History
In 1789 Kunashiri was one of the settings of the Menashi-Kunashir Battle in which Ainu revolted against Japanese tradespeople and colonists.
Russian navigator Vasily Golovnin attempted to map and explore the island in 1811, but was apprehended by Japanese authorities and spent two years in prison.
On September 1, 1945, or one day before the surrender documents of World War II were signed on September 2, 1945, after the denounciation of the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact in April 1945 and the declaration of war on Japan on August 9, 1945 (formally, the pact itself remained in effect until April 13, 1946), according to decisions of the Yalta Conference, Soviet Union annexed the Kuril Islands and the mainly disputed Northern territories, which Japanese government claims that they are not parts of Kuril Islands for historical reasons, and landed on the disputed island.
Read more about this topic: Kunashir Island
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Those who weep for the happy periods which they encounter in history acknowledge what they want; not the alleviation but the silencing of misery.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The history of progress is written in the blood of men and women who have dared to espouse an unpopular cause, as, for instance, the black man’s right to his body, or woman’s right to her soul.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)