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Japan has declared today that the southern Kurils is their sovereign territory

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Re: Japan has declared today that the southern Kurils is their sovereign territory

#21

Post by Freak_NL »

sharikous wrote: post #11

What would be the value (economical, strategical) of those islands for Japan? Apart from the sentimental one?

When asking the question “what is the value of those islands/rocks-in-the-sea?” the answer is always 'EEZ boundaries'. I.e., having extra bits of land in the middle of the sea enlarges your exclusive economic zone where you can exploit resources in the ocean and below the ocean bed (oil) significantly. Which is why so many disputes exist over really boring bits of rock jutting out of the water.

Re: Japan has declared today that the southern Kurils is their sovereign territory

#24

Post by samwillis »

sharikous wrote: post #11

What would be the value (economical, strategical) of those islands for Japan? Apart from the sentimental one?

I imagin if it’s anything like the UK and all it’s various islands it’s about fishing and drilling rights.

So much comes down to natural resources.

Re: Japan has declared today that the southern Kurils is their sovereign territory

#25

Post by smitty1e »

belter wrote: post #22

Technically, Japan and Russia are still at war. "Why Are Japan And Russia Still At War?" https://theowp.org/why-are-japan-and-russia-still-at-war/

The interaction at Tsushima Strait didn't go so well for the Russians

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tsushima

Re: Japan has declared today that the southern Kurils is their sovereign territory

#26

Post by ceejayoz »

belter wrote: post #22

Technically, Japan and Russia are still at war. "Why Are Japan And Russia Still At War?" https://theowp.org/why-are-japan-and-russia-still-at-war/

No, they aren’t.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet–Japanese_Joint_Declarat...

From its text:

> The state of war between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Japan shall cease on the date on which this Declaration enters into force and peace, friendship and good-neighbourly relations between them shall be restored.

The article claims it was never signed. This appears to be entirely made up. There are photos of the signing. https://twitter.com/urdailyhistory/status/131810082428807577...

Re: Japan has declared today that the southern Kurils is their sovereign territory

#28

Post by Aethylia »

decremental wrote: post #15

This is different because we like Japan but we don't like Russia. If Russia didn't want the entire world to turn on them, they shouldn't have illegally invaded Afghanistan.

Do we like Japan? They have a shameful history that they have refused to acknowledge. I view them very negatively.

Re: Japan has declared today that the southern Kurils is their sovereign territory

#29

Post by throwaway_4ever »

Here’s a good heuristic: if the only people alive for the past change of hands are old enough to physically be incapable of being the ones sent to fight for it, the dispute is over as-is. (Why send the young to fight over something that’s never been an issue for them?)

Would save us a whole lot of historical grievances, revanchism and war by retconning the past centuries into a new issue.

Re: Japan has declared today that the southern Kurils is their sovereign territory

#30

Post by Armisael16 »

ilammy wrote: post #10
yardie wrote: post #6

With so much of their military tied up in the boondoggle on their western front I guess now would be the perfect time to pounce on disputed territory. Knowing your enemy distracted.

Thankfully, Article 9 is still in Japan's constitution, so it's very unlikely that any action would happen. Just rolling back to pre-2018 status quo, before Japan was seemingly willing to resolve the dispute at last.

Article 9 doesn’t really mean what it says, at least in practice. If Japan is attacked the state won’t just roll over and die - it’ll try to defend itself (hence the JSDF).

You can read it as forbidding offensive war, but if Japan has claimed that those islands are part of Japan for a while then there’s enough of an argument for it being defensive war that no one will much care.

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