Habomai Islands

File:Location_of_Yuzhno-Kurilsky_District_(Sakhalin_Oblast).svg. The bottom left of the red-shaded area is the Habomai Islands. The dark grey area is Hokkaido, while the light grey area is the Kamchatka Peninsula.]]

File:Nk-55-2-shikotanto-japan.pdf, 1990)]]

In the seventeenth century the Matsumae clan made efforts to administer the islands; by 1644 the islands had been mapped as Japanese territories.{{cite web| url=https://mandalaprojects.com/ice/ice-cases/kurile.htm |title=The Kurile Islands Dispute |date=November 1997 |work=mandalaprojects.com |access-date=22 March 2023}}

In 1732 the islands were mapped during the Russian Great Eastern Expedition.

The Treaty of Shimoda, signed by Russia and Japan in 1855, recognised Japanese ownership of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan, and the Habomai Islands.{{cite web |title=Kuril islands dispute between Russia and Japan |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-11664434 |publisher=BBC |access-date=18 May 2015}}

The Habomai Islands were occupied by Soviet forces in the last few days of World War II. The islands were eventually annexed by the Soviet Union, which deported all the island residents to Japan. Moscow claimed the islands as part of a war-time agreement between the Allies (Yalta Agreement), which provided for the transfer of the Chishima (Kurile) Islands to the USSR in return for its participation in the Pacific War. However, Japan maintains that the Habomai Islands are not part of the Kuriles and are in fact part of Hokkaido prefecture. On May 26, 1955, the United States submitted an application for proceedings against the Soviet Union. As part of the proceedings, the United States questioned the validity of the Soviet Union's claim to the Habomai Islands.{{cite web|title=October 7, 1952 Incident (Habomai Islands) : Application by the United States to the International Court of Justice, May 26, 1955|url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/airpl003.asp#3|publisher=Yale Law School|access-date=18 May 2015}}

In 1956, after difficult negotiations, the Soviet Union agreed to cede the Habomai to Japan, along with Shikotan, after the conclusion of a peace treaty between the two countries.[https://www.nytimes.com/1956/10/20/archives/texts-of-sovietjapanese-statements-peace-declaration-trade-protocol.html "Texts of Soviet–Japanese Statements; Peace Declaration Trade Protocol."] The New York Times, page 2, October 20, 1956.
Subtitle: "Moscow, October 19. (UP) – Following are the texts of a Soviet–Japanese peace declaration and of a trade protocol between the two countries, signed here today, in unofficial translation from the Russian". Quote:"...The U.S.S.R. and Japan have agreed to continue, after the establishment of normal diplomatic relations between them, negotiations for the conclusion of a peace treaty. Hereby, the U.S.S.R., in response to the desires of Japan and taking into consideration the interest of the Japanese state, agrees to hand over to Japan the Habomai and the Shikotan Islands, provided that the actual changing over to Japan of these islands will be carried out after the conclusion of a peace treaty..." As the treaty was never concluded, the islands remained under Soviet jurisdiction. However, the promise of a two-island solution (for the purpose of simplicity, the Habomai rocks count as one island) has been renewed in the Soviet-Japanese, and later Russo-Japanese negotiations. Formerly home to a Japanese fishing community, the islands are now uninhabited except for the Russian border guard outpost.File:Habomai-islands PANORAMA.png (March 26, 2005).]]

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• Offshore islets of Shikotan

{{Reflist}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060525203946/http://www.orthodoxnews.netfirms.com/198/Habomai.htm Habomai islet gets Russian Orthodox church]
• [http://members.tripod.com/~merkulov/TEXTS01/STE.HTM The Kurile Islands]

{{Kuril Islands}}

Category:Japan–Soviet Union relations

Category:Southern Kuriles

Category:Nemuro Subprefecture