The connection between the Thousand Islands and Japan

Qingyan will answer.

The connection between the Thousand Islands and Japan.

The Kuril Islands are located between Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula and Japan’s Hokkaido, with a total length of 1,300 kilometers and composed of 56 islands. The four northern islands are the four southernmost islands of the Kuril Islands, including Etortor Island, Kunashir Island, Shikotan Island and Habomai Islands, with a total area of ??about 5,000 square kilometers.

When it comes to the territorial disputes between Japan and Russia on the four northern islands, it can be said that they have been entangled for a long time.

In 1855, Japan and Russia signed the "Japan-Russia Treaty of Peace, Affiliate Relations, and Friendship", officially dividing the Kuril Islands. The two countries agreed to use the strait between Iturup Island and Urup Island as the boundary. The south of the strait is called the Southern Kuril Islands and is owned by Japan. The north of the strait is owned by Russia. At the beginning of the 19th century, Tsarist Russia suddenly broke the contract and sent troops to occupy the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin Island, including the four northern islands. Due to the failure of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, Tsarist Russia was forced to sign the Treaty of Portsmouth, transferring control of the Southern Kuril Islands and southern Sakhalin Island to Japan. In 1875, Japan signed the "Sakhalin and Kuril Islands Exchange Treaty" with Tsarist Russia, exchanging sovereignty over southern Sakhalin Island for sovereignty over the Northern Kuril Islands. At this point, Japan gained sovereignty over the entire Kuril Islands until the end of World War II.

Soviet troops stationed in Harbin

The Allies paid for the sovereignty of the Kuril Islands and southern Sakhalin Island in exchange for the Soviets sending troops; Manchuria.

At the Yalta Conference held on February 4, 1945, the Soviet Union agreed to join the war against Japan in return for regaining all sovereignty over the Kuril Islands and southern Sakhalin, and occupying Hokkaido.

On August 9, 1945, 1.7 million Soviet Red Army troops crossed the Sino-Soviet border from the west and north and launched a surprise attack on the Japanese Kwantung Army entrenched in northeastern China. At this time, the Japanese Kwantung Army had long been unwilling to fight. Facing the Soviet army's steel torrent, it was unable to resist and could only retreat steadily. On August 6th and 9th, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan were directly bombed to the ground by atomic bombs. On August 14, the Japanese government announced its unconditional acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration. On the 15th, the Emperor of Japan broadcast the surrender edict. The morale of the Kwantung Army was even lower, and the entire defense system collapsed instantly. On the 19th, Yamada Otsuzo, commander of the Japanese Kwantung Army, officially announced his surrender to the Soviet army.

Marshal Vasilevsky, Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Army in the Far East

The work was done, but the Allies wanted to go back on their word.

On August 15, the day the Emperor of Japan issued the "Redict of Surrender," the Soviet Union learned that the Allies' plans had changed. MacArthur, the newly appointed Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Japan, received a secret message asking him to prevent the Soviet army from occupying the Kuril Islands and southern Sakhalin Island. Since there was no hope of peaceful takeover, the Soviet army decided to use force to defend the Kuril Islands.

On August 15, Marshal Vasilevsky, commander-in-chief of the Soviet Army in the Far East, issued an order to launch a military operation to occupy the Kuril Islands.

The core of this mission is the 101st Infantry Division led by Major General Tyakov. Their target is Zhanshou Island, which is the closest to the Kamchatka Peninsula.

The Japanese army established a strong line of defense on Zhanshou Island, with bunkers, trenches, and barbed wire all over the island. On the northeastern end of the island, there are several strong firepower points and an anti-aircraft fort converted from a stranded cruise ship. There are 8,500 troops stationed on the island, and the commander is Lieutenant General Fangaki.

The Soviet army used the beach in the northeast of Zhanshou Island as a landing point. In order to achieve the suddenness of the battle, Major General Diyakov decided to abandon fire preparations and land directly on Zhanshou Island. This is a very dangerous decision. Once the Soviet army's landing intention is exposed, the Japanese army will immediately dispatch reinforcements from Horenyan Island. By then, the Japanese army's strength will reach 2.3 people, and the number of Soviet troops landing is less than half of the Japanese army, and it is very likely that the Japanese army will drive them back to the sea.

Soviet soldiers stood firm in the trenches on the beach

At 4 a.m. on August 18, the Soviet Red Army destroyer fleet headed by the cruiser Kirov began to cover the landing troops ashore. At 4:30, the advance detachment of the Soviet Red Army completed the landing on the narrow beach in the northeast of the island. Due to the lack of heavy weapons, they had to hide in place. At 4:50, the Soviet Red Navy began a diversionary bombardment of the naval base on the island. While the Japanese army's attention was attracted by the artillery fire, the Soviet advance detachment began to move to the island. Just an hour after the advance detachment landed, Japanese sentries finally discovered the whereabouts of the Soviet troops. Then the Japanese troops fired heavily at them, but it was too late. Under the guidance of the advance detachment, a Japanese lighthouse was hit by naval artillery fire and caught fire. The raging fire pointed the way for the follow-up troops. Although hundreds of soldiers were still swept into the sea, most of the team members successfully landed.

As the sky grew brighter, the Japanese army used fierce artillery fire as a cover and launched a regiment-level charge in an attempt to drive the Soviet army into the sea. The Soviet soldiers hid in the temporarily dug trenches and used their Bobosha submachine guns to cause great damage to the intensive charging Japanese troops. Just outside the Soviet position, the bodies of the Japanese troops were piled up layer after layer. The battle lasted until evening, during which the Soviet army also used anti-tank rifles to destroy seven Japanese Type 97 Chinese tanks. By 20:00 in the evening, the Soviet Red Army captured the two most important commanding heights on the island. On the 19th, the Japanese army, which heard Emperor Hirohito's surrender edict on the radio, took the initiative to propose a ceasefire. On the 21st, Lieutenant General Fangmu, the top Japanese commander on Omanshu Island, received an order from the Japanese base camp to surrender unconditionally.

On the 23rd, all the defenders on Zhanshou Island surrendered to the Soviet army.

The Soviet Red Army immediately launched an attack southward, and a series of subsequent landings were basically unopposed. At 22:00 on August 31, 1945, the Soviet Red Army ended the battle in the northern part of the Kuril Islands and began to station in the southern Kuril Islands. In the early morning of August 28, 1945, the Soviet Red Army landed on Ertu Island, and the 13,500 Japanese defenders surrendered without a fight. On September 7, the last garrison surrendered, and the Soviet Red Army Far East General Headquarters announced that the Thousand Islands landing operation was completed. The subsequent Hokkaido landing operation plan was canceled by Stalin because it might cause heavy casualties.

Postscript

After the four northern islands belonged to the Soviet Union in 1945, Japanese islanders and Soviet immigrants lived together for a period of time. In 1947, the United States and the Soviet Union reached an agreement, and all Japanese prisoners of war and Japanese islanders were returned to Japan.

Shortly after the war, the Japanese government began to demand the four northern islands from the Soviet Union on the grounds of the "Japan-Russia Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Friendship, and Friendship" signed between Japan and Russia in 1855. In 1956, when the Soviet Union and Japan signed the "Soviet-Japanese Declaration of Integration," they intended to return Shikotan Island and Habomai Island to Japan. However, the Japanese government insists on claiming all four islands, and the two countries have never reached an agreement, so neither country has signed a peace treaty so far.