The so-called "Four Northern Islands" is the Japanese name for the southern part of the Kuril Islands, the Four Islands of Zera, Sedan, Tooth Dance, and Kunigami; the former Soviet Union and Russia have always called them the "South Kuril Islands".
The disputes surrounding these four islands have a history of more than a hundred years if you count from the Russo-Japanese War in 1905.
Stalin, the head of the former Soviet Union, once said after the war: "The four northern islands are the spoils of war bought by the blood of countless Soviet soldiers, and no one has the right to take them away!" ”
The current Russian president Vladimir Putin has also made a strong statement: "Russia's territory is the largest in the world, but not an inch is superfluous..."
Recently, during Japan's Hosting of the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Russian Prime Minister Mishustin landed on the South Kuril Islands for inspection and also proposed the establishment of a special customs area on the island to attract foreign investment.
The Russian prime minister's move not only attracted the attention of the world, but also once again triggered protests from the Japanese side. Russian presidential press secretary Peskov said it was Russia's right for Russian leaders to visit places and urged Japan to sign a peace treaty as soon as possible.
Speaking of which, these four islands, which no one in Russia and Japan want to let go, are not very large, only more than 5,000 square kilometers, and the overall resources have not been explored so far, but no one doubts that it is in short supply.
Geographically only, they are in the middle of the border between Russia and Japan, and whoever has this position has a strategic front and gateway. When the Japanese Combined Fleet sneaked into Pearl Harbor in the United States, it set out from Shanguan Bay on the southeast coast of The Island of Selective.
In the eighteenth century, the northern and southern parts of the Kuril Islands belonged to Japan and Russia. In the nineteenth century, Tsarist Russia strongly occupied the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin Island (Sakhalin Island), including the four northern islands. Who would have guessed that in 1905, due to the rupture of the Russian army in the Russo-Japanese War, Tsarist Russia was forced to transfer control of the Kuril Islands and South Sakhalin Islands to Japan through the Treaty of Portsmouth.
After the Japanese gained a foothold, they not only blocked Russia's exit to the Pacific, but also became a base for them to covet the coastal regions and the Russian Far East.
After the outbreak of World War II, in order to strengthen the defense of the Kuril Islands, the Japanese army gathered nearly 100,000 troops, built nine combat airfields, and garrisoned 23,000 troops on the occupied islands near the Soviet Union, with the support of chariot joints.
By February 1945, the prospects for World War II were becoming increasingly clear. In the Yalta Agreement on post-war Japan, the Soviet Union, the United States, and Britain stipulated that, in return for the Soviet Union's troops against Japan, the entire Kuril Islands, including the Chosen Capture, Kunigo, Sedan and Tooth Dance Islands, would be assigned to the Soviet Union.
In order to implement the Yalta Agreement, it also avenged the defeat of the Russian army in the early years. In August 1945, while sending troops to northeast China to eliminate the Kwantung Army, the Soviet Union decided to use force to recover the Kuril Islands occupied by the Japanese army, and first launched the famous "Battle of the Gatekeeper".
The historic Battle of the Kuril Islands, which took place on August 18, 1945, was also an important part of the Soviet Far East Campaign.
In order to achieve the effect of the surprise attack, the Soviet army made a difficult midnight landing. Due to the heavy fog at sea that night, the Soviets could not send aircraft to support, and had to rely on shore guns and the gunfire of escort destroyers to cover the landing forces to launch attacks.
In the early morning of August 18, Soviet shore artillery units fired revenge shells from the Lopat Battery on the Kamchatka Peninsula, 12 kilometers away, bombarding the Japanese positions occupying the island, and the Soviet fleet, led by the Soviet Navy cruiser Kirov, also smashed 180 mm Katyusha rockets at the Japanese on the island.
At the beginning of the "Battle of the Gate", the sleeping Japanese troops were so dizzy that they didn't even know what was happening. Because from sea and land there are cannons bombarding them.
The Japanese division headquarters did not know where the troops who landed came from, and it was not until they heard the shouts of Russian on the radio that they guessed that the Red Army had killed them.
The Soviet army attacking the island in this battle was mainly the 101st Infantry Division of the Far Eastern Army, supplemented by the 1st Naval Infantry Battalion, with a total strength of more than 8360 people. They were supported by 218 guns and carried 64 ships to land on Champa Island.
The Japanese garrison on the island was part of the 91st Division, with an infantry brigade, a fortress artillery regiment, an anti-aircraft wing, and a naval infantry regiment, with a strength of 23,000 men and 64 tanks. Reinforced concrete fortifications connected by tunnels and traffic trenches are spread throughout the island.
At 4:30 a.m. on August 18, Soviet landing forces approached the naval base "Kata-port" on occupying the island. They began to grab the beach in a narrow three-kilometer area, and quickly took the commanding heights of Kunihodansaki and 171 Heights.
The Japanese army, which had slowed down, desperately prevented the Soviet follow-up troops from coming ashore, using the fog on the sea surface as a cover to violently bombard the Soviet landing forces with fierce artillery fire.
In the artillery fire, many landing ships were sunk and wounded by artillery fire, and the Soviet attack was once quite passive.
However, the officers and men of the Soviet 101st Infantry Division fought extremely bravely and tenaciously, and with the cooperation of their own artillery fire, they destroyed the Japanese tanks and fortifications one by one, killed the stubborn anti-Japanese troops one by one, and also emerged combat heroes such as Sergeant Villekov, who sacrificed himself to block the eye.
In the battle of "capturing the door" that lasted more than half a month, the Japanese suffered 1018 casualties and the Soviet Red Army suffered 1567 casualties.
On August 19, the Japanese army on the island learned that Emperor Hirohito had issued a surrender edict, so they took the initiative to propose an armistice to the Soviet army while secretly preparing for war.
However, the Soviet Red Army continued to advance in depth, and the speed of attack did not decrease. It was not until 4 September that the Japanese 91st Division finally laid down its arms and accepted surrender. The General Command of the Far East of the Soviet Red Army announced the completion of the "Thousand Islands Landing Operation".
On September 2, 1945, the Japanese army guarding the island signed the unconditional surrender, and on September 5, the Soviet Red Army ended the final action of occupying tooth dance.
In the Battle of the Chiba Islands, the Soviets captured 60,000 Japanese troops at a very small cost and captured the entire Chiba Islands.
On August 23, on the eve of the end of the battle, Lieutenant General Toshibuki, commander of the Japanese 91st Division, came to occupy the island taken by the Soviet army and signed an armistice with the Soviet generals.
Di Bu Jia Gui is not only the highest commander of the local Japanese army, but also the majority shareholder of the local monopoly enterprise. It is said that in the past, he could use his men to make a lot of money every year during the fishing flood.
He tentatively asked the Soviet commander, Major General Grechko: How many troops did your army participate in the landing operation?
In reply, Grechko deliberately exaggerated the number of Soviet troops of less than ten thousand.
Di Bu Gui was surprised to hear it. He once said to people with little disappointment: "If I had known that [the Soviets] had only such a few soldiers, I would have drowned them first and then surrendered... ”
Later, Di Bugui bitterly claimed that August 23, 1945 was the "sopranos day" of his life.
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