politics

Ukraine crisis stirs Japanese memories over disputed islands

24 Comments

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© 2014 AFP

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

24 Comments
Login to comment

It is sad that Japan lost the northern islands, but it could have been much worse for Japan given that the nation clearly came within months, maybe even weeks, of losing Hokkaido and possibly northern Honshu to Russia, as is apparent from the August 1945 timeline of the final days of the war. That would have meant many decades of an East-West Germany / North-South Korea type scenario for Japan.

I would guess that Japan's fear of being occupied by Russia had much to do with its surrender, possibly more so than the nuclear bombs.

Anyway, here is the timeline:

August 6, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima August 8, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan August 9, atomic bombing of Nagasaki August 15, Hirohito broadcast his decision to surrender August 18, the Soviet Union captured the Northern Territories (after Japan's vow to surrender) September 2, Japan's formal surrender on board the USS Missouri

3 ( +7 / -4 )

Interesting - thanks Sensato.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

An excellent reminder to Shinzo Abe not to over-step his line. When the Russian Bear and the Chinese Dragon come a-calling the Japanese Chrysanthemum will start to wilt and neither the American Donkey or Elephant will be there to piece the petals back again.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Pitiful story but false analogy. The majority of the people of Crimea are Russians. Their homeland was transferred unilaterally to Ukraine by Khrushchev in 1954, and so for 60 years they were ipso facto foreigners in their own land. This is why you have seen pushes in Crimea to rejoin Russia since the end of the Soviet Union.

I pity those poor islanders. The Soviet occupation was cruel. The German occupation of the Soviet Union, particularly Russia, by the Germans was far crueler. (In the Ukraine, Ukrainian collaborators helped the Nazis murder Jews and Ukrainian freedom fighters.) And the fate of those islanders would have been more horrid had the Chinese gotten to them first.

Also, the ultimate fault for all that befell the islanders of this rests on the shoulders of those Japanese men who stated imperialist wars. The spoils of war are lost to the winner forever. Now those islands are populated by generations of Russians who have no other home

It is terrible to be pushed out of your native land, as were the Marshall Islanders when the US wanted to use their beautiful islands for H-bomb tests. It is terrible to be a second class citizen in your native land like the Palestinians.

The parallel between the so-called Northern Territories and Crimea only works if you sympathize with the Russian majority whose homeland is not theirs. But I do not think this article was meant to be sympathetic to the Russians.

8 ( +10 / -2 )

The Russians and Chinese steal whenever they have the chance. Not to be trusted, never!

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

I would guess that Japan's fear of being occupied by Russia had much to do with its surrender, possibly more so than the nuclear bombs.

Yes, and the Americans were trying to force Japan's hand ASAP because they knew that if the Soviets got involved, they won't be pushed out.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

as Tokyo finds itself embroiled in separate territorial disputes with China and South Korea—but isolating Putin over Crimea threatens to derail sensitive talks for a deal in the islands’ dispute

Japan is Israel of East Asia which is surrounded by hostile nations. Unlike PRC and ROK, Russia is supplying Japan energy needs. There are formal negotiation are under way for Russia is going to give back smaller Islands of NT. Russia is more important for Japan than rest of Asia.

Abe will be regret about offending Putin for pleasing Obama. Abe dreamed about getting NT back. The more he bash Putin, the less likely he will see NT has become part of Japan during his life time. US is the burden of Japan foreign policy. Pleasing US for Geo politics is painful. It is increasingly irrelevant with Japan national interest.

The Russians and Chinese steal whenever they have the chance. Not to be trusted, never!

It is also true for US stole Marchall and Okinawa islands for their military play ground. Japan stole Hokkaido and Okinawa from native when they had the opportunity. US and Japan can not be trusted either! At the end, no one has clean hand except native people.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

This article is a perfect example of what is often called "Japanese logic," which is to say illogic. The article also suffers from a typical Japanese disease--that is being short on remorse and long on self-pity. What happened to those islanders is nothing compared to what Japan did to Korea and China.

Here is a curious irony. Russians love Japan. They like Japanese people and anything Japanese. The Russians, as far as I know, never went out to systematically kill Japanese people. In Siberia, Japanese POWs were treated better than German POWs, and what privations the Japanese suffered the Russians suffered as well. But the Japanese hate the Russians. They hate the Russians over those islands (forgetting how Japan once seized half of Sakhalin Island).

Here is the irony.

The Japanese love the Americans. Route 66, New York, Hollywood, Lady Gaga: the Japanese eat it up. But the Americans did systematically kill Japanese during World War II. The anti-Japanese war propaganda probably has no equal in the vicious racism in propagated: the Japanese were vermin to be slaughtered. "Kill Japs" was the watchword of the day. After the war the Americans took over Japan, trashed Okinawa and politically castrated Hirohito. How do Americans view Japan? Frankly, most don't give a damn about Japan. JPop does not have the following in the US that Elvis does in Japan. They like Japanese products but the country is not particularly loved.

As I write, the Crimean Russians are earning for the return of their motherland that was taken from them by that despot and Ukrainian mole Nikita Khrushchev. Not an ounce of compassion from the Japanese. Just off the point self-pity.

-4 ( +7 / -11 )

“Victims are always the local people. I don’t want anyone to repeat what we experienced.”

This is what I have been saying all week. All of those here who want to capitulate to Russia on Ukraine, and blame it on Japan simply yielding to U.S. pressure, are ignoring the obvious. Russia caused severe pain to Japan and its people just 70 years ago. But now since Putin wants to be buddy-buddy and sell you some oil and gas, you want to just pretend that never happened.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

KabukiloverMar. 09, 2014 - 08:15PM JST the Crimean Russians are earning for the return of their motherland...

If they want to return to their motherland so badly why not just move there? Why drag the other inhabitants of Crimea with them to the Russian Federation?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Ukraine's crisis and the invasion of the northern territories are so totally different.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Japanese think they are the only victims. They're forgetting they sided with the Nazi Germany, and were allied with them. The same Nazi Germany that attacked and invaded Russia. And Japan was allied with the Nazi's. Japan started the Pacific War, maybe this was fitting lenient punishment, it could have been far worse, Japan could have been divided into two, one American administered, and one Russian administered. The result would have been two divided countries at war. Yet the Japanese instead of being thankful, think they're the only ones who are victims. Well here's a big reminder to them, they were not victims, they created victims, and Russia took what was their's fairly and squarely. It's a big lesson for Japan to learn, don't start wars next time and expect to get away without consequences.

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

Yo, Chucky

Japan didn't wake one morning and decide to "start the Pacific War." You should read a history book or look at a map of the Pacific pre-WWII. The U.S. had been island hopping and capturing island after island in the Pacific and colonized The Phillipines. All of Indochina was colonized by France. The British invaded island after island in the southern Pacific and was joined with the U.S. to split up China to control it. Even the Dutch had colonies. And Russia to the North and Northeast.

The U.S. froze all Japanese assets in the U.S., coerced the other colonies in the Pacific to embargo all steel and oil to Japan. That's an act of war.

Japan was forced to either become a colony or fight. Japan was the only independent nation in the Pacific, other than a few scattered island nations.

Japan started it? That's the comic book version you're fed in American Jr. High Schools.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

@Kabukilover Those are your thought your feelings NOT ALL AMERICANS agree with your illogic post.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

But the Japanese hate the Russians. They hate the Russians over those islands (forgetting how Japan once seized half of Sakhalin Island).

Maybe you've only lived in Hokkaido (where they really do hate Russians). The rest of Japan is mostly indifferent to them.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

"Japan was forced to either become a colony or fight. Japan was the only independent nation in the Pacific, other than a few scattered island nations."

Uh hello, China and Thailand? Those were independent nations. Are you seriously suggesting that in 1941, Japan was still facing the prospect of becoming a full-blown colony of the Western powers, a la India or Algeria? You're off by about 50 years if you think that's true. Sounds like you shouldn't just buy totally into the Yushukan version of modern Japanese history.

Regarding the article, honestly I don't see the connection. Many Japanese see the Northern Territories as inherent territory of their country that was always Japanese dating back to antiquity (not true, of course, since even Hokkaido didn't become integral territory of Japan until the late 19th century). As for the Crimean Peninsula--officially Russian territory until 1954, just sixty years ago. An arbitrary administrative transfer ordered by Khrushchev made it Ukrainian territory that year.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Kuril (Chishima Retto residents. The names of each islands were with meanings of Ainu people's languages. Residents were not Russians, After US won the WW 2, many were shipped to Hokkaido, but many became forced laborers for Russian which occupied Kuril. In different climate in Hokkaido, they had miserable life. I read on jouranlists' reports on Chuoh Koron and other magazines. (forgot which years report but maybe 1970's time issues?)

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The U.S. froze all Japanese assets in the U.S., coerced the other colonies in the Pacific to embargo all steel and oil to Japan. That's an act of war.

The US didn't decide to embargo materials out of the blue either - they did it as part of sanctions following Japan's brutal annexation of Korea and territorial expansions in northern China, triggered by the faked Mukden railway incident.

Early 1900s, Japan wanted colonies just like all the major western powers, and when it defeated the Russia Navy at Port Aurthur, it gave them the confidence (and capability) to go on a territorial rampage for the next 50 years.

Read your history books.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

As tokyo-star just mentioned, the US embargo kicked off, due to the indiscriminate attack on China and the Chinese civilians by the invading Japanese. The last straw was Japan's atrocities at Nanjing (in which the Japanese are saying it was a hoax), forcing the US to launch an embargo against Japan. Japan had the choice at that time to stop the aggression on China and negotiate with the US, which they were pretending to be doing, but instead they sneak attacked Pearl Harbor. I think it's people like "darname" that really need to read history books other than the ones from Japan. Japan's close ally, the Germans never whined and cry about the land they lost due to their aggression, like the Japanese. Why can't Japan move on from their history, when it's they the Japanese, the ones often accusing China and Korea for not moving on with history? Japan should lead by example and move on, and stop using history as a crutch.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

@Kabukilover

This article is a perfect example of what is often called "Japanese logic," which is to say illogic. The article also suffers from a typical Japanese disease--that is being short on remorse and long on self-pity. What happened to those islanders is nothing compared to what Japan did to Korea and China.

This isnt Japan article, look , its made by "Agence France-Presse " this is western propaganda, not Japan propaganda, and this article show you the quality of jurnalist that work there , they wend on the way how western powers need the article, adn this one is clearly targeted to spoil good relationship between Russia and Japan , they just exploit Japan people for western interest .

AGAIN , THIS IS NOT ARTICLE MADE BY JAPAN, ITS MADE BY WESTERN NEWS AGENCY "Agence France-Presse "AFP ,

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

This article is a perfect example of what is often called "Japanese logic," which is to say illogic.

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

funny I went to look for my grandchildren's texct books and reference books of logicology (ronrigaku) And could not find Japanese logic. my daughter's friend who teach in a NV univ said, there is no such stereotyping study.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

History lesson. Japanese imperialism began with the Meiji era. At that time the Western powers thought Japan was cool.

This article, regardless of who wrote it, is about the Japanese. Take a look at the maps if you cannot read.

What is happening in Crimea Right now has nothing to with those damned islands off of Hokkaido.

So-called Japanese logic is an expression I have heard --primarily from Japanese--since coming to Japan. You have do field work (hang out) to actually hear the expression, often as a defense of unique Japanese thinking. A recent example. An LDP politician said something to the effect that Koreans and Chinese have no feelings but the Japanese feel deeply. The had something to do with Japanese war crimes. It could be this expression has been dropped. Come to think of it, I have not had the uniqueness stuff poured on me in years. Critical thinking is still a problem here thanks to the exam centered schooling system.

With the anti-Russian in full swing in the rightist dominated Kiev government Russian citizens of Ukraine may soon find themselves displaced. Then they and the islanders will have something to talk to each other about.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Yjis asrtcle concentrated on former Kuril residents, not mainland Japanese. /There are many islands. The names of islands were fom Aniu pewople's nativcew language. Quite many in Norhtenr, Middle, and Southern Kurils that I will write names of 4 Northern Islands. Russia use the same name Kuril natives use. 1. Araidoto = Auraito. Meaning Volcano crweatwd firely rocks burning kist ;oke ji-goku (hell) 2. Shumushuto = Sjumu Ushi South East, 3, Baramushudo = baramoshiru Large islands or Wide islands. 4, Shiringi tou= Shiirinki Wave rising place .....

Nothing to do with Japanese people's logic or mentality. Just one professor sounded like a None Kuril people in the article..

BTW, you can;t learn their culture or history by just watching map pages/.

Ainu people have unique language and customs. So are Kuril people. Unlike mainland Japanese, their culture are not blend of Chinese, and Korean cultures. The article did not write opinion of none Kuril Japanese mainland people/

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Now is good time to push on this issue.. while the world sees Russia for what it is and always has been... and always will be..

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites