THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR BEGAN ONE HUNDRED TEN YEARS AGO; TODAY PUTIN AND ABE MET TO TALK ABOUT TALKING ABOUT SOME OF THE SAME OLD ISSUES

THE RUSSO-JAPANESE 

WAR BROKE OUT 

February 8, 1904 

THE SEA OF OKHOTSK 

off the Southeastern Shore 
of Sakhalin Island 

South Sakhalin ("Karafuto") was won by the Japanese as a result 
of  their victory in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 

Captured by the USSR in World War II; the entire island is part of Russia 

Still in contention: 

Four islands and groups of islets known as the Kurils (Kuriles) by the Russians, and as the Northern Territories by the Japanese;

under Soviet and then Russian control since World War II 

Some background, here 

Today on the sidelines of the Sochi Winter Olympics Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met and agreed to talk about the sticky island dispute, which has prevented the two countries from signing a peace treaty winding up World War II, at their next meeting, scheduled to take place again in Sochi, at the upcoming G8 summit in June of this year. 

President Putin will then visit Japan in the fall. 

THE USSR ENTERS THE WAR AGAINST JAPAN, August 8, 1945

THE 

SOVIET UNION 

DECLARES 

WAR ON JAPAN 

August 8, 1945 

"WELCOME TO SAKHALIN" 

with a map indicating Moscow 

on the upper left 

and Yuzhnosakhalinsk (the capital of Sakhalin) 

on the lower right 

When Moscow finally declared war on Japan on August 8, 1945, two days after the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, it claimed  that it was acting strictly according to its treaty obligations. 

Tokyo surrendered a week later, five days after Nagasaki was also atom-bombed. 

But Moscow and Tokyo have yet to sign a peace treaty -- a World War II peace treaty.  For its efforts, the USSR got (and Russia afterwards) the southern half of Sakhalin Island (it already occupied the north) and the Kuril Islands, or, as the Japanese prefer, the/their Northern Territories. 

Tokyo does not still claim southern Sakhalin (their former Karafuto), but it is adamant about the Kurils/Northern Territories. 

For same recent developments, see here and here. 

For background and a lot more on Sakhalin, see here. 

RUSSIA THEN & NOW: SAKHALIN & AN OLD JAPANESE CONNECTION

SAKHALIN, RUSSIA,

&

AN OLD

JAPANESE CONNECTION

PAPER MILL, KHOLMSK (RUSSIA)

ISLAND OF SAKHALIN, USSR, 1984

This plant was built by Japan when it held the southern half of Sakhalin (Karafuto), and "renovated," so I had read, by the Soviets in the fifties. It looked like a scene out of a movie about the evils of old capitalist exploitation, and gave forth a stench that sent my local guide fleeing from the plant floor to get some air.

-- from RUSSIA REDUX