By If you wonder why the Japanese government cares so much about Dokdo here is the real reason:
Russia and Japan were engaged in a heated war of words on Monday over a disputed island chain that the Kremlin vowed to keep forever despite the pressure from Tokyo.
The deeply divisive issue flared again when Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan used a national remembrance day to call President Dmitry Medvedev’s recent visit to the Kuril Islands — known as the Northern Territories in Japan — an “unforgivable outrage”.
Japan’s centre-left prime minister delivered his comments at a rally demanding the islands’ return — an event that received broad media play in Moscow because it featured the burning of a Russian tricolour flag.
Russia delivered an immediate toughly-worded response to both the rallies and Kan’s address.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the Japanese prime minister of pandering to nationalist interests and noted that any talks over the islands must be based on Tokyo’s “unconditional recognition of the outcome of World War II.” [AFP]
If Japan is seen as giving up the Dokdo Islet to Korea than the Russians can use that as an example of Japan recognizing the loss of sovereignty of one of their territories after World War II. I really don’t think the Japanese people care much about the Dokdo issue, but they do care about the Kuril Islands issue. The fact that national level leaders are raising this issue with the Russians shows how big this issue is. The Japanese politicians that periodically inflame the Dokdo dispute are usually regional leaders like from the “Least Cared about Prefecture in Japan“, Shimane that depends heavily on the fishing industry and use the Dokdo dispute to push changes in fishing laws with the Koreans.
I do have to wonder why the Russians are rubbing the Kuril Islands dispute in the faces of the Japanese government with all the high level visits to these islands? It is pretty clear the Russians are not going to return the islands and the Japanese are not going to invade Russia to get them back, which means things will just remain the way they have been without the need to raise tensions over it.
9:45 am on February 8th, 2011 1
Could be a crass Russian move, or one as part of the Russo-Sino Eurasia strategy, perhaps a Shanghai Cooperation Organization kind of thing, aiming to diminish US influence and power in the world. Since Japan is an ally of the US, they get singled out for such attention, for direct and indirect impact on US interests in NE Asia. Witness China keeping North Korea on life support no matter what, and the impact of that policy on the region. The Cold War may be over, but strategic competition continues.
10:12 am on February 8th, 2011 2
Victory in World War II was the greatest thing Russia ever achieved. Those islands are a trophy, just like Kaliningrad Oblast.