The invasion of Ukraine has turned Japan definitively against Russia
And made a solution to their territorial dispute even more remote
THE ARRIVAL of Russian soldiers shocked the villagers. An escape plan was hatched. The children were told to keep silent, recalls Tsunoka Yasuji, who was eight years old in 1945 when his family fled Habomai, one of four Japanese islands just north of Hokkaido that defeated imperial Japan lost to Russia in the final days of the second world war. The islands, which Japan calls the Northern Territories and Russia the Southern Kuriles, have remained contentious ever since, preventing the two neighbours from concluding a formal peace treaty.
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “No way back”
Asia April 2nd 2022
- The Taliban are pushing females out of public life
- South Korean millennials battle to get hold of Pokémon snacks
- Russian tourists stranded in Asia are running out of cash
- China makes inroads in the Solomon Islands
- Indonesia, the world’s biggest producer, has a palm-oil crisis
- The invasion of Ukraine has turned Japan definitively against Russia
From the April 2nd 2022 edition
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