Museum on Japan's territorial disputes reopens hoping to attract younger visitors

Takeshima: South Korea should handle Japan's claim in good faith. Instead, it has refused Japan's request for third party arbitration (the correct thing to do in such situations) multiple times.

The reason for this, in my opinion, is that South Korea knows that Japan has a much stronger claim, and that it would lose the case.

Northern Territories: clearly Japanese, and were taken by Russia after Japan's surrender, which is illegal. Many have argued that Japan "deserved it," following its WWII aggression, but no-one can argue that Russia's actions were legal.

Senkakus: also clearly Japanese, both historically and under international law. They even appeared as Japanese on Chinese maps until oil/gas reserves were discovered there. China is now conducting its usual, farcical historical revisionism on this.

...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senkaku_Islands_dispute#Pre-1970s_position

Senkaku Islands or disputing the sovereignty claims of other countries over it. Several maps, newspaper articles, and government documents from both countries after 1945 refer to the islands by their Japanese name, and some even explicitly recognize their status as Japanese territory. It was only the early 1970s that Chinese documents began to name them collectively as the Diaoyu Islands and as Chinese territory.

A Chinese diplomatic draft written by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of PRC on 15 May 1950 referred to the Senkaku Islands by the Japanese names "Senkaku shotō" and "Sentō Shosho" and indicated Chinese recognition of the islands as part of the Ryukyu Islands.

The passages leave no doubt that Beijing regarded the Senkaku Islands as part of the Ryukyu Islands as of 1950.

...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senkaku_Islands_dispute#Japanese_position

There are many official maps published by both Chinas after 1945 that support they did not recognize their sovereignty over the islands and they recognized the islands as Japanese territory. The PRC has been cracking down on "erroneous" maps in both print and digital forms, and government agencies have handled 1,800 cases involving map irregularities and confiscated 750,000 maps since 2005.

Japan's neighbors:

South Korea

Russia

China

Countries Japan has territorial disputes with:

South Korea

Russia

China

deanzaZZRToday  05:25 pm JST

Countries Japan has territorial disputes with:

Russia....stolen in the last days of WWII after Japan declared surrender.

South Korea...stolen in the immediate Post WWII period when Japan was completely defenseless. Refused ICJ settlement 3 times!

China(PRC)...Usurped Taiwan's claims over fishing rights to help break the First Island Chain. Taking advantage of Japan's pacifist constitution.

The revisionists are busy pretending the Yalta Conference didn't transpire in Feb of 1945, which incidentally was held in a place called Livadiya, Crimea, squarely located in the Russia SFSR, having never moved.

The Kuril Islands were put on the table there. Postwar constitutional Japan has never administered them, unlike the Empire, which was part of the Axis Alliance. Those collaborators all lost territory to various parties.

Let's not rewrite history. Imagine the uproar of Germany building museums to their lost lands, or Italy for that matter.

It's time to move past WWII, as almost nobody feels any real sympathy or cares about islands at issue with China, Russia and SK. Any Museum a total waste of time and $

Japan has far bigger present RELEVANT problems to address; historical depopulation, aging and an economy failing to create new competitive world class companies, falling GDP per capita, terrible productivity, etc.

The museum of victim card waving.

HopeSpringsEternal

It's time to move past WWII, as almost nobody feels any real sympathy or cares about islands at issue with China, Russia and SK. Any Museum a total waste of time and $

> Japan has far bigger present RELEVANT problems to address; historical depopulation, aging and an economy failing to create new competitive world class companies, falling GDP per capita, terrible productivity, etc.

You are not Japanese or close to any Japanese.

Your country wants to take over Gaza, the Panama Canal, Canada, and Greenland.

If Japan never possessed the Kuril Islands, then what was the Treaty of Exchange of Sakhalin for the Kuril Islands concluded between Japan and Russia in 1875 (Meiji 8)?

Historical revisionism seems to pretend that the treaty never existed.

It is a given, both historically and to European countries, that Russia is a country that cannot abide by treaties. Russia's failure to abide by the Japan-Soviet Neutrality Pact also leads to the current Northern Territories issue.

A nation can only exist with territory and people.

For example, if we could successfully persuade Ukraine to give up the Crimean Peninsula, perhaps the war would end sooner.

I would really appreciate it if you could persuade President Zelensky in a way that he can accept.

Also, Japan's domestic issues and the territorial issue are separate issues.

Both are issues that need to be resolved, but that does not mean that giving up our territory is the answer.

Ironically, the only islands that Jaoanese can visit freely is the Liancourt Rocks. Korea’s claim on the Liancourt Rocks is so rock solid Korea doesn’t feel threatened by the presence of Japanese tourists. Korea welcomes Japanese vistors while Japanese government asks its citizens to not visit it.

Japanese citizens are banned from visiting the Diaoyu Islands by Jalanese government while only select few with ties to the Kurils Islands during Japanese occupation are allowed to visit the Kurils via Russian approval.

JJEToday 06:15 pm JST

The revisionists are busy pretending the Yalta Conference didn't transpire in Feb of 1945

Literally no-one is pretending that.

Yalta happened before Japan's surrender, and Russia stole the Northern Territories after the surrender.

Russia's actions were, and are, illegal.

Postwar constitutional Japan has never administered them

That's because Russia stole them.

Just as Russia continues to steal territory right now in Ukraine and other areas.

Let's not rewrite history.

Yes, that's very good advice for you.

Samit BasuToday 07:02 pm JST

Korea’s claim on the Liancourt Rocks is so rock solid Korea doesn’t feel threatened by the presence of Japanese tourists.

Then, why will Korea not do the decent thing and allow international arbitration, as requested by Japan multiple times?

If its claim is "so rock solid," surely it should have nothing to worry about?

Or is it, as I suspect, because Korea knows it would lose the case...

Think of these islands like a patient in a hospital awaiting a critical life and death surgery and all the patient wants to talk about is the "urgent" need to get a haircut!

Japan so busy depopulating, that most of its already thousands of islands will soon be 'free' of any people and yet this discussion over wanting more islands?!

Turns out WWII like any war has severe consequences, time to turn the page and look forward, as there's no going back!

Be sure to include references to all the North Korean Infiltrations that have occurred over the past 80 years

The National Museum of Territory and Sovereignty features exhibits on the Northern Territories -- Russian-held, Japanese-claimed islands off Hokkaido known in Russia as the Southern Kurils -- as well as the South Korea-controlled islets in the Sea of Japan, called Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea.

The ever present necessary reminder, that Japan is surrounded by despot authoritarian dictatorship regimes.

Armed with weapons of mass destruction, that never waste a moment to use Japan's territorial disputes to poison provoke, harass, Japan peace loving next generation.

No sympathy for Japan over the Kurils - this is what happens after one expansionist country is defeated by another in war. Japan lost WW2 and therefore lost that territory.

If Japan feels so strongly about the Kurils then it should give Okinawa its independence because traditionally Okinawa has nothing to do with Japan. The native Okinawans have similar genes and culture to the native people of Formosa commonly known as Taiwan who were not from the Chinese mainland.

Not sure about Takeshima either because it seems the claims by the Japanese came with the rise in the Black Ocean Society type militarist, elitist societies after the Meiji Restoration and their designs on Korea - Koreans seem to have been way on Dokdo and in that area more active there for centuries.

And let's not have another round of apologist propaganda activities this time targeted at the new young generations of Japanese - it's bad enough that those in the 21st century haven't been taught any significant 19th century and 20th century Japanese/World History apart from outlines of the Meiji Restoration and concentration on the atomic bombs without the context of Japan's dark tunnel of fascist militarisation in the 20th century.

This includes widespread ignorance of extremist assassinations of moderate politicians leading up to the imposition of military dictatorship including secret police and a medical system endorsing experimentation on live humans who belonged to the 'inferior' and 'enemy' groups. Many of these generations don't even realise that Imperial Japan was allied with Nazi Germany. Promoting nationalistic museums seems part of this problem.

BlacksamuraiToday  08:13 pm JST

traditionally Okinawa has nothing to do with Japan. The native Okinawans have similar genes and culture to the native people of Formosa commonly known as Taiwan who were not from the Chinese mainland.

Complete nonsense. The Okinawan DNA (25-30%) is second to Ainu DNA (60-80%) in closeness to Jomon DNA. Mainland Japanese are 10-15%.

Genomic studies (e.g., Gakuhari et al. 2020, and McColl et al. 2018) have shown that Taiwanese aboriginals who are Austronesian, lack the specific Jomon related DNA found in Ainu, Okinawans and Japanese. The Jomon were closer to East Asian paleolithic groups.

There are some pretty good museums in Japan.

This one though, not so much.

@Samit Basu The Senkaku Islands cannot be visited because it is a protected biosphere reserve, with animals and fauna that are in severe danger of extinction. And as such, as is usual in most Western countries, human activity is severely restricted for these cases.

I am sure that in South Korea, there are also protected National Parks where ordinary people cannot enter. Except for scientific personnel authorized to carry out flora and fauna control studies.

Wow a new propaganda museum of victimization.

Pathetic.

Pretty sure the The National Museum of Territory and Sovereignty will be popular with the youth of Japan. The vast majority of Japanese view the Northern Territories, Senkaku Islands and Takeshima as Japanese territory.

BlacksamuraiToday 08:13 pm JST

No sympathy for Japan over the Kurils - this is what happens after one expansionist country is defeated by another in war. Japan lost WW2 and therefore lost that territory.

I covered this in the very first post.

Russia's (Soviet Union's) actions were illegal, despite what anyone's "sympathy" may be, and who won/lost.

And let's not have another round of apologist propaganda activities this time targeted at the new young generations of Japanese

Telling people the truth isn't "apologist propaganda activities."

Mr KiplingToday 08:42 pm JST

Wow a new propaganda museum of victimization.

Where?