On this day of traditional, old-fashioned love and romance, I wish everyone a time of joy in the company of those you most care for.

*. *. *

But after the exchanges of hugs and kisses and flowers and chocolates, and the romantic dinner, and whatever else you have planned, life goes on . . . and so, apparently, does World War II.

“WHAT?? Has she finally lost the last of her diminishing supply of marbles?” — you ask. Actually, no . . . I have not. Because technically, Russia and Japan have never signed a peace treaty. The war in the Pacific — for those two, at least — is not yet officially over.

Well, isn’t that exactly what you needed to hear? The world isn’t screwed up enough? Russia needs more countries to invade? Okay, calm down now. Russia has not invaded Japan, and as far as I know, they’re not planning to. (Of course, they swore they weren’t going to invade Ukraine either . . . until they did. But that’s a whole different ball of wax.) As for Japan, I have no idea what they might be thinking, because they really want their islands back.

“Their” islands? Maybe. We are, of course, talking about the Kuril Islands: a volcanic archipelago of 56 tiny patches of land stretching about 800 miles from Hokkaido, Japan, to the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, and serving as a divider of sorts between the Sea of Okhotsk and the northern Pacific Ocean. Together, they cover an area of about 6,000 square miles, and boast a population of around 20,000. And both Japan and Russia lay claim to them.

The history of the islands is long and complex — they’ve changed hands back and forth more times than a tennis ball at Wimbledon. But Russia currently occupies and maintains tight control over them, and Japan wants them back . . . or more particularly, the four southernmost islands, the ones closest to Hokkaido, which include two of the largest of the chain. And Russia’s not about to budge. They took those four — and a good bit more — at the end of the war with Japan in 1945, but Japan continues to claim that they’re part of their country “as they have always been visible with the naked eye from the Japanese island of Hokkaido and appear on centuries-old maps of Japan as being part of Japan.” [Russian Analytical Digest, July 2020.]

(Why am I having a sudden flashback to a certain former Governor of Alaska claiming that she could see Russia from her front porch? It’s weird. But I digress . . . )

Going back a few hundred years, the islands were first settled by the Russians in the 17th and 18th Centuries, and were later seized by Japan in 1875. After World War II, Japan ceded them back to the Soviet Union, the Japanese occupants were repatriated, and the islands have since — together with the larger Sakhalin Island — formed a strategically-located administrative region of the Soviet Union / Russian Federation. [Russian Analytical Digest, July 2020.]

But Japan still claims right of ownership of the four southernmost bits of floating real estate, and so the back-and-forth continues . . . and, officially, so does World War II.

With two fiercely stubborn world powers holding the opposite ends of this very long rope, it’s anyone’s guess as to how this will play out. Personally, I don’t see why they can’t just split the difference — two for you, and two for me — and put at least one war to rest.

And now you know why I never went into politics.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
2/14/24