Sapporo –

Former residents of four islands off the east coast of Hokkaido who were driven off by an invasion by the Soviet Union during the last days of World War II are stepping up pressure on the government to convince Russia to allow them to visit their ancestral grave sites on the islands.

Such visits, which were allowed previously, were halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and later by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

With an increasing sense of urgency due to their advanced years, the former residents, whose average age is 89, have taken their case directly to the prime minister.

As of June 30, only 4,907 of the original 17,291 residents of the islands of Kunashiri, Etorofu, Shikotan and Habomai — known as the Northern Territories in Japan — are still alive.

In the absence of signs indicating that such visits would resume anytime soon, the former islanders and their descendants are conducting shipboard ceremonies to honor their ancestors for a fourth year in a row. Seven trips will be made from the port of Nemuro in Hokkaido to the waters near the islands for such ceremonies over the next month.

The dispute over the Northern Territories dates back to the final days of World War II in August 1945 when the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, breaking the Japanese-Soviet Neutrality Pact. Following Japan’s surrender in World War II, the Soviet Union began occupying the islands on Aug. 28, incorporating them into its territory.

In 1951, Japan signed the San Francisco Peace Treaty, in which it renounced its claims to the Kuril Islands. But, pointing to prewar legal precedents, Japan insists the Northern Territories are an inherent territory, and that they are not part of the Kuril Islands. Furthermore, the Soviet Union refused to sign the treaty.

A 1956 joint declaration between Japan and the Soviet Union ended hostilities between both countries. The declaration included a promise by the Soviet Union to return the Shikotan and Habomai islands to Japan after the signing of a formal peace treaty between them. However, none was ever concluded, and also no agreement was reached regarding the status of Kunashiri and Etorofu.

Subsequent agreements, including the 1993 Tokyo Declaration, acknowledged the territorial dispute and pledged continued negotiations.

While no progress has been made on a peace treaty, from 1964 until 2019, former residents were allowed limited access to the islands for them to visit their ancestral grave sites.

A total of 4,851 people have participated in the grave-site visits, with the last one having taken place in 2019. There are a total of 52 grave sites on the four islands.

As the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II approaches next month, a diplomatic solution to the Northern Territories issue remains out of sight.

Yuzo Matsumoto, a former resident of Etorofu and director of the League of Residents of Chishima and Habomai Islands, the main group representing former residents of the islands, told the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan on July 7 that the group is appealing to the government to reopen peace treaty negotiations with Russia as soon as possible, to set a path forward for the return of the islands while their former residents are still alive.

“The average age of the former residents is now 89. Our wish is to visit and pay our respects at the graves of our grandparents and to set foot on the land where they were born and raised,” Matsumoto said.

On May 13, Matsumoto’s group, along with Hokkaido Gov. Naomichi Suzuki and Hokkaido Legislative Assembly Speaker Akira Tomihara, met with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, during which they called upon him to continue diplomatic negotiations under the government's basic policy of resolving the Northern Territories issue and concluding a peace treaty with Russia to secure the early return of the Northern Territories.

They also called on the prime minister to take concrete measures to establish bilateral consultations between Japan and Russia to move toward the prompt resumption of exchanges with the four islands, and the grave-site visits in particular.

“The government is acutely aware that time is running out. We will respond to the issue of grave visits with a clear understanding that it is a humanitarian issue, and it is important that the Russian side accurately and correctly understands this stance,” Ishiba said in reply.

Until Aug. 21, seven excursions by ship are scheduled to be made to the waters off eastern Hokkaido for onboard memorial ceremonies by the former islanders and their relatives. The Chishima and Habomai group lists nearly 30,000 second-, third- and fourth-generation descendants of the former islanders.

During a July 9 campaign stop in Nagasaki ahead of the July 20 Upper House election, Ishiba sparked concern among former islanders when he remarked that while Nagasaki Prefecture’s coastline was the second-longest in Japan after Hokkaido’s, the southwestern prefecture would have the longest coastline if the Northern Territories were excluded from the equation. The remarks led many to worry about whether the prime minister considered the four islands as being part of Japan.

Matsumoto said his group's top priority for the foreseeable future is pressuring the government into negotiating direct grave-site visits for former island residents. Asked to envision a future in which Russia returned all four islands to Japan and what he would want for them, Matsumoto replied that he would like to see the Japanese government develop the entire area into a national park.

“Just as the Shiretoko Peninsula in Hokkaido is a World Heritage Site, the four islands of the Northern Territories should be turned into a national park. The ecology there, the ecosystem there, should not be lost,” he said.