＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:https://skawa68.com/
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
Since 2016, Prime Minister Abe has been eager to “negotiate the return of the Northern Territories” and “conclude a Japan-Russia peace treaty.” Recently, it seems that he is planning to move the negotiations in the direction of “the return of the two islands first.” However, the Northern Territories have been illegally occupied by the Soviet Union (later Russia) for 73 years since the end of the war, and Russia continues to “effectively control” them to this day.
And Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov stated, “If Japan does not acknowledge that the Northern Territories became Russian territory as a result of World War II, there will be no progress in the peace treaty negotiations.” He also made the incomprehensible claim that “even if the Northern Territories are returned, sovereignty will remain with Russia.”
President Putin has also made the incomprehensible claim that “the Northern Territories are territory recognized as having Russian sovereignty by international documents.”
Even if the “return of the Northern Territories” actually takes place, in reality, I believe there will be a great many issues that need to be dealt with afterwards.
This time, I would like to consider the advantages and disadvantages of “returning the Northern Territories.” In this case, “return” necessarily means “complete restoration of sovereignty.”
1. Benefits
(1) Currently, Prime Minister Abe is trying to advance negotiations for the “first return of two islands.” If this is successful, it will be a stepping stone to the “complete return of all four islands.”
The 1956 Japan-Soviet Joint Declaration originally stipulated that the Soviet Union would hand over the Northern Territories（Habomai Islands and Shikotan Island） to Japan after the conclusion of a peace treaty.
However, this “two islands first return” carries the risk that only the two islands will be returned.
(2) It would secure a route for large ships. However, it seems that this benefit would not be realized by the return of only the two islands of Habomai and Shikotan.
(3) As our territorial waters expand, we can expect to benefit from fishing.
(4) There is hope for the development of marine resources on the seabed.
2. Disadvantages
(1) What to do about the “treatment of Russians and Chinese who are already living in the area.” There are apparently as many as 17,000 Russians living in the Northern Territories. There are a multitude of issues to be addressed, such as whether these Russians can be forced to return to their home country, whether they will be forced to allow them to live there, and what to do about their nationality.
(2) There is also the issue of whether or not to confiscate their housing and infrastructure.
(3) There is also the issue of whether it is possible to confiscate two “seafood processing plants built with Chinese capital.
(4) Russia has already built a military base, but there is the issue of what to do with it. For Japan, this would mean establishing a Self-Defense Force base to protect the northernmost part of its territory, but there is almost no chance that Russia will agree to removing the Russian military base or converting it into a Self-Defense Force base.
(5) In terms of national defense, it is natural to have a Self-Defense Force base here at the northernmost tip of Japan, and in the context of the Japan-U.S. alliance, it is also possible to have a U.S. military base here as a precaution against the threat of Russia. However, there is the question of whether Russia will agree to this. In reality, this is almost impossible.
(6) There is a high possibility that huge amounts of economic cooperation funds will be demanded in return for the return of the islands. In other words, it would end up being like “buying the Northern Territories,” even though they are rightly Japanese territory.
3. The Siberian Internment Issue
In the first place, when the Soviet Union invaded Manchuria after World War II, they forcibly took disarmed Japanese prisoners of war to Siberia, where they detained them for long periods and forced them to do slave-like labor, taking the lives of many soldiers.
If a peace treaty is to be concluded, it will be necessary for Russia to pay reparations to the families of the Japanese soldiers who were illegally forced into slave-like labor (or to the state of Japan as a whole).
The amount of compensation is expected to be so enormous that it would not be enough even if Japan were to repossess all of the buildings and facilities on all four Northern Territories.
The number of victims of this “Siberian internment” reached 575,000, of which approximately 55,000 died as a result of being forced to work hard in extreme cold without adequate food or rest. This situation is described in detail in Toyoko Yamazaki’s novel “Fubu-chitai” (The Barren Lands).
Furthermore, this “Siberian internment” took place after the end of World War II, and taking disarmed soldiers prisoner of war after the end of the war is a violation of international law and a clear violation of the Potsdam Declaration, which guaranteed the return of disarmed Japanese soldiers to their homes.
4. There is no merit in rushing to conclude a Japan-Russia peace treaty
It is highly inconceivable that Russia, such a lawless, ruthless and heartless hegemonic nation, would easily agree to the return of the Northern Territories, which would be advantageous to Japan.
Even when Okinawa was returned to Japan from the United States in 1972, Japan secretly paid the costs that should have been borne by the United States (the issue of the “secret agreement” regarding the return of Okinawa), so I think that a certain amount of funding in the name of economic cooperation will be necessary.
However, if the result is that Japan has lost its money without receiving any benefits, like giving money to a thief, it may be better to maintain the status quo. There is also no need to rush the Japan-Russia peace treaty negotiations.
I understand that Prime Minister Abe is aiming to achieve the return of the Northern Territories and the conclusion of a Japan-Russia peace treaty as political achievements during his term, but I hope that he does not end up damaging the national interest.
Although this is a harsh criticism of national politics from one citizen, I would like to once again ask the Japanese government to “exercise the utmost caution in its negotiations with Russia.”
5. The Battle of Shumushu Island
As an aside, there is a novel about the Northern Territories that left a strong impression on me. It is “Owarazaru Natsu” (Endless Summer) by Jiro Asada. It is a story about the “Battle of Shumushuto Island.”
On August 17, 1945, two days after the Pacific War “ended,” Soviet troops invaded Shumushu Island, the northeastern tip of the Kuril Islands (just near the southern tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula), which was Japanese territory. At the time, Japan had signed the “Japan-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact (Japan-Soviet Neutrality Pact)” with the Soviet Union, but the Soviet Union launched an “illegal invasion” in an attempt to seize the Kuril Islands, Sakhalin, and even northern Hokkaido.
At this time, it was the Japanese soldiers who remained on Shumushu Island who stopped the Soviet invasion. Without their heroic fighting, the northern half of Hokkaido might have become a communist country like the Korean Peninsula.
According to Akira Ikegami, “At the time, Stalin of the Soviet Union called World War II the ‘Great Patriotic War.’ It was supposed to be a war to defend the homeland, that is, to protect the homeland from Germany, but in fact he also had the ambition to take back the land that Japan had seized in the Russo-Japanese War, ‘for the glory of the homeland.'”
He also said, “I believe that northern Hokkaido was spared from being occupied by the Soviet Union because the Japanese garrison on Shumushu Island fought desperately. This is an astonishing historical fact.”