TheKuril Islands orKurile Islands[a] are a volcanicarchipelago administered as part ofSakhalin Oblast in theRussian Far East.[1] The islands stretch approximately 1,300 km (810 mi) northeast fromHokkaido inJapan toKamchatka Peninsula in Russia, separating theSea of Okhotsk from the northPacific Ocean. There are 56 islands and many minor islets. The Kuril Islands consist of theGreater Kuril Chain and, at the southwest end, the parallelLesser Kuril Chain.[2] The group termed the 'South Kurils' consists of those of the Lesser Kuril Chain together withKunashir andIturup in the Greater Kuril Chain. TheVries Strait between Iturup andUrup forms the Miyabe Line dividing the North and South Kurils. The Kuril Islands cover an area of around 10,503.2 square kilometres (4,055.3 sq mi),[3] with a population of roughly 20,000.[4]
The islands have been under Russian administration since their1945 invasion by theSoviet Union near the end ofWorld War II. Japan claims the four southernmost islands, including two of the three largest (Iturup andKunashir), as part of its territory, as well asShikotan and the unpopulatedHabomai islets, which has led to the ongoingKuril Islands dispute. The disputed islands are known in Japan as the country's "Northern Territories".[5]
The nameKuril originates from theautonym that theIndigenousAinu had used for the islands,kur, meaning 'man'.[6] It may also be related to names for other islands that have traditionally been inhabited by theAinu people, such asKuyi orKuye forSakhalin andKai forHokkaido. InJapanese, the Kuril Islands are known as the Chishima Islands (Kanji:千島列島Chishima Rettō,lit.'Thousand Islands Archipelago'), and also as the Kuriru Islands (Katakana and Kanji:クリル列島Kuriru Rettō). Once Russians had discovered the islands in the 18th century, they had formulated apseudo-etymology derived from the Russiankurit′курить 'to smoke' due to the perpetual volcanic plumes emitting from the islands' volcanoes resembling smoke.
The Kuril Islands form part of the ring oftectonic instability encircling the Pacific Ocean referred to as theRing of Fire. The islands themselves are summits ofstratovolcanoes that are a direct result of the subduction of thePacific Plate under theOkhotsk Plate, which forms theKuril Trench some 200 kilometres (124 mi) east of the islands. The chain has around 100 volcanoes, some 40 of which are active, and manyhot springs andfumaroles. There is frequentseismic activity, including amagnitude8.5 earthquake in 1963 and one of magnitude 8.3 recorded onNovember 15, 2006, which resulted intsunami waves up to 1.5 metres (5 ft) reaching theCalifornia coast.[7] Raikoke Island, near the centre of the archipelago, has an active volcano which erupted again in June 2019, with emissions reaching 13,000 m (42,651 ft).
The climate on the islands is generally severe, with long, cold, stormy winters and short and notoriously foggy summers. The average annual precipitation is 40 to 50 inches (1,020 to 1,270 mm), a large portion of which falls as snow. TheKöppen climate classification of most of the Kurils issubarctic (Dfc), althoughKunashir ishumid continental (Dfb). However, the Kuril Islands' climate resembles thesubpolar oceanic climate ofsouthwest Alaska much more than the hypercontinental climate ofManchuria and interior Siberia, as precipitation is heavy and permafrost completely absent. It is characterized by mild summers with only 1 to 3 months above 10 °C or 50 °F and cold, snowy, extremely windy winters below −3 °C or 26.6 °F, although usually above −10 °C or 14 °F.
The chain ranges from temperate to sub-Arctic climate types, and the vegetative cover consequently ranges fromtundra in the north to densespruce andlarch forests on the larger southern islands. The highest elevations on the islands are Alaid volcano (highest point: 2,339 m or 7,674 ft) onAtlasov Island at the northern end of the chain and Tyatya volcano (1,819 m or 5,968 ft) on Kunashir Island at the southern end.
Landscape types and habitats on the islands include many kinds of beach and rocky shores, cliffs, wide rivers and fast gravelly streams, forests, grasslands,alpine tundra,crater lakes andpeat bogs. The soils are generally productive, owing to the periodic influxes of volcanic ash and, in certain places, owing to significant enrichment byseabirdguano. However, many of the steep, unconsolidated slopes are susceptible tolandslides and newer volcanic activity can entirelydenude a landscape. Only the southernmost island has large areas covered by trees, while more northerly islands have no trees, or spotty tree cover.
The northernmost,Atlasov Island (Araido in Japanese), is an almost-perfectvolcanic cone rising sheer out of the sea; it has been praised by the Japanese inhaiku,wood-block prints, and other forms, in much the same way as the better-knownMount Fuji. Its summit is the highest point inSakhalin Oblast.
Owing to their location along the Pacific shelf edge and the confluence of Okhotsk Sea gyre and the southwardOyashio Current, the Kuril islands are surrounded by waters that are among the most productive in the North Pacific, supporting a wide range and high abundance of marine life.
Invertebrates: Extensivekelp beds surrounding almost every island provide crucial habitat forsea urchins, variousmollusks and countless other invertebrates and their associated predators. Many species ofsquid provide a principal component of the diet of many of the smaller marine mammals and birds along the chain.
Fish: Further offshore,walleye pollock,Pacific cod, several species offlatfish are of the greatest commercial importance. During the 1980s, migratory Japanesesardine was one of the most abundant fish in the summer.
Pinniped: The main pinnipeds were a significant object of harvest for the indigenous populations of the Kuril islands, both for food and materials such as skin and bone. The long-term fluctuations in the range and distribution of human settlements along the Kuril island presumably tracked the pinniped ranges. In historical times, fur seals were heavily exploited for their fur in the 19th and early 20th centuries and several of the largest reproductive rookeries, as onRaykoke island, were extirpated. In contrast, commercial harvest of thetrue seals andSteller sea lions has been relatively insignificant on the Kuril islands proper. Since the 1960s there has been essentially no additional harvest and the pinniped populations in the Kuril islands appear to be fairly healthy and in some cases expanding. The notable exception is the now extinctJapanese sea lion, which was known to occasionallyhaul out on the Kuril islands.
Sea otters: Sea otters were exploited very heavily for their pelts in the 19th century, as shown by 19th- and 20th-century whaling catch and sighting records.[8]
Seabirds: The Kuril islands are home to many millions of seabirds, includingnorthern fulmars,tufted puffins,murres,kittiwakes,guillemots,auklets,petrels,gulls andcormorants. On many of the smaller islands in summer, where terrestrial predators are absent, virtually every possibly hummock, cliff niche or underneath of boulder is occupied by a nesting bird. Several of the islands, including Kunashir and the Lesser Kuril Chain in the South Kurils, and the northern Kurils from Urup to Paramushir, have been recognised asImportant Bird Areas (IBAs) byBirdLife International because they support populations of variousthreatened bird species, including manywaterbirds,seabirds andwaders.[9]
The composition of terrestrial species on the Kuril islands is dominated by Asian mainland taxa via migration from Hokkaido andSakhalin Islands and by Kamchatkan taxa from the North. While highly diverse, there is a relatively low level ofendemism on a species level.
Because of the generally smaller size and isolation of the central islands, few major terrestrial mammals have colonized these, thoughred andArcticfoxes were introduced for the sake of the fur trade in the 1880s. The bulk of the terrestrial mammal biomass is taken up byrodents, many introduced in historical times. The largest southernmost and northernmost islands are inhabited bybrown bear, foxes, andmartens.Leopards once inhabited the islands. Some species ofdeer are found on the more southerly islands. It is claimed that a wild cat, theKurilian Bobtail, originates from the Kuril Islands. The bobtail is due to the mutation of a dominant gene. The cat has been domesticated and exported to nearby Russia and bred there, becoming a popular domestic cat.
TheAinu people inhabited the Kuril Islands from early times, although few records predate the 17th century. From theKamakura period to theMuromachi period, there were Ezo (Ainu) people called Hinomoto from the Pacific coast of Hokkaido to the Kuril region, and Mr. Ando, the Ezo Sateshiku and Ezo Kanrei, was in charge of this ("Suwa Daimyojin Ekotoba"). It is said that when turmoil broke out on Ezogashima, he dispatched troops from Tsugaru. Its activities include the Kanto Gomensen, which calls itself the Ando Suigun, and is based in Jusanminato ("Kaisen Shikimoku"), supplying Japanese products to Ezo society and purchasing large quantities of northern products and shipping them nationwide. ("Thirteen Streets").The Matsumae clan, a feudal lord of Japan, became independent from the Ando clan (the family of Goro Ando). The Japanese administration first took nominal control of the islands during theEdo period (1603-1868) in the form of claims by theMatsumae clan.[10][need quotation to verify] TheShōhō EraMap of Japan (Shōhō kuni ezu (正保国絵図)), a map of Japan made by theTokugawa shogunate in 1644, shows 39 large and small islands northeast of Hokkaido'sShiretoko Peninsula andCape Nosappu. A Dutch expedition underMaarten Gerritsz Vries explored the islands in 1643.Fedot Alekseyevich Popov sailed into the areac. 1649.[11]Russian Cossacks landed onShumshu in 1711.[12]
Shana Village in Etorofu (Shōwa period): a village hospital in the foreground, a factory in the left background with a fishery and a central radio tower (before 1945).
At the very end of the 19th century, the Japanese administration started the forcedassimilation of the native Ainu people.[18][19] Also at this time the Ainu were granted automatic Japanese citizenship, effectively denying them the status of an indigenous group. Many Japanese moved onto former Ainu lands, including the Kuril islands. The Ainu were required to adopt Japanese names, and ordered to cease religious practices such as animal sacrifice and the custom of tattooing.[19] Although not compulsory, education was conducted in Japanese. Prior to Japanese colonization[20] (in 1868) about 100 Ainu reportedly lived on the Kuril islands.[21]
In 1941 AdmiralIsoroku Yamamoto ordered the assembly of theImperial Japanese Navy strike-force for theHawaii Operation attack on Pearl Harbor in Tankan orHitokappu Bay,Iturup Island, South Kurils. The territory was chosen for its sparse population, lack of foreigners, and constant fog-coverage. The Admiral ordered the move to Hawaii on the morning of 26 November.
Another mission was flown during 11 September 1943 when theEleventh Air Force dispatched eightB-24 Liberators and 12B-25s. Facing reinforced Japanese defenses, 74 crew members in three B-24s and seven B-25 failed to return. 22 men were killed in action, one taken prisoner and 51 interned inKamchatka.
Japanese sources[which?] report that theMatsuwa military installations were subject to American air-strikes between 1943 and 1944.
The Americans' strategic feint called "Operation Wedlock" diverted Japanese attention north and misled them about the U.S. strategy in the Pacific.[22] The plan included air strikes by the USAAF and U.S. Navy bombers which included U.S. Navy shore bombardment and submarine operations. The Japanese increased their garrison in the north Kurils from 8,000 in 1943 to 41,000 in 1944 and maintained more than 400 aircraft in the Kurils andHokkaido area in anticipation that the Americans might invade fromAlaska.
A monument commemorating the Soviet landing depicted on a Russian5 rouble coin, 2020
American planners had briefly contemplated an invasion of northernJapan from theAleutian Islands during the autumn of 1943 but rejected that idea as too risky and impractical. They considered the use ofBoeing B-29 Superfortresses, onAmchitka andShemya bases, but rejected the idea. The U.S. military maintained interest in these plans when they ordered the expansion of bases in the western Aleutians, and major construction began on Shemya. In 1945, plans for a possible invasion of Japan via the northern route were shelved[by whom?].
The Soviets expelled the entire Japanese civilian population of roughly 17,000 by 1946.
Between 24 August and 4 September 1945 the Eleventh Air Force of theUnited States Army Air Forces sent two B-24s on reconnaissance missions over the North Kuril Islands with the intention of taking photos of theSoviet occupation in the area. Soviet fighters intercepted and forced them away.[citation needed]
Japan maintains a claim to the three islands ofKunashir,Iturup, andShikotan, and theHabomai rocks, together called theNorthern Territories.In addition, the Japanese government claims that the Kuril Islands, other than the Northern Territories and South Karafuto, are undetermined areas under international law because the San Francisco Peace Treaty does not specify where they belong and the Soviet Union has not signed it.
Main village inShikotanRussian Orthodox church, Kunashir
As of 2013[update], 19,400 people inhabited the Kuril Islands, of which 16,700 lived on the four disputed southern islands and 2,600 lived onParamushir, the northernmost large island; the islands in between are uninhabited. These include ethnicRussians,Ukrainians,Belarusians,Tatars,Nivkhs,Oroch,Japanese andAinus.Iturup Island is over 60% ethnically Ukrainian.[5]Russian Orthodox Christianity is the main religion. Some of the villages are permanently occupied by Russian soldiers. Others are inhabited by civilians, who are mostly fishers, workers in fish factories, dockers, and social sphere workers (police, medics, teachers, etc.). Construction works on the islands have attracted migrant workers from the rest of Russia and otherpost-Soviet states. As of 2014[update], there were only 8 inhabited islands out of a total of 56.
Fishing is the primary occupation. The islands have strategic and economic value, in terms of fisheries and also mineral deposits ofpyrite,sulfur, and variouspolymetallicores. There are hopes that oil exploration will provide an economic boost to the islands.[25]
In 2014, construction workers built a pier and a breakwater in Kitovy Bay, central Iturup, where barges are a major means of transport, sailing between the cove and ships anchored offshore. A new road has been carved through the woods near Kurilsk, the island's biggest village, going to the site ofYuzhno-Kurilsk Mendeleyevo Airport.[26]
Gidrostroy, the Kurils' biggest business group with interests in fishing, construction and real estate, built its second fish processing factory on Iturup island in 2006, introducing a state-of-the-art conveyor system.
To deal with a rise in the demand of electricity, the local government is also upgrading a state-run geothermal power plant atMount Baransky, an active volcano, where steam and hot water can be found.[27]
In 2022, a special economic zone was established on the Kuril islands with special tax regimes, exemption from corporate income tax, VAT with reduced customs duties for 20 years.[28][29] It is an important part of Russian government's plan to develop theRussian far east.[30]
The main Russian force stationed on the islands is the18th Machine Gun Artillery Division, which has its headquarters inGoryachiye Klyuchi on theIturup Island. There are also Border Guard Service troops stationed on the islands. In February 2011, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called for substantial reinforcements of the Kuril Islands defences. Subsequently, in 2015, additional anti-aircraft missile systemsTor andBuk,coastal defence missile systemBastion,Kamov Ka-52 combat helicopters and oneVarshavyanka project submarine came on defence of Kuril Islands.[citation needed] During the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine, it was reported that parts of the 18th Machine Gun Artillery Division were redeployed to Eastern Ukraine.[31]
^In theGreater/Lesser Kuril Chain designations, the former is the 'Inner' chain and broadly comprises the islands fromAtlasov toKunashir (thus including two of the South Kurils as set out here) and the latter forms a relatively short 'Outer' chain close to theNemuro Peninsula ofHokkaido and extends toShikotan.
^Stephan, John J. (1974).The Kuril Islands: Russo-Japanese Frontier in the Pacific. Clarendon Press. pp. 38–39.ISBN9780198215639.Archived from the original on 7 July 2023. Retrieved27 January 2021.According to subsequent elaborations, a document in the Central State Archives [...] indicated that a merchant adventurer by the name of Fedot Alekseev Popov had reached the Kurils in 1649 after completing an odyssey from the Arctic [...] popular Soviet publications [...] have enshrined Popov as the discoverer of the Kurils.
^Vysokov, Mikhail Stanislavovich (1996).A Brief History of Sakhalin and the Kurils. Sakhalin Book Publishing House. p. D-24.ISBN9785884531222.Archived from the original on 7 July 2023. Retrieved27 January 2021.Russians first set foot on the Kuril islands in August 1711 , when a detachment of Kamchatka Cossacks under the leadership of Daniil Antsiferov and Ivan Kozyrevsky landed on Shumshu, the northernmost of the Greater Kurils.
^Eliza Adams, of Fairhaven, May 29 – Jun 13, June 24-Aug. 1, 1847, Old Dartmouth Historical Society (ODHS);Splendid, of Edgartown, Aug. 12-Sep. 6, 1848, Nicholson Whaling Collection (NWC);Shepherdess, of Mystic, May 8–30, 1849, NWC;Hudson, of Fairhaven, Oct. 6, 1857, Kendall Whaling Museum (KWM);Sea Breeze, of New Bedford, Oct. 5–18, 1868, ODHS;Cape Horn Pigeon, of New Bedford, Aug. 23-Sep. 10, 1892, KWM.
^Lexington, of Nantucket, May 31, 1855, Nantucket Historical Association.
^Starbuck, Alexander (1878).History of the American Whale Fishery from Its Earliest Inception to the year 1876. Castle.ISBN1-55521-537-8.
^Cape Horn Pigeon, of New Bedford, Sep. 10, Sep. 19-Oct. 1, 1892, KWM.
^Loos, Noel; Osani, Takeshi, eds. (1993).Indigenous Minorities and Education: Australian and Japanese Perspectives on their Indigenous Peoples, the Ainu, Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders. Tokyo: Sanyusha Publishing Co., Ltd.ISBN978-4-88322-597-2.
^abLevinson, David (2002).Encyclopedia of Modern Asia. Vol. 1. Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 72.ISBN978-0-684-80617-4.
^Siddle, Richard (1996).Race, Resistance, and the Ainu of Japan. Routledge. p. 51.ISBN978-0-41513-228-2.
^Howell, David (1997). "The Meiji State and the Logic of Ainu 'Protection'". In Hardacre, Helen (ed.).New Directions in the Study of Meiji Japan. Leiden:Brill Publishers. p. 614.ISBN978-9-00410-735-9.
^Gawne, Jonathan (2002).Ghosts of the ETO: American Tactical Deception Units in the European Theater, 1944–1945. Havertown, Pennsylvania: Casemate (published 2007). p. 10.ISBN9781935149927.Archived from the original on 7 July 2023. Retrieved27 January 2021.Operation WEDLOCK in 1944 created a notional force in the northern Pacific that appeared ready to invade the Kuril Islands. This pinned down Japanese troops and equipment in an area the Americans had no intention of attacking.
^"It was hoped that the proceeds from the ongoing projects would help to alleviate the high level of poverty in the region".Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia,s.v. Sakhalin Oblast" (Europa Publications) 2003.
Gorshkov, G. S.Volcanism and the Upper Mantle Investigations in the Kurile Island Arc. Monographs in geoscience. New York: Plenum Press, 1970.ISBN0-306-30407-4
Krasheninnikov, Stepan Petrovich, and James Greive.The History of Kamtschatka and the Kurilski Islands, with the Countries Adjacent. Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1963.
Rees, David.The Soviet Seizure of the Kuriles. New York: Praeger, 1985.ISBN0-03-002552-4
Takahashi, Hideki, and Masahiro Ōhara.Biodiversity and Biogeography of the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin. Bulletin of the Hokkaido University Museum, no. 2-. Sapporo, Japan: Hokkaido University Museum, 2004.
Hasegawa, Tsuyoshi.Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan. 2006.ISBN978-0-674-02241-6.
Alan Catharine and Denis Cleary.Unwelcome Company.A fiction thriller novel set in 1984 Tokyo and the Kuriles featuring a light aircraft crash and escape from Russian-held territory.
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