The Kuril islands dispute between Russia and Japan

Выдержка из Ялтинской конференции

February, 1945
Washington, March 24 - The text of the agreements reached at the Crimea (Yalta) Conference between President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill and Generalissimo Stalin, as released by the State Department today, follows:

PROTOCOL OF PROCEEDINGS OF CRIMEA CONFERENCE
The Crimea Conference of the heads of the Governments of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which took place from Feb. 4 to 11, came to the following conclusions:



AGREEMENT REGARDING JAPAN

The leaders of the three great powers - the Soviet Union, the United States of America and Great Britain - have agreed that in two or three months after Germany has surrendered and the war in Europe is terminated, the Soviet Union shall enter into war against Japan on the side of the Allies on condition that:

1. The status quo in Outer Mongolia (the Mongolian People's Republic) shall be preserved.
2. The former rights of Russia violated by the treacherous attack of Japan in 1904 shall be restored, viz.:
(a) The southern part of Sakhalin as well as the islands adjacent to it shall be returned to the Soviet Union;
(b) The commercial port of Dairen shall be internationalized, the pre-eminent interests of the Soviet Union in this port being safeguarded, and the lease of Port Arthur as a naval base of the U.S.S.R. restored;
(c) The Chinese-Eastern Railroad and the South Manchurian Railroad, which provide an outlet to Dairen, shall be jointly operated by the establishment of a joint Soviet-Chinese company, it being understood that the pre-eminent interests of the Soviet Union shall be safeguarded and that China shall retain sovereignty in Manchuria;
3. The Kurile Islands shall be handed over to the Soviet Union.
It is understood that the agreement concerning Outer Mongolia and the ports and railroads referred to above will require concurrence of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. The President will take measures in order to maintain this concurrence on advice from Marshal Stalin.

The heads of the three great powers have agreed that these claims of the Soviet Union shall be unquestionably fulfilled after Japan has been defeated.

For its part, the Soviet Union expresses it readiness to conclude with the National Government of China a pact of friendship and alliance between the U.S.S.R. and China in order to render assistance to China with its armed forces for the purpose of liberating China from the Japanese yoke.

Joseph Stalin
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Winston S. Churchill

February 11, 1945.

“It's not entirely clear what Kono means. Until now, the term “military compensation” has not sounded from Japan. And here there can be a very wide, I would even say, endless field for interpretations and guesses, ”said Valery Kistanov to VIEW VIEW, commenting on the words of Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono about military compensation for peace with Russia.



“Perhaps, it means that Japan is counting on all four islands, and we have armed forces on the islands of Kunashir and Iturup. And if Japan receives these islands, it will compensate our military expenses for the redeployment of the Russian military to the mainland,” Valery Kistanov, head of the Japan Research Center at the Institute of the Far East of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told VZGLYAD.



“But here there is a parallel with our inglorious flight from Europe, when Soviet troops were withdrawn just into the field without building barracks, infrastructure and housing. This is the first option,” he added.

“The second option is that in the event of the“ return ”of the islands, Japan will propose to conclude an additional agreement, according to which both parties mutually waive any claims. What is meant here is that Tokyo can bill us for the losses suffered by the local Japanese people during the period, as they say, “occupation”. They lost their land, property, real estate and other losses there. Such hints have already been made by the Japanese side through leaks to the media. At the same time, according to Abe, they are supposedly ready to take into account the interests of Russians living in the Kuril Islands, and Tokyo intends to compensate for their move to the mainland. But this is perceived very negatively by Moscow,” Kistanov explained.




“It's not entirely clear what Kono means. Until now, the term “military compensation” has not been heard from Japan. And here there can be a very wide, I would even say, endless field for interpretations and guesses,” Kistanov said.