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Old 2013-02-08, 12:18   Link #26272
DonQuigleone
Knight Errant
 
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Age: 35
Quote:
Originally Posted by willx View Post
The Ainu would disagree with you on your last point, but I'd say overall any acceptance of "war spoils" as a valid rationale opens a much larger can of worms than anyone can and would likely desire to bear. What would be reasonable is that the population can choose to stay where they are and choose their national affiliation with some sort of understanding reached on fishing rights, etc.. Which is pretty damn unlikely.
Why would the Ainu like the Japanese any more then they like the Russians? The Ainu have had a pretty bad history with Japan, and have not really been treated well (and it's only recently the Japanese government acknowledged they even exist as a minority). Meanwhile, there are many Siberian peoples living under the Russians relatively unmolested (or at least not forcibly assimilated the way the Ainu were).

Either way, I don't see how the Ainu help the Japanese case, because the Ainu are not "Japanese", and they would not lean towards the Japanese any more then they would to the Russians.

The islands were as good as unclaimed. Now they're just a political football being lobbed between Japanese and Russian Nationalists. The Russians have as valid a claim over the Kurils as they do over anything else in the Russian Far East, like say Primorye.
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