negotiations must convince the international community as well as the Russian people using historical documentation. Show international reason Since the mid 1950s when the Japan-Soviet talks started, successive Liberal Democratic Party governments have requested that the Southern Chishima Islands be returned to Japan based on their illogical argument that "the Southern Chishima Islands are not part of the Chishima Islands," on the premise of the San Francisco Peace Treaty's Chishima renunciation clause. Such an assertion does not accord with historical facts and has little persuasiveness before the world. The need now is for the Japanese government to use arguments based on historical facts and stop regarding the Peace Treaty's Chishima renunciation clause as a fixed premise and proceed with negotiations to correct the illegality in accordance with international law. (end) |