80 Years On: Ex-Residents Yearning to Return to Russian-Occupied Islands

   Tokyo, Aug. 21 (Jiji Press)--Former Japanese residents of the four northwestern Pacific islands that the former Soviet Union seized from Japan 80 years ago are yearning to visit the islands they once called home.
   People who were born and grew up in the now Russian-occupied islands--Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan and the Habomai group of islets--say they want to "run around" their hometown or to "visit the graves of ancestors."
   The Japanese government has been urging Russia to return the islands, collectively called the Northern Territories in Japan.
   The four islands, located off the eastern coast of Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost prefecture, have been part of Japanese territory ever since the border between Japan and Russia was drawn north of Etorofu under an 1855 treaty between the two nations.
   The Soviet Union, however, launched an attack on the Chishima island chain on Aug. 18, 1945, three days after Japan's surrender in World War II, and occupied the four islands by September the same year.

(2025/08/21-17:51)

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