so NATO will join the war if Japan decides to take the islands back?
Japan has declared today that the southern Kurils is their sovereign territory
301–310 of 310 posts
Re: Japan has declared today that the southern Kurils is their sovereign territory
#302Earlier quoted context omitted.
Japan is still ruled by conservative traditionalists with questionable views.
Do you think that, given the opportunity, they would commit the same atrocities as their ancestors? Can those traditionalist views be separated from those atrocities or do those views, given no restraint, inevitably lead to the atrocities? If they would, would that Japanese people allow them to stay in power if they undertook steps in that direction? Important questions that would need answers before I would revert m…
Absolutely I think that they would commit the same atrocities if given the chance. Fortunately as you say their people hopefully don't agree.
That is what I was alluding to when I mentioned that they do not admit their wrongdoings even today. Disputes with e.g. South Korea prove that they still believe they own places they invaded during the war. Educating their citizens on the past and rebuilding trust with the countries who suffered under them would be signs they have changed as a government. Neither of those things take place.
Re: Japan has declared today that the southern Kurils is their sovereign territory
#303Earlier quoted context omitted.
These women would emphatically disagree: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comfort_women It might not seem like much compared to other world events, but it means everything to the people concerned. No real punishment to the perpetrators, and a very late, reluctant, and muted acknowledgement from the Japanese government.
Japan paid out $800M in compensation to the South Korean government in 1965. However, Korea was a military dictatorship at the time, so they used it for funding random projects instead of actually compensating the people who suffered. Also, here's a list of Japanese war apologies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_war_apology_statements...
I think the controversies section of your linked article shows that it is not as clear-cut as you imply.
Re: Japan has declared today that the southern Kurils is their sovereign territory
#304Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wanted to edit the previous comment, but it won't let me anymore. I usually don't comment about downvotes, but here I'd really like to know the reason? What is so controversial about giving the right of self-determination to everyone? If everyone, regardless of the colour, race of gender has equal right, why some people should, and some should not determine if they want to live in one country? You can even choose you…
I didn’t downvote but one glaring issue is that you’re well of the mark here: > Allowing Crimea but not California, or allowing Kosovo but not Mexico and allowing Slovakia and not Catalonia Slovakia had a popular recognised referendum and decided to vote for the velvet divorce Catalonia had an informal referendum that was not legally recognised, but afaik there is still technically a path to do so. Kosovo - I do not…
Thanks for the clarification. In my previous comments, I assumed that everyone should have the right to organize a referendum and show a clear will for the independence, but didn't write the assumption down. And the examples are a bit unrealistic.
> I think you know this though, and that you’re engaging in what’s known as “sealioning” :-)
I learned a new word today. Thanks, although I don't think I'm engaged in it, since I idealistically think that everyone, with the accent to everyone, should have a right of association and disassociation with willing partners, and that our current state system is not the healthiest way of governing humans.
Re: Japan has declared today that the southern Kurils is their sovereign territory
#305Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, it looks like Japanese government just reminded about the position they always had that southern Kurils were occupied by Russia illegally. But the timing of the reminder is interesting.
I didn't realise it was such a big thing until I visited a festival in Hokkaido a few years back and there was a very large and busy stall soliciting signatures for a petition over the Kurils and with lots of photographs and maps. It seemed slightly delusional (but mostly harmless) to me at the time, but now - who knows?
It’s like Argentina and the Falklands. To this day you’ll find people trying to say they are Argentinian when they would only be by proximity. I’m Argentinian and I’d love for them to be, but they are not. Uruguay is just as close and it’s a different country, why not take that too?
Re: Japan has declared today that the southern Kurils is their sovereign territory
#306Earlier quoted context omitted.
The referendum was run while the region was being held at gunpoint by an invading force. There is no possible way to hold a legitimate referendum in those circumstances.
Either way regions are "held at gunpoint" by your definition. It's either going to be from one government or another. For example just a few years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Catalan_independence_refe... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Kurdistan_Region_independ... The key is whether the referendum actually got held and there was a large enough turnout that it was meaningful. No one was stopping more ob…
There is a huge difference between having your troops stationed in military bases and hitting beaches and pubs in free time, and having them guns out on the streets.
Re: Japan has declared today that the southern Kurils is their sovereign territory
#307Earlier quoted context omitted.
> best possible outcome at this time is that this war is ended as soon as possible even when this means handing a few victory points to Russia why for the love of god would the West support Russia and not the wishes of the Ukrainian people? I don't understand this reasoning and have even heard it among some of my ultra-religious friends or extended family members. None of them has any skin in the game other than stee…
> I'm only speaking for myself but there isn't a thing in the world I wouldn't do if I'd have to defend my own family even that means wiping out half of humanity. If I'd think very hard about I'd even wipe out part of my own blood to ensure survival of my own offspring. The Russian army has no interest in harming your family. It wants to achieve a set of political aims using violence, and to achieve those aims they a…
The Russian army has interest in harming their families in order to achieve their political goals, that include harming their families further.
I also need to remind you, that even Ukraine's combatants that would be deemed non-civilians were forced to fight by the invasion, and are therefore also innocent, and are also "families".
Re: Japan has declared today that the southern Kurils is their sovereign territory
#308Earlier quoted context omitted.
The referendum was run while the region was being held at gunpoint by an invading force. There is no possible way to hold a legitimate referendum in those circumstances.
Either way regions are "held at gunpoint" by your definition. It's either going to be from one government or another. For example just a few years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Catalan_independence_refe... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Kurdistan_Region_independ... The key is whether the referendum actually got held and there was a large enough turnout that it was meaningful. No one was stopping more ob…
That treaty bound Russia to "respect the sovereignty of Ukraine, honor its legislation and preclude interference in the internal affairs of Ukraine" and, furthermore, Russian military personnel had to show their "military identification cards" when crossing the Ukrainian-Russian border; Russian forces could operate "beyond their deployment sites" only after "coordination with the competent agencies of Ukraine."
Sending in masked troops without insignia to overthrow Crimea's Supreme Council, install a Russian puppet government and run a farcical independence referendum is as far as you can get from following the terms of that treaty.
Re: Japan has declared today that the southern Kurils is their sovereign territory
#309Earlier quoted context omitted.
> wars of annexation are met with sanctions By your logic PRC "reunifying" with TW wouldn't be met with sanctions because it's a civil war where TW is de jure recognized as part of Chinese territory, at least by parties who can do meaningful sanctions. After all PRC can't annex what's already legally hers.
Except sanctions will be driven by political decisions in democracies. I feel like most of the EU and US citizens would consider it an invasion - so sanctions. It's not an international law driven by unflinching rules. It's a democratic choice, or a series of them.
I think people are viscerally responding to the invasion and bombings, less so the political status of a region. Annexation isn't the distinctive feature here. Lots of people protested the Iraq war, around the world, and it didn't have anything to do with annexation. Civilian lives is what matters.
Re: Japan has declared today that the southern Kurils is their sovereign territory
#310Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are gazillion of people in Russian federation who are not "Russians" culturally, Abkhazians speak Russian and South Ossetians are invaders into Georgia from North Ossetia which is... Part of Russia. Also, there are no "oppressed minorities" in Georgia, never was. That would be part of Russian propaganda.
Abkhazians speak Abkhazian (a Circassic language) and Ossetians speak Ossetian (related to Farsi). Sure, many of them may speak Russian too. But so do Georgians. All these areas were part of the Soviet Union which imposed Russian as the standard language. But people still kept their native languages. The point is that these people want to live where they do, speaking their own languages -- they have no desire to go "…
They speak both, but Abkhazian and Ossetian is dying language, they are Russian citizens and speak Russian first.
Georgian language on other hand is the most widely-spoken of the Kartvelian languages and serves as the literary language or lingua franca for speakers of related language.
Before Soviet Union, it was Georgian territory for thousands of years, South Ossetia - is Russian name, in fact it is named Samachablo, Ossetians migrated there from North Ossetia en masse during Soviet Union times and re-named area to South Ossetia to give it impression as if two Ossetia's where same area.
The point incorrect, Chechens do not desire to go back to Russia and fought war over it, but they lost because Russians committed their genocide.
You can not simply settle somewhere and then want to break-away, Why is this so hard to understand?