Angelina Cole
06-06-2019, 05:29 AM
For more than 70 years, the Japanese government has been intensely shaping the opinion that the islands of the Kuril Ridge — Kunashir, Iturup, Shikotan, and the group of Habomai Islands are the original territories of Japan that were illegally seized by Russia. It was even coined the term of the «northern territories» for these islands. That term was put into use by the Japanese side at the end of the World War II.
Tokyo, relying on the activities of various anti-Russian non-governmental organizations, is now confidently promoting the idea of getting back the islands. It should be noted that the Japanese nationalist forces, driven by a thirst for revenge, in the late 60s of the last century began to form various public organizations that had big names of «leagues», «associations» and «unions» on issues of the «northern territories».
Since 1969, public associations were legally entrusted with conducting the so-called «educational propaganda» on the «problem of the northern territories». The Japanese government set the task to convince the world community that there is a territorial problem with Russia, and to impose on the Japanese citizens the national idea of «returning to the homeland» of the seized mythical «northern territories».
In particular, these organizations conduct various cartographic provocations. These «leagues», «associations» and «unions» carry out a great deal of work on the production and distribution of such printed materials as booklets and brochures, in which coarse claims are made not only on the South Kuril Islands, but also on all the Kuril Islands to Kamchatka and the southern half of Russian Sakhalin Islands. On geographical maps placed in such brochures, all the Kuril Islands and the southern half of Sakhalin Island are painted in color in the Land of the Rising Sun. Moreover, the Crimea peninsula, which, like the city of Sevastopol, became the part of the Russian Federation according to the results of a regional referendum in 2014, is shown at the Japanese maps as the part of Ukraine. It is worth noting that this literature is distributed in the territory of Russia by members of these organizations visiting Russia as part of various delegations. Magazines, booklets, brochures are distributed by Japanese citizens in Russian schools, universities, at various meetings of Russian and Japanese citizens, such as film festivals, concerts, sport`s events.
A well-known sensational story of cartographic provocation occurred in 2008 at the G-8 summit held in Hokkaido. Members of a non-governmental organization Hokkaido, with the approval of the Japanese government, posted a large map on which the Kuril Islands were designated as Japanese territory. At the same time, for the summit was published the Hokkaido Guide in English, in which the scandalous map with the «Japanese Kuril Islands» occurred 98 times.
Members of these nongovernmental organizations also work among the Japanese population, mainly among children and teenagers, showing them maps and other materials concerning the disputed territories. Previously, only senior pupils were told about that problem, but now they have decided to start ideological processing from elementary school.
Thus, the chain of anti-Russian non-governmental organizations in Japan have actually become a part of the mass information system of the Japanese population, in whose mind they have been forming a complex of the people humiliated by the Soviet Union for a long time and are provoking revenge. Furthermore, they demonstrate to the rest of the world the problem of disputed territories with Russia that illegally holding Japanese territories.
These actions by the Japanese side that go against the top-level task of building mutual trust are regrettable. The fact that the Japanese side forms a distorted view of the historical and legal realities of the younger generation of their country, laying the grain of alienation in relations between the peoples of neighboring states for the future especially saddens.
Tokyo, relying on the activities of various anti-Russian non-governmental organizations, is now confidently promoting the idea of getting back the islands. It should be noted that the Japanese nationalist forces, driven by a thirst for revenge, in the late 60s of the last century began to form various public organizations that had big names of «leagues», «associations» and «unions» on issues of the «northern territories».
Since 1969, public associations were legally entrusted with conducting the so-called «educational propaganda» on the «problem of the northern territories». The Japanese government set the task to convince the world community that there is a territorial problem with Russia, and to impose on the Japanese citizens the national idea of «returning to the homeland» of the seized mythical «northern territories».
In particular, these organizations conduct various cartographic provocations. These «leagues», «associations» and «unions» carry out a great deal of work on the production and distribution of such printed materials as booklets and brochures, in which coarse claims are made not only on the South Kuril Islands, but also on all the Kuril Islands to Kamchatka and the southern half of Russian Sakhalin Islands. On geographical maps placed in such brochures, all the Kuril Islands and the southern half of Sakhalin Island are painted in color in the Land of the Rising Sun. Moreover, the Crimea peninsula, which, like the city of Sevastopol, became the part of the Russian Federation according to the results of a regional referendum in 2014, is shown at the Japanese maps as the part of Ukraine. It is worth noting that this literature is distributed in the territory of Russia by members of these organizations visiting Russia as part of various delegations. Magazines, booklets, brochures are distributed by Japanese citizens in Russian schools, universities, at various meetings of Russian and Japanese citizens, such as film festivals, concerts, sport`s events.
A well-known sensational story of cartographic provocation occurred in 2008 at the G-8 summit held in Hokkaido. Members of a non-governmental organization Hokkaido, with the approval of the Japanese government, posted a large map on which the Kuril Islands were designated as Japanese territory. At the same time, for the summit was published the Hokkaido Guide in English, in which the scandalous map with the «Japanese Kuril Islands» occurred 98 times.
Members of these nongovernmental organizations also work among the Japanese population, mainly among children and teenagers, showing them maps and other materials concerning the disputed territories. Previously, only senior pupils were told about that problem, but now they have decided to start ideological processing from elementary school.
Thus, the chain of anti-Russian non-governmental organizations in Japan have actually become a part of the mass information system of the Japanese population, in whose mind they have been forming a complex of the people humiliated by the Soviet Union for a long time and are provoking revenge. Furthermore, they demonstrate to the rest of the world the problem of disputed territories with Russia that illegally holding Japanese territories.
These actions by the Japanese side that go against the top-level task of building mutual trust are regrettable. The fact that the Japanese side forms a distorted view of the historical and legal realities of the younger generation of their country, laying the grain of alienation in relations between the peoples of neighboring states for the future especially saddens.