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The Kuril Islands are a set of islands that stretches more than 800 miles from the north of Japan to the tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. While they are sparsely populated, the islands have been the source of a territorial dispute throughout the end of the 1800s and into the 1900s and even today due to their strategic importance in terms of fishing and mineral deposits.
See more maps about border disputes, see the posts on the Chile & Argentina Border, Kinmen & Lienchiang in Taiwan or the Giurgiulesti Free Port border between Romania, Moldova & Ukraine.
For other maps on military installments, see Djibouti Military Bases!
See the interactive Google Map at the bottom of the post!
Three key facts about this map
Japan’s claim to the islands was challenged by Russia after WWII
The possession of the Kuril Islands has changed various times since 1855, when the first treaty between the two countries was signed that recognized possession:
- 1855: The border was formed between Iturup and Urup
- 1875: Japan got possession of all of the Kurils under the condition that Russia maintained control over Sakhalin Island
- 1905: Japan retained control over Kuril Islands and gained the bottom half of Sakhalin Island
- 1945: The USSR claimed control over all of the Kuril Islands and all of Sakhalin after Japan’s defeat in WWII
Significant ambiguities in the post-WWII agreements leave interpretation for claims on Kuril Islands
The agreements after Japan’s 1945 defeat in WWII were very ambiguous in regards to the Kuril Islands, which is the source of much of the modern-day conflict. The agreement in 1951 that provided the USSR to interpret their claim to the entire island chain stated:
“The former rights of Russia violated by the treacherous attack of Japan in 1904 shall be restored…The southern part of Sakhalin as well as the islands adjacent to it shall be returned to the Soviet Union…The Kuril islands shall be handed over to the Soviet Union.”
To Japan, the Kuril Islands do not include anything south of Iturup – it considers these as its Northern Territories. Furthermore, Japan claims that the USSR never maintained possession of any island south of Iturup prior to 1945 so it should not be allowed to control these islands as they were not gained via “treacherous attack of Japan”.
Russia recently deployed a missile system to the Kuril Islands
In early December 2022, Russia announced it was deploying a missile system to one of the Kuril Islands – Paramushir. This is not one of the islands claimed by Japan as one of its Northern Territories. This system complements other military camps and systems set up on another island nearby last year (Matua).
Additional links and sources
- Recent news on increase in Russian military presence on the Kurils (link, published in 2022)
- Older map of the Kurils (link, published in 1988)
- Article on Japan’s Northern Territories (link, published in 2016)
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