Recently, Shinzo Abe announced that he would annex the disputed islands of the South Kuril chain to Japan. “I will solve the problem of the northern territories and conclude a peace treaty. As a politician, as a prime minister, I want to achieve this at all costs,” he promised his compatriots.
According to Japanese tradition, Shinzo Abe will have to do hara-kiri if he doesn't keep his word. It is quite possible that Vladimir Putin will help the Japanese prime minister live to a ripe old age and die a natural death. Photo by Alexander Vilf (Getty Images).
In my opinion, everything goes to the fact that the long-standing conflict will be settled. The time for establishing decent relations with Japan was chosen very well - for the empty hard-to-reach lands, which their former owners now and then look nostalgically, you can get a lot of material benefits from one of the most powerful economies in the world. And the lifting of sanctions as a condition for the transfer of the islands is far from the only and not the main concession that our Foreign Ministry is now seeking, I am sure.
So the quite expected surge of quasi-patriotism of our liberals, directed at the Russian president, should be prevented.
I have already had to analyze in detail the history of the islands of Tarabarov and Bolshoy Ussuriysky on the Amur, the loss of which Moscow snobs cannot come to terms with. The post also discussed the dispute with Norway over maritime territories, which was also settled.
I also touched upon the secret negotiations between the human rights activist Lev Ponomarev and the Japanese diplomat about the "northern territories", filmed on video and posted online. Generally speaking, one of this video it is enough for our caring citizens to bashfully swallow the return of the islands to Japan, if it takes place. But since concerned citizens will definitely not keep silent, we must understand the essence of the problem.
background
February 7, 1855 Shimodsky treatise on trade and borders. The now disputed islands of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Habomai group of islands have been ceded to Japan (therefore, February 7 is annually celebrated in Japan as Northern Territories Day). The question of the status of Sakhalin remained unresolved.
May 7, 1875 Petersburg treaty. Japan transferred the rights to all 18 Kuril Islands in exchange for the entire Sakhalin.
August 23, 1905- Treaty of Portsmouth resultsRusso-Japanese War.Russia conceded southern part Sakhalin.
February 11, 1945 — Yalta conference. THE USSR, US and UK reached a written agreement on the entry of the Soviet Union into the war with Japan, subject to the return of South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands to it after the end of the war.
February 2, 1946 on the basis of the Yalta agreements in the USSR Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk region was created - on the territory of the southern part of the island Sakhalin and Kuril Islands. January 2, 1947 she was merged with Sakhalin Oblast Khabarovsk Territory, which expanded to the borders of the modern Sakhalin Region.
Japan enters the Cold War
September 8, 1951 The Treaty of San Francisco was signed between the Allied Powers and Japan. With regard to the now disputed territories, it says the following: "Japan renounces all rights, titles and claims to Kurile Islands and to that part of Sakhalin Island and the islands adjacent to it, sovereignty over which Japan acquired under the Portsmouth Treaty of September 5, 1905.
The USSR sent a delegation to San Francisco headed by Deputy Foreign Minister A. Gromyko. But not in order to sign a document, but to voice their position. The said clause of the contract was formulated as follows:"Japan recognizes the full sovereignty of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics over the southern part of Sakhalin Island with all the islands adjacent to it and the Kuril Islands and renounces all rights, titles and claims to these territories."
Of course, in our wording, the treaty is specific and more in line with the spirit and letter of the Yalta agreements. However, the Anglo-American version was adopted. The USSR did not sign it, Japan did.
Today, some historians believe that The USSR had to sign the San Francisco Peace Treaty in the form in which it was proposed by the Americans This would strengthen our negotiating position. “We should have signed a contract. I don’t know why we didn’t do this - perhaps because of vanity or pride, but above all, because Stalin overestimated his capabilities and the degree of his influence on the United States, ”N.S. wrote in his memoirs .Khrushchev. But soon, as we shall see later, he himself made a mistake.
From today's standpoint, the lack of a signature under the notorious treaty is sometimes considered almost a diplomatic failure. However, the international situation of that time was much more complicated and was not limited to the Far East. Perhaps, what seems to someone a loss, in those conditions became a necessary measure.
Japan and sanctions
It is sometimes erroneously believed that since we do not have a peace treaty with Japan, we are in a state of war. However, this is not at all the case.
December 12, 1956 The exchange of letters took place in Tokyo, marking the entry into force of the Joint Declaration. According to the document, the USSR agreed to "the transfer of the Habomai Islands and the Shikotan Islands to Japan, however, that the actual transfer of these islands to Japan will be made after the conclusion of a peace treaty between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Japan."
The parties came to this wording after several rounds of lengthy negotiations. Japan's initial proposal was simple: a return to Potsdam - that is, the transfer of all the Kuriles and South Sakhalin to it. Of course, such a proposal by the losing side of the war looked somewhat frivolous.
The USSR was not going to cede an inch, but unexpectedly for the Japanese, Habomai and Shikotan suddenly offered. This was a reserve position, approved by the Politburo, but announced prematurely - the head of the Soviet delegation, Ya.A. Malik, was acutely worried about N.S. On August 9, 1956, during a conversation with his counterpart in the garden of the Japanese embassy in London, the reserve position was announced. It was she who entered the text of the Joint Declaration.
It must be clarified that the influence of the United States on Japan at that time was enormous (however, as now). They closely monitored all her contacts with the USSR and, undoubtedly, were the third participant in the negotiations, although invisible.
At the end of August 1956, Washington threatened Tokyo that if, under a peace treaty with the USSR, Japan renounces its claims to Kunashir and Iturup, the United States will forever retain the occupied island of Okinawa and the entire Ryukyu archipelago. The note included a wording that clearly played on the national feelings of the Japanese: “The US government has come to the conclusion that the islands of Iturup and Kunashir (along with the islands of Habomai and Shikotan, which are part of Hokkaido) have always been part of Japan and should rightly be considered as belonging to Japan ". That is, the Yalta agreements were publicly disavowed.
The affiliation of the "northern territories" of Hokkaido, of course, is a lie - on all military and pre-war Japanese maps, the islands have always been part of the Kuril ridge and have never been designated separately. However, the idea was well received. It was on this geographical absurdity that entire generations of politicians in the Land of the Rising Sun made their careers.
The peace treaty has not yet been signed - in our relations we are guided by the Joint Declaration of 1956.
Issue price
I think that even in the first term of his presidency, Vladimir Putin decided to settle all disputed territorial issues with his neighbors. Including with Japan. In any case, back in 2004, Sergey Lavrov formulated the position of the Russian leadership: “We have always fulfilled and will continue to fulfill our obligations, especially ratified documents, but, of course, to the extent that our partners are ready to fulfill the same agreements . So far, as we know, we have not been able to reach an understanding of these volumes as we see it and as we saw it in 1956.
“Until Japan's ownership of all four islands is clearly defined, a peace treaty will not be concluded,” responded then-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. The negotiation process has again reached an impasse.
However, this year we again remembered the peace treaty with Japan.
In May, at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, Vladimir Putin said that Russia was ready to negotiate with Japan on disputed islands, and the solution must be a compromise. That is, none of the parties should feel like a loser. “Are you ready to negotiate? Yes, ready. But we were surprised to hear recently that Japan has joined some kind of sanctions - and here Japan, I don’t really understand - and is suspending the negotiation process on this topic. So we are ready, is Japan ready, I haven’t learned for myself, ”said the President of the Russian Federation.
It seems that the pain point is found correctly. And the negotiation process (I hope, this time in offices tightly closed from American ears) has been in full swing for at least six months. Otherwise, Shinzo Abe would not have made such promises.
If we fulfill the terms of the 1956 Joint Declaration and return the two islands to Japan, 2,100 people will have to be resettled. All of them live on Shikotan, only a frontier post is located on Habomai. Most likely, the problem of the presence of our armed forces on the islands is being discussed. However, for complete control over the region, the troops deployed on Sakhalin, Kunashir and Iturup are quite enough.
Another question is what reciprocal concessions we expect from Japan. It is clear that the sanctions should be lifted - this is not even discussed. Perhaps access to credits and technologies, expansion of participation in joint projects? Not excluded.
Be that as it may, Shinzo Abe faces a difficult choice. The conclusion of the long-awaited peace treaty with Russia, spiced with "northern territories", would certainly have made him the politician of the century in his homeland. It will inevitably lead to tension in relations between Japan and the United States. I wonder what the Prime Minister would prefer.
And we will somehow survive the internal Russian tension that our liberals will inflate.
The Habomai group of islands is labeled "Other Islands" on this map. These are several white spots between Shikotan and Hokkaido.
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Sushi question.
Why Russia will never give Japan the South Kuriles
For both Japan and Russia Kuril issue has become a matter of principle over the past decades. For both Russian and Japanese politicians, the slightest concessions threaten, if not the collapse of their careers, then serious electoral losses.
Statement Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe about the intention to resolve the territorial dispute over the Kuril Islands and sign a peace treaty with Russia again drew the attention of the general public to the so-called "problem of the South Kuriles" or "northern territories".
Shinzo Abe's loud statement, however, does not contain the main thing - an original solution that could suit both sides.
Land of the Ainu
The dispute over the South Kuriles has its roots in the 17th century, when there were no Russians or Japanese on the Kuril Islands yet.
The Ainu can be considered the indigenous population of the islands - a nation whose origin scientists argue to this day. The Ainu, who once inhabited not only the Kuriles, but also all the Japanese islands, as well as the lower reaches of the Amur, Sakhalin and the south of Kamchatka, today have become a small nation. In Japan, according to official figures, there are about 25 thousand Ainu, and in Russia there are just over a hundred of them left.
The first mention of the islands in Japanese sources dates back to 1635, in Russian - 1644.
In 1711, a detachment of Kamchatka Cossacks led by Danila Antsiferova and Ivan Kozyrevsky first landed on the northernmost island of Shumshu, defeating a detachment of local Ainu here.
The Japanese also showed more and more activity in the Kuriles, but there was no line of demarcation and no agreements between the countries.
Kuriles - to you, Sakhalin - to us
In 1855, the Shimoda Treaty on Trade and Borders between Russia and Japan was signed. This document for the first time defined the border of the possessions of the two countries in the Kuriles - it passed between the islands of Iturup and Urup.
Thus, the islands of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Habomai group of islands, that is, the very territories around which there is a dispute today, were under the rule of the Japanese emperor.
It was the day of the conclusion of the Shimoda Treaty, February 7, that was declared in Japan as the so-called "Day of the Northern Territories".
Relations between the two countries were quite good, but they were spoiled by the “Sakhalin issue”. The fact is that the Japanese claimed the southern part of this island.
In 1875, a new treaty was signed in St. Petersburg, according to which Japan renounced all claims to Sakhalin in exchange for the Kuril Islands - both Southern and Northern.
Perhaps, it was after the conclusion of the 1875 treaty that relations between the two countries developed most harmoniously.
Exorbitant appetites of the Land of the Rising Sun
Harmony in international affairs, however, is a fragile thing. Japan, emerging from centuries of self-isolation, developed rapidly, and at the same time, ambitions grew. The Land of the Rising Sun has territorial claims against almost all of its neighbors, including Russia.
This resulted in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, which ended in a humiliating defeat for Russia. And although Russian diplomacy managed to mitigate the consequences of military failure, but, nevertheless, in accordance with the Portsmouth Treaty, Russia lost control not only over the Kuriles, but also over South Sakhalin.
This state of affairs did not suit not only tsarist Russia, but also the Soviet Union. However, it was impossible to change the situation in the mid-1920s, which resulted in the signing of the Beijing Treaty between the USSR and Japan in 1925, according to which the Soviet Union recognized the status quo, but refused to recognize “political responsibility” for the Treaty of Portsmouth.
In subsequent years, relations between the Soviet Union and Japan teetered on the brink of war. Japan's appetites grew and began to spread to the continental territories of the USSR. True, the Japanese defeats at Lake Khasan in 1938 and at Khalkhin Gol in 1939 forced official Tokyo to slow down somewhat.
However, the "Japanese threat" hung like a sword of Damocles over the USSR during the Great Patriotic War.
Revenge for old grievances
By 1945, the tone of Japanese politicians towards the USSR had changed. There was no talk of new territorial acquisitions - the Japanese side would be quite satisfied with the preservation of the existing order of things.
But the USSR gave an obligation to Great Britain and the United States that it would enter the war with Japan no later than three months after the end of the war in Europe.
The Soviet leadership had no reason to feel sorry for Japan - Tokyo behaved too aggressively and defiantly towards the USSR in the 1920s and 1930s. And the insults of the beginning of the century were not forgotten at all.
On August 8, 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. It was a real blitzkrieg - the millionth Japanese Kwantung Army in Manchuria was utterly defeated in a matter of days.
On August 18, Soviet troops launched the Kuril landing operation, the purpose of which was to capture the Kuril Islands. Fierce battles unfolded for the island of Shumshu - this was the only battle of a fleeting war in which the losses of the Soviet troops were higher than those of the enemy. However, on August 23, the commander of the Japanese troops in the Northern Kuriles Lieutenant General Fusaki Tsutsumi capitulated.
The fall of Shumshu was a key event in the Kuril operation - in the future, the occupation of the islands on which the Japanese garrisons were located turned into acceptance of their surrender.
They took the Kuriles, they could have taken Hokkaido
August 22 Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Forces in the Far East Marshal Andrei Vasilevsky, without waiting for the fall of Shumshu, gives the order to the troops to occupy the Southern Kuriles. The Soviet command is acting according to plan - the war continues, the enemy has not completely capitulated, which means that we should move on.
The original military plans of the USSR were much broader - Soviet units were ready to land on the island of Hokkaido, which was supposed to become a Soviet zone of occupation. How the further history of Japan would develop in this case, one can only guess. But in the end, Vasilevsky received an order from Moscow - to cancel the landing operation in Hokkaido.
The bad weather somewhat delayed the actions of the Soviet troops in the South Kuriles, but by September 1, Iturup, Kunashir and Shikotan came under their control. The Habomai group of islands was completely taken under control on September 2-4, 1945, that is, after the surrender of Japan. There were no battles during this period - Japanese soldiers meekly surrendered.
So, at the end of the Second World War, Japan was completely occupied by the allied powers, and the main territories of the country fell under the control of the United States.
Kurile Islands. Photo: Shutterstock.com
January 29, 1946 by Memorandum No. 677 of the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Powers General Douglas MacArthur The Kuril Islands (Chishima Islands), the Habomai Islands (Khabomadze) and the island of Shikotan were excluded from the territory of Japan.
On February 2, 1946, in accordance with the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Yuzhno-Sakhalin Region was formed in these territories as part of the Khabarovsk Territory of the RSFSR, which on January 2, 1947 became part of the newly formed Sakhalin Region as part of the RSFSR.
Thus, de facto South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands passed to Russia.
Why the USSR did not sign a peace treaty with Japan
However, these territorial changes were not formalized by a treaty between the two countries. But the political situation in the world has changed, and yesterday's ally of the USSR, the United States, has become Japan's closest friend and ally, and therefore was not interested in either resolving Soviet-Japanese relations or resolving the territorial issue between the two countries.
In 1951, a peace treaty was concluded in San Francisco between Japan and the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition, which the USSR did not sign.
The reason for this was the revision by the United States of previous agreements with the USSR reached in the Yalta Agreement of 1945 - now official Washington believed that the Soviet Union had no rights not only to the Kuriles, but also to South Sakhalin. In any case, it was precisely such a resolution that was adopted by the US Senate during the discussion of the treaty.
However, in the final version of the San Francisco Treaty, Japan renounces the rights to South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. But here, too, there is a hitch - the official Tokyo both then and now declares that it does not consider that Habomai, Kunashir, Iturup and Shikotan are part of the Kuriles.
That is, the Japanese are sure that they really renounced South Sakhalin, but they never abandoned the "northern territories".
The Soviet Union refused to sign a peace treaty, not only because of the unsettledness of its territorial disputes with Japan, but also because it did not resolve similar disputes between Japan and China, then an ally of the USSR, in any way.
Compromise ruined Washington
Only five years later, in 1956, was the Soviet-Japanese declaration on ending the state of war signed, which was supposed to be the prologue to the conclusion of a peace treaty.
A compromise solution was also announced - the islands of Habomai and Shikotan would be returned to Japan in exchange for the unconditional recognition of the sovereignty of the USSR over all other disputed territories. But this could happen only after the conclusion of a peace treaty.
In fact, these conditions suited Japan quite well, but here a “third force” intervened. The United States was not at all pleased with the prospect of establishing relations between the USSR and Japan. The territorial problem acted as an excellent wedge driven between Moscow and Tokyo, and Washington considered its resolution highly undesirable.
It was announced to the Japanese authorities that if a compromise was reached with the USSR on " Kuril problem"on the terms of the division of the islands, the United States will leave the island of Okinawa and the entire Ryukyu archipelago under its sovereignty.
The threat was truly terrible for the Japanese - it was a territory with more than a million inhabitants, which is of great historical importance for Japan.
As a result, a possible compromise on the issue of the South Kuriles vanished like smoke, and with it the prospect of concluding a full-fledged peace treaty.
By the way, control of Okinawa finally passed to Japan only in 1972. At the same time, 18 percent of the island's territory is still occupied by American military bases.
Complete stalemate
In fact, no progress in territorial dispute hasn't happened since 1956. In the Soviet period, without reaching a compromise, the USSR came to the tactic of completely denying any dispute in principle.
In the post-Soviet period, Japan began to hope that generous gifts Russian President Boris Yeltsin will give up the “northern territories”. Moreover, such a decision was considered fair by very prominent figures in Russia - for example, Nobel laureate Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
Perhaps at this point, the Japanese side made a mistake, instead of compromise options like the one discussed in 1956, insisting on the transfer of all disputed islands.
But in Russia, the pendulum has already swung the other way, and those who consider it impossible to transfer even one island are much louder today.
For both Japan and Russia, the "Kuril issue" over the past decades has become a matter of principle. For both Russian and Japanese politicians, the slightest concessions threaten, if not the collapse of their careers, then serious electoral losses.
Therefore, the declared desire Shinzo Abe solve the problem, no doubt commendable, but completely unrealistic.
Kuril Landing Operation The Red Army's operation in the Kuril Islands has entered the history of operational art. It was studied in many armies of the world, but almost all experts came to the conclusion that the Soviet landing forces had no prerequisites for an early victory. Success was ensured by the courage and heroism of the Soviet soldier. American failure in the Kuril Islands
On April 1, 1945, American troops, supported by the British Navy, landed on the Japanese island of Okinawa. The US command expected to seize a bridgehead for the landing of troops on the main islands of the empire with one lightning strike. But the operation lasted almost three months, and the losses among American soldiers were unexpectedly high - up to 40% of the personnel. The resources spent were incommensurable with the result and forced the US government to think about the Japanese problem. The war could last for years and cost the lives of millions of American and British soldiers. The Japanese, on the other hand, were convinced that they could resist for a long time and even put forward conditions for the conclusion of peace.
The Americans and the British were waiting for what the Soviet Union would do, which, at the Allied conference in Yalta, had committed itself to open hostilities against Japan.
The Western allies of the USSR had no doubt that the same long and bloody battles awaited the Red Army in Japan as in the West. But the commander-in-chief of the troops in the Far East, Marshal of the Soviet Union Alexander Vasilevsky did not share their opinion. On August 9, 1945, the Red Army went on the offensive in Manchuria and inflicted a crushing defeat on the enemy in just a few days.
On August 15, Emperor Hirohito of Japan was forced to announce his surrender. On the same day, American President Harry Truman drew up a detailed plan for the surrender of Japanese troops, and sent it for approval to the allies - the USSR and Great Britain. Stalin immediately drew attention to an important detail: the text did not say that the Japanese garrisons on the Kuril Islands should capitulate to the Soviet troops, although until recently the American government agreed that this archipelago should pass to the USSR. Given that the rest of the points were spelled out in detail, it became clear that this was not an accidental mistake - the United States was trying to put the post-war status of the Kuril Islands into question.
Stalin demanded that the US President make an amendment, and drew attention to the fact that the Red Army intended to occupy not only all the Kuril Islands, but also part of Japanese island Hokkaido. It was impossible to rely only on Truman's good will; the troops of the Kamchatka defensive region and the Petropavlovsk naval base were ordered to land troops on the Kuril Islands.
Why countries fought for the Kuril Islands
From Kamchatka to good weather one could see the island of Shumshu, which was located only 12 kilometers from the Kamchatka Peninsula. This is the extreme island of the Kuril archipelago - a ridge of 59 islands, 1200 kilometers long. On the maps, they were designated as the territory of the Japanese Empire.
The development of the Kuril Islands by Russian Cossacks began in 1711. At that time, the belonging of this territory to Russia did not raise doubts among the international community. But in 1875, Alexander II decided to consolidate peace in the Far East and handed over the Kuriles to Japan in exchange for her refusal to claim Sakhalin. These peace-loving efforts of the emperor were in vain. After 30 years, the Russo-Japanese War nevertheless began, and the agreement became invalid. Then Russia lost and was forced to recognize the conquest of the enemy. Japan left not only the Kuriles, but it also received the southern part of Sakhalin.
The Kuril Islands are unsuitable for economic activity, so for many centuries they were considered practically uninhabited. There were only a few thousand inhabitants, mostly representatives of the Ainu. Fishing, hunting, subsistence farming - these are all sources of livelihood.
In the 1930s, rapid construction began on the archipelago, mainly military - airfields and naval bases. The Japanese Empire was preparing to fight for dominance in pacific ocean. The Kuril Islands were to become a springboard for both capturing Soviet Kamchatka and attacking American naval bases (the Aleutian Islands). In November 1941, these plans began to be implemented. It was the shelling of the American naval base at Pearl Harbor. After 4 years, the Japanese managed to equip a powerful defense system on the archipelago. All available places for landing on the island were covered by firing points, there was a developed infrastructure underground.
The beginning of the Kuril landing operation
At the Yalta Conference in 1945, the Allies decided to take Korea under joint guardianship, and recognized the right of the USSR to the Kuril Islands. The United States even offered to help take possession of the archipelago. As part of the secret project "Hula" Pacific Fleet received American landing craft.
On April 12, 1945, Roosevelt died, and the attitude towards the Soviet Union changed, as the new President Harry Truman was wary of the USSR. The new American government did not deny possible military operations in the Far East, and the Kuril Islands would become a convenient springboard for military bases. Truman sought to prevent the transfer of the archipelago to the USSR.
Due to the tense international situation, Alexander Vasilevsky (commander-in-chief of the Soviet troops in the Far East) received an order: “using the favorable situation that developed during the offensive in Manchuria and Sakhalin Island, take the northern group of the Kuril Islands. Vasilevsky did not know that such a decision was made due to the deterioration of relations between the US and the USSR. It was ordered to form a battalion of marines within 24 hours. The battalion was led by Timofey Pochtarev. There was little time to prepare the operation - only a day, the key to success was the close interaction of the forces of the army and navy. Marshal Vasilevsky decided to appoint Major General Alexei Gnechko as commander of the operation. According to the memoirs of Gnechko: “I was given complete freedom of initiative. And this is quite understandable: the command of the front and the fleet was a thousand kilometers away, and it was impossible to count on the immediate coordination and approval of my every order and order.
Naval artilleryman Timofey Pochtarev received his first combat experience back in the Finnish War. With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he fought in the Baltic, defended Leningrad, and participated in the battles for Narva. He dreamed of returning to Leningrad. But fate and command decreed otherwise. The officer was assigned to Kamchatka, to the headquarters of the coastal defense of the Petropavlovsk naval base.
The most difficult was the first stage of the operation - the capture of the island of Shumshu. It was considered the northern gate of the Kuril archipelago, and Japan paid special attention to the fortification of Shumshu. 58 pillboxes and pillboxes could shoot through every meter of the coast. In total, there were 100 artillery installations, 30 machine guns, 80 tanks and 8.5 thousand soldiers on the island of Shumshu. Another 15 thousand were on the neighboring island of Paramushir, and they could be transferred to Shumshu within a few hours.
The Kamchatka defensive region consisted of only one rifle division. Units were dispersed throughout the peninsula. All in one day, August 16, they had to be delivered to the port. In addition, it was impossible to transport the entire division through the first Kuril Strait - there were not enough ships. Soviet troops and sailors had to act in extremely difficult conditions. First, land on a well-fortified island, and then fight a superior enemy without military equipment. All hope was on the “surprise factor”.
The first stage of the operation
It was decided to land the Soviet troops between Capes Kokutai and Kotomari, and then capture the center of defense of the island, the Kataoka naval base, with a blow. In order to mislead the enemy and disperse forces, they planned a diversion strike - a landing in Nanagawa Bay. The day before the operation began shelling the island. The fire could not cause much harm, but General Gnechko set other goals - to force the Japanese to withdraw their troops from the coastal territory where the landing was planned. landing troops. Part of the paratroopers under the leadership of Pochtarev became the core of the detachment. By nightfall, the loading onto the ships was completed. On the morning of August 17, the ships left Avacha Bay.
The commanders were instructed to observe radio silence and blackout. Weather were difficult - fog, because of this, the ships arrived at the place only at 4 am, although they planned at 11 pm. Because of the fog, some ships could not come close to the island, and the remaining meters of the Marines sailed, with weapons and equipment.
The advance detachment reached the island in full force, and at first they did not meet any resistance. Yesterday, the Japanese leadership withdrew troops deep into the island to protect them from shelling. Using the surprise factor, Major Pochtarev decided to capture enemy batteries at Cape Katamari with the help of his companies. He led this attack personally.
The second stage of the operation
The terrain was flat, so it was impossible to approach imperceptibly. The Japanese opened fire, the advance stopped. It remained to wait for the rest of the paratroopers. With great difficulty and under Japanese fire, the bulk of the battalion was brought to Shumshu, and the offensive began. The Japanese troops had by this time recovered from the panic. Major Pochtarev ordered to stop frontal attacks, and assault groups were formed in a combat situation.
After several hours of battle, almost all the pillboxes and bunkers of the Japanese were destroyed. The outcome of the battle was decided by the personal courage of Major Pochtarev. He stood up to his full height and led the soldiers behind him. Almost immediately he was wounded, but did not pay attention to her. The Japanese began to retreat. But almost immediately the troops pulled up again, and began a counterattack. General Fusaki ordered to recapture the dominant heights at any cost, then cut the landing forces into pieces and throw them back to the sea. Under the cover of artillery, 60 tanks went into battle. Ship strikes came to the rescue, and the destruction of the tanks began. Those machines that could break through were destroyed by the forces marines. But the ammunition was already running out, and then horses came to the aid of the Soviet paratroopers. They were allowed to swim ashore, loaded with ammunition. Despite heavy shelling, most of the horses survived and delivered ammunition.
From the island of Paramushir, the Japanese transferred forces of 15 thousand people. The weather improved and Soviet aircraft were able to fly out on a combat mission. The pilots attacked the piers and piers where the Japanese were unloading. While the forward detachment repelled the Japanese counteroffensive, the main forces launched a flank attack. By August 18, the island's defense system was completely broken. There was a turning point in the battle. When Soviet ships entered the second Kuril Strait, the Japanese suddenly opened fire in the crossfire. Then the Japanese kamikaze went on the attack. The pilot threw his car directly at the ship, firing continuously. But the Soviet anti-aircraft gunners thwarted the Japanese feat.
Upon learning of this, Gnechko again ordered to go on the attack - the Japanese hung out white flags. General Fusaki said that he had not given the order to fire on the ships and proposed to return to the discussion of the disarmament act. Fusaki fidgeted, but the general agreed to personally sign the disarmament act. He avoided even uttering the word "surrender" in every possible way, because for him, as a samurai, it was humiliating.
The garrisons of Urup, Shikotan, Kunashir and Paramushir capitulated without putting up resistance. It came as a surprise to the whole world that Soviet troops occupied the Kuriles in just one month. Truman approached Stalin with a request to locate American military bases, but was refused. Stalin understood that the US would try to gain a foothold if they got the territory. And he turned out to be right: the United States immediately after the war, Truman made every effort to include Japan in its sphere of influence. On September 8, 1951, a peace treaty was signed in San Francisco between Japan and the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition. The Japanese abandoned all conquered territories, including Korea. According to the text of the treaty, the Ryukyu archipelago was transferred to the UN, in fact, the Americans established their own protectorate. Japan also renounced the Kuril Islands, but the text of the agreement did not say that the Kuril Islands were transferred to the USSR. Andrei Gromyko, Deputy Foreign Minister (at that time), refused to put his signature on a document with such wording. The Americans refused to amend the peace treaty. This is how a legal incident turned out: de jure they ceased to belong to Japan, but their status was never fixed.
In 1946 northern islands The Kuril archipelago became part of the South Sakhalin region. And it was undeniable.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced his desire to "create new history» relations with Russia. Have we got a new friend? Unlikely. The history of Japan's territorial claims against the Russian Federation is well known to everyone. But right now, the sanctions and the confrontation between Russia and the West give Tokyo a non-illusory chance to return the Kuriles.
Now the Japanese are looking forward to the visit of Vladimir Putin, hoping that he will bring the signing of the peace treaty closer. This puts the Russian leader in a difficult situation: the country needs allies, but such a deal could once and for all destroy his image as a collector of Russian lands. Therefore, it is quite obvious: it is impossible to return the islands before the presidential elections. And then?
What exactly Vladimir Putin and Shinzo Abe spoke about during an informal meeting in Sochi on May 6 is not known for certain. However, before the visit, the Japanese prime minister made no secret of his intention to discuss the territorial issue. And now a return visit of the President of the Russian Federation is planned soon.
In early April, the Japanese Foreign Ministry developed the so-called "Blue Book" on diplomacy for 2016. It says that strengthening relations with Russia is in the national interest and contributes to the establishment of peace and prosperity in the Asian region. Thus, Japan officially proclaimed a course towards rapprochement with Russia.
This has already caused concern in the US. Not without reason, back in February, during a telephone conversation, Barack Obama advised Prime Minister Abe to reconsider the dates of his visit to Russia and expressed concern about the softening of Japan's position towards Moscow, while Western countries imposed anti-Russian sanctions "in an attempt to restore international order."
Attraction of unprecedented generosity
Why did Tokyo suddenly decide to extend the hand of friendship to Moscow? Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of Russia in Global Affairs magazine, believes that “the Chinese factor dominates relations between Japan and Russia; both countries are trying to balance the rise of China as the most important power in the region, and this is leading to a thaw.” By the way, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper recently wrote about this: “It is important for the heads of Russia and Japan to meet more often and move towards trusting relations also in order to stabilize the situation in Northeast Asia, a region where China is gaining influence and challenges continue. from the DPRK, which conducts missile and nuclear tests.
An important milestone in cooperation can be called the construction by Japan on the Pacific coast of Russia of a terminal for receiving liquefied natural gas. The enterprise with a capacity of 15 million tons, according to the plans of Gazprom, will be launched in 2018.
Everything would be fine, but the relations between the two countries are overshadowed by an unresolved territorial dispute. After the end of World War II, the USSR annexed four islands of the Kuril chain - Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Khabomai. In addition to fish, the islands are valuable minerals found in their bowels: gold and silver, polymetallic ores containing zinc, copper, vanadium, etc. It is not surprising that the Japanese consider them theirs and demand their return.
Back in December, the Japanese Prime Minister lamented: “70 years have passed since the end of the war, but, unfortunately, the northern territories have not been returned, the problem has not been resolved. We would like to continue persistent negotiations on the return of the northern territories, on the conclusion of a peace treaty. We will deal with this issue with all the forces of the government so that the innermost dream of the former inhabitants of the islands comes true.
Moscow's position is as follows: the islands became part of the USSR following World War II, and Russian sovereignty is beyond doubt. But is this position so irreconcilable?
In 2012, Vladimir Putin made an encouraging statement for the Japanese: the dispute must be resolved on the basis of a compromise. “Something like a hikiwake. “Hikiwake” is a term from judo when neither side managed to win,” the president said. What does it mean? Japan can return two of the four islands?
Such fears are justified. Suffice it to recall how in 2010, during the presidency of Dmitry Medvedev, Russia signed an agreement with Norway on the delimitation of maritime spaces in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean. As a result, the country has lost 90 thousand square kilometers in the Arctic. In the depths of this territory, according to the estimates of the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD), there are hydrocarbon deposits with a volume of at least 300 million cubic meters - almost 1.9 billion barrels of oil. Then the Norwegians rejoiced, and other countries, including Japan, immediately remembered their territorial claims against Russia. Is there any guarantee that this attraction of unprecedented generosity will not continue?
Wait for the next leader
One way or another, but now the Japanese media are full of optimism. “Prime Minister Abe seeks to resolve the problem of the “northern territories” while he is in power. For him, this is a chance to become the political leader of Japan, who will be able to move the problem that has existed for 70 years from the dead point, ”writes the Asahi Shimbun.
Abe, by the way, has his own interests in this: parliamentary elections will be held in the country this year, and he needs to strengthen his position. Meanwhile, Toyo Keizai publishes an interview with retired diplomat Yoshiki Mine, who claims: “Russia has already declared its readiness to return Habomai and Shikotan. At the same time, she put forward certain conditions on which we can agree. Russia's goals are very clear. The problem is what to do with the islands.” Mr. Mine believes that Japan should not waste time on trifles, but demand from Russia all the territories that once belonged to Japan, including Sakhalin. But not now, but after the change of leader in Russia. "I think it's better to wait for a politically strong leader who will be determined to solve this problem," says the Japanese diplomat. But the Russian political experience tells a different story: it is the weak leaders who hand out land right and left, and the strong never.
Meanwhile, in Moscow, so far, no signs have been given that could indicate the transition of the islands under the Japanese flag. Recently it became known that the government of the Russian Federation intends to invest 5.5 billion rubles in a new territory of advanced development "Kurils". The program involves the development of fishery and mining complexes. In the period from 2016 to 2018, enterprises in the field of aquaculture, a plant for the processing of aquatic biological resources and a mining complex will be located in the Kuril Islands. All this, of course, inspires confidence that the Russian leadership is not going to give the islands to Japan. Unless he develops the territory specifically for return, in order to get more bonuses for it.
Of course, for Putin's electoral potential, the distribution of Russian territories would be extremely harmful. And the presidential elections in Russia will be held in 2018. By the way, in the matter of relations with Japan, this date pops up with enviable regularity.
The following moment is also curious: in Japan, a scenario similar to the Crimean one is being considered for the annexation of the islands. Back in 2014, former Defense Minister Yuriko Koike said that a referendum on joining Japan should be held among the population of the Kuril Islands. And recently, the head of the Japanese Daichi New Party, Muneo Suzuki, suggested that the government lift sanctions on Russia in exchange for the islands. Lure, trade. Oh well...
Image copyright RIA Image caption Before Putin and Abe, the issue of signing a peace treaty between Russia and Japan was discussed by all their predecessors - to no avail
During a two-day visit to Nagato and Tokyo, the Russian president will agree with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on investments. The main question - about the ownership of the Kuril Islands - as usual, will be postponed indefinitely, experts say.
Abe became the second G7 leader to host Putin after the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014.
The visit was supposed to take place two years ago, but was canceled due to sanctions against Russia, supported by Japan.
What is the essence of the dispute between Japan and Russia?
Abe is making progress in a long-standing territorial dispute in which Japan claims the islands of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan, as well as the Habomai archipelago (in Russia, this name does not exist, the archipelago, together with Shikotan, are united under the name Malaya Kuril ridge).
The Japanese elite is well aware that Russia will never return two large islands, so they are ready to take a maximum of two small ones. But how to explain to society that they forever refuse big islands? Alexander Gabuev, expert at the Carnegie Moscow Center
At the end of World War II, in which Japan fought on the side of Nazi Germany, the USSR expelled 17,000 Japanese from the islands; no peace treaty was signed between Moscow and Tokyo.
The San Francisco Peace Treaty of 1951 between the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition and Japan established the sovereignty of the USSR over South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, but Tokyo and Moscow did not agree on what to understand by the Kuriles.
Tokyo considers Iturup, Kunashir and Habomai to be its illegally occupied "northern territories". Moscow considers these islands part of the Kuril Islands and has repeatedly stated that their current status is not subject to revision.
In 2016, Shinzo Abe flew to Russia twice (to Sochi and Vladivostok), he and Putin also met at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Lima.
In early December, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow and Tokyo had similar positions on the peace treaty. In an interview with Japanese journalists, Vladimir Putin called the absence of a peace treaty with Japan an anachronism that "should be eliminated."
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption In Japan, immigrants from the "northern territories" still live, as well as their descendants, who do not mind returning to their historical homeland.He also said that the foreign ministries of the two countries need to resolve "purely technical issues" among themselves so that the Japanese can visit the southern Kuriles without visas.
However, Moscow is embarrassed that in the event of the return of the southern Kuriles, US military bases may appear there. The head of the Council did not rule out such a possibility. national security Japan Shotaro Yachi in a conversation with the Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev, the Japanese newspaper Asahi wrote on Wednesday.
Should we wait for the return of the Kuriles?
The short answer is no. "We should not expect any breakthrough agreements, and ordinary ones too, on the issue of ownership of the southern Kuriles," said former Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Kunadze.
"The expectations of the Japanese side, as usual, are at odds with the intentions of Russia," Kunadze told the BBC. last days Before leaving for Japan, he repeatedly said that for Russia the problem of belonging to the Kuriles does not exist, that the Kuriles are, in essence, a war trophy following the results of the Second World War, and even that Russia's rights to the Kuriles are secured by international treaties.
The latter, according to Kunadze, is a moot point and depends on the interpretation of these treaties.
“Putin is referring to the agreements reached in Yalta in February 1945. These agreements were political in nature and assumed the appropriate contractual and legal formalization. It took place in San Francisco in 1951. The Soviet Union did not sign a peace treaty with Japan then. , there is no other consolidation of Russia's rights in the territories that Japan renounced under the San Francisco Treaty," the diplomat sums up.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The Russians, like the Japanese, do not expect concessions from their authorities on the Kuriles"The parties are trying as much as possible to blow off the ball of mutual expectations of the public and show that there will be no breakthrough," comments Alexander Gabuev, an expert at the Carnegie Moscow Center.
"The red line of Russia: Japan recognizes the results of the Second World War, renounces claims to the southern Kuriles. As a gesture of goodwill, we give Japan two small islands, and on Kunashir and Iturup we can do visa-free entry, a free zone of joint economic development - anything, - he believes. “Russia cannot give up two large islands, because it will be a loss, these islands are of economic importance, a lot of money has been invested there, there is a large population, the straits between these islands are used by Russian submarines when they go out to patrol the Pacific Ocean.”
Japan, according to Gabuev's observations, has softened its position on disputed territories in recent years.
“The Japanese elite is well aware that Russia will never return two large islands, so they are ready to take a maximum of two small ones. But how to explain to society that they are forever abandoning large islands? large. For Russia, this is unacceptable, we want to resolve the issue once and for all. These two red lines are not yet close enough to expect a breakthrough," the expert believes.
What else will be discussed?
The Kuriles are not the only topic discussed by Putin and Abe. Russia needs foreign investment in the Far East.
According to the Japanese edition of Yomiuri, due to sanctions, trade between the two countries has decreased. Thus, imports from Russia to Japan decreased by 27.3% - from 2.61 trillion yen ($23 billion) in 2014 to 1.9 trillion yen ($17 billion) in 2015. And exports to Russia by 36.4% - from 972 billion yen (8.8 billion dollars) in 2014 to 618 billion yen (5.6 billion dollars) in 2015.
Image copyright RIA Image caption As head of the Russian state, Putin last visited Japan 11 years ago.The Japanese government intends to acquire a part of the gas fields of the Russian company Novatek, as well as a part of the shares of Rosneft through the state oil, gas and metals corporation JOGMEC.
It is expected that dozens of commercial agreements will be signed during the visit, and the working breakfast of the Russian president and the Japanese prime minister will be attended, in particular, by the head of Rosatom Alexei Likhachev, the head of Gazprom Alexei Miller, the head of Rosneft Igor Sechin, the head of the Russian Fund for Direct investments Kirill Dmitriev, entrepreneurs Oleg Deripaska and Leonid Mikhelson.
So far, Russia and Japan are only exchanging pleasantries. Whether at least part of the economic memorandums will come true, it will become clear whether they can also agree on something.
