The southern part of the Kuril Islands, Senkaku Islands (the Chinese name is Diaoyu) and Takeshima (in Korean - Dokdo) in Japanese social science textbooks for grades 3-6 should be called “original Japanese territories”. Such an instruction was given by the Government of Japan to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, the Kyodo news agency reported on Tuesday. Previously, in all school allowances of the country, “the ancestral territories” called only the southern part of the Kuriles.
There is no uniform school textbook in Japan: local schools have the right to choose textbooks independently from the list approved by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports. For the next academic year, the department approved twelve books on social studies, with edits related to the disputed islands already made to nine of them, reports South Korean news agency Yonhap. The textbooks also added maps, photos and other visual materials designed to prove that all the "original territories" are Japanese.
Member of the Federation Council, head of the group for cooperation between Russia and Japan, Viktor Ozerov, believes that the Japanese government, making changes to the textbooks on the status of the Kuril Islands, complicates the dialogue between Moscow and Tokyo.
“Such actions do not contribute to a constructive negotiation process and only lengthen the path to the conclusion of a peace treaty between Russia and Japan,” RIA Novosti quoted him as saying.
South Korean authorities reacted to Japan’s actions with an official protest.
“Our government strongly condemns Japan’s assertion of new textbooks, which include unjustified claims to the Dokdo Islands. They are our ancestral territory in terms of history, geography and international law, ”reports the South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Kim Ying Chol, TASS.
The diplomat also stressed that these textbooks will harm the development of relations between the two countries, promoting a false perception of history.
Background
Dokdo (Takeshima) is a group of small islands located in the western part of the Sea of Japan. Japan included them in its composition in 1905, before the annexation of Korea. The Japanese lost sovereignty over the islands as a result of the Second World War. After its defeat, Japan officially abandoned the Korean Peninsula. However, from the point of view of official Tokyo, Dokdo (Takeshima) is a separate administrative unit and is illegally rejected.
- Dokdo Islands (Takeshima)
- © Wikimedia Commons
Now the islands are ruled by South Korea, which considers them an integral part of its territory. Since both Korean states do not officially recognize each other, North Korea also claims for Dokdo (Takeshima).
There is no resident population on the islands, but there is a small garrison by the South Korean coast guard forces. In 2008, the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport approved a manual for teachers, in which they were recommended to talk about the dispute with Tokdo (Takeshima). This caused an interstate scandal. The South Korean ambassador was recalled from Tokyo, and protests were held in the DPRK and the Republic of Korea.
Leading researcher at the Center for Korean Studies at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Yevgeny Kim says that during the Cold War, Japan did not particularly recall its claims to Tokto (Takeshima).
“The Japanese at that time were sitting and keeping quiet. After the collapse of the USSR, they wanted to get these territories again, ”the expert commented on the situation in an interview with RT.
The history of the dispute around the Senkaku Islands (Diaoyu), located in the East China Sea, 170 km from Taiwan, is longer. Japan included this uninhabited archipelago after the Sino-Japanese War of 1895 and retained sovereignty over it until the end of World War II. In 1945, the Senkaku Islands (Diaoyu) passed under a temporary protectorate of the United States. In the early 70s, the Americans handed them over to Japan.
- Senkaku Islands (Diaoyu)
- © Wikimedia Commons
China did not recognize this decision. In support of its claims to these islands, the PRC refers to the provisions of the 1943 Cairo Declaration. According to this document, Japan must return all the land conquered from the Chinese. Official Tokyo, in turn, argues that Senkaku (Diaoyu) was de facto occupied by the Japanese a few months before the war of 1895 and the Shimonoseki peace treaty concluded at the end of hostilities only confirmed the existing situation.
Additional controversy is added by the fact that large oil and gas reserves have been discovered off the islands, which, according to the US Energy Information Administration's estimate, amount to 57 billion cubic meters. m
In 2012, Japanese authorities decided to buy land on the islands of Senkaku (Diaoyu) from private individuals and nationalize it. This decision caused an outburst of indignation in China. There were mass demonstrations and riots offices of Japanese companies. Chinese warships periodically enter the waters of the disputed islands to emphasize the non-recognition of Japan’s sovereignty over this territory.
As for the South Kuril Islands (Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan, Habomai), they became part of the USSR after the end of the Second World War, according to the decision of the Yalta Conference of 1945. Japan disputes the legality of this decision. The country's claims to the Kuril Islands are the reason that the Russian-Japanese peace treaty has still not been concluded.
In January 2019, on the eve of a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the Kyodo agency reported that Tokyo could agree to conclude a peace treaty even if Russia transfers only Shikotan and Habomai. Japan will not insist on the transfer of Iturup and Kunashir, a high-ranking Japanese official told the agency.
On the eve of the meeting with Putin, Shinzo Abe, in an interview with Asahi TV channel, said that the Kuril Islands would be transferred to Japan and should be broadcast in such a way that the Russians living there would agree. After this, Japanese Ambassador to Russia Toehisa Kodzuki was summoned to the Foreign Ministry for a talk.
“The head of the Japanese diplomatic mission said that such statements grossly distort the essence of the agreements between the leaders of Russia and Japan to speed up the negotiation process based on the 1956 Joint Declaration, disorient the public of the two countries regarding the content of the negotiations. Such statements can only be interpreted as an attempt to artificially force the atmosphere around the problem of a peace treaty and impose its own scenario of settlement on the other side, ”the Russian Foreign Ministry website says.
Attempt informational revenge
Valery Kistanov, head of the Center for Japanese Studies at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, draws attention to the fact that all three conflicts have a different nature and character. Accordingly, the ways to resolve them in Tokyo are seen differently.
“For example, a peace treaty with China was signed in Japan back in 1978. Therefore, Japan believes that it has no territorial dispute with China, and therefore there is nothing to discuss, ”he said in an interview with RT.
The situation is different with Russia. The expert recalls that the current Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe promised to make every effort to resolve a territorial dispute with her and conclude a peace treaty.
"He will make every effort until 2021, while he will be prime minister," Kistanov said.
In his opinion, Abe himself does not believe that the South Kuriles will be able to be returned, especially since the expert, I am sure, does not particularly care about this issue. The demand to return the "northern territories", he believes, is rather a duty officer, "a kind of political inertia." Seriously belonging to the Southern Kuriles does not bother the Japanese, Kistanov said.
As for the situation connected with the Dokdo Islands (Takeshima), the expert believes that it is closely linked with the bilateral relations of Japan and South Korea, which have recently deteriorated markedly. December 20, 2018 over the South Korean ship, rescuing sinking North Korean sailors, a low-flying aircraft of the Japanese Navy.
Official Seoul requires an explanation and an apology. The decision of the South Korean court, which obliged a large Japanese steel corporation to pay compensation for the use of free labor by Korean workers during World War II, also received a negative response in Japan. The Japanese also dislike the plans of the South Korean authorities to conduct studies of the seabed, including in the area of the Dokdo Islands (Takeshima). A protest about this was made by the Secretary General of the Japanese government Esehide Suga.
According to Kistanov, the common feature of all three disputes, from the point of view of the Japanese authorities, is that they still exist and, therefore, need to be reminded of them from time to time to society.
“The government needs to more reasonably and deeply explain to the younger generation that Japan rightfully claims the islands. This is done as part of general information campaigns to clarify the position of the government of the Japanese public, ”explains Kistanov, the meaning of introducing information on disputes with neighbors in Japan.
Yevgeny Kim, in turn, believes that the dispute over the islands is of political importance for Tokyo.
“On September 2, 1945, Japan signed an act of unconditional surrender. The leadership of the allied states issued an order, under which the lands of Japan were confiscated. It was about those lands that Japan seized as a result of unjust wars. South Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, Korea and the Korean Islands were seized from Japan. Since that time, Japan has no rights to these territories. The islands are not controversial for those who own them now, ”said the expert.
According to Eugene Kim, the introduction of disputed islands and territorial claims of Japan in school textbooks is “an attempt to take revenge for defeat in World War II,” even if on paper.