Akahata commentary on sovereignty over the Senkaku Islands

Seven Chinese were arrested on March 24 by the Okinawa prefectural police after landing on Uotsuri Island, one of the Senkaku Islands that are in dispute between Japan and China.

The Senkaku Islands are uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, composed of the largest Uotsuri Island that is about eleven kilometers around (4.319 square kilometers), Kobi-sho Island, Taisho Island, and other coral islands.

The Senkaku Islands are registered with the City of Ishigaki in Okinawa Prefecture. Uotsuri Island is about 170 kilometers NNW of Ishigaki Island in the Ryukyu Islands, about 170 kilometers NE of Taiwan (Formosa), and about 330 kilometers E of Mainland China.

In 1895 (on January 14 during the Sino-Japan War), the Japanese government decided to formally make the Senkaku Islands part of Japanese territory, maintaining that the islands had been uninhabited and that no territorial claim had been made. The islands were placed it under the jurisdiction of Okinawa Prefecture. The Chinese authorities at that time did not claim sovereignty over the Senkaku Islands.

It was in 1971 that China began insisting that the Senkaku Islands are part of Chinese territory. However, no maps published either by China or Taiwan included the Senkaku Islands a part of their territory.

While maintaining that Japan has territorial rights over the Senkaku Islands, the Japanese Communist Party has stated that differences concerning the islands should be settled peacefully through negotiations. (end)