Northern Territories
(2001 est. pop. 29,000). The Northern Territories are a group of islands in the Kurile chain north of the Japanese island of Hokkaido. Historically the islands and the island of Sakhalin have been claimed by both Russia and Japan. In 1855, the two nations agreed that the two largest islands in the Kuriles, Kunashiri and Etorofu, belonged to Japan and that Sakhalin would be shared. In 1875, it was agreed that all the Kuriles belonged to Japan and that Sakhalin belonged to Russia. Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905) resulted in Japan acquiring the southern portion of Sakhalin Island (south of 50 degrees north latitude) through the Treaty of Portsmouth.
Russia, and then the Soviet Union, long sought to reacquire the islands, and the Kuriles were promised to Joseph Stalin at the 1945 Yalta Conference. In the 1951 peace treaty signed by Japan and the Allies (with the exception of the Soviet Union), Japan renounced any claim to Sakhalin or the Kuriles. However, because Japan and the Soviet Union never concluded a peace treaty, the issue of rightful control of the islands continues to be a sticking point. The islands are currently inhabited by Russians and ethnic Koreans brought there during the Japanese occupation of Korea.
Further Reading
Hasegawa, Tsuyoshi. (1998) The Northern Territories Dispute and Russo-Japanese Relations. Berkeley: University of California Institute of International Studies.
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