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Soviet Union [USSR] SOVIET-JAPANESE RELATIONS
The poor relations between the Soviet Union and Japan can
probably be said to have originated in Japan's victory over
imperial Russia in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. During the
Russian Civil War (1918-21), Japan (as a member of the Allied
interventionist forces) occupied Vladivostok and did not leave
until 1922. In the waning days of World War II, Stalin abrogated
the 1941 neutrality pact between Japan and the Soviet Union,
declaring war on Japan days before Japan surrendered in August 1945
in order to occupy vast areas of East Asia formerly held by the
Japanese. Fifty-six islands of the Kuril chain, as well as the
southern half of Sakhalin, were subsequently incorporated into the
Soviet Union. The extreme southernmost islands of the Kuril chain
constitute what the Japanese still term the Northern Territories--
the small islands of Shikotan-tu, Kunashir, and Etorofu and the
Habomai Islands. Stalin's absorption of the Northern Territories
prevented the conclusion of a Soviet-Japanese World War II peace
treaty and the establishment of closer relations between the two
states. The Soviet Union continued to refuse to return the Northern
Territories because such a return would encourage the Chinese to
push their own territorial claims. Also, the Soviet Union has used
the islands as part of a antisubmarine warfare network guarding the
mouth of the Sea of Okhotsk.
Under Gorbachev, Soviet-Japanese relations thawed somewhat.
Foreign Minister Shevardnadze visited Tokyo in January 1986 and
December 1988, and a new Soviet ambassador, fluent in Japanese, was
posted to Tokyo in mid-1986. As of 1989, however, political and
economic relations had not shown signs of great improvement. Soviet
trade with Japan remained far below its potential, given the
Japanese need for energy and raw materials available from the
Soviet Union and Gorbachev's desires to import technology to
modernize the Soviet economy.
Data as of May 1989
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