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Nyet," Ivan Smutchenko answered shaking his head without hesitation when asked if Russia should give Japan back the four Kuril islands seized at the end of World War II.His father, Vladimir Smutchenko, was the first Russian born on the largest island of Iturup, or Etorofu, in 1947, helped by both Japanese and Russian midwives."This is Russian soil. This is my motherland," the 21-year-old said on a trip back to the barren island from medical school in Saint Petersburg.Since his father's birth, Russians have come to dominate, gradually exiling all 17,291 Japanese from the small islands, which are known in Japan as the Northern Territories and lie within sight of Japan's northeastern coast.Grocery stores are stocked with vodka and meat and vegetables for borscht soup.A convoy of Russian military vehicles whisked by on an unpaved road, kicking up dirt as cows trudged along.Today one of the only signs that Japanese once lived here is at the grassy hillside graveyard, where tombstones with the engraved names of deceased Japanese lie next to Russian graves with crosses.But even though diplomacy is at a stalemate on resolving the six-decade dispute, the two countries are slowly looking for a way to co-exist.Russians on the street waved and smiled as a rare group of Japanese recently were allowed on a rare visit to pay respects at their ancestors' tombs.Russian residents say most of their fellow islanders have fairly positive views about Japan. But they insist redrawing the border is a different story.A huge signboard on the front of a freshly built fish processing factory, a symbol of Russia's growing economy in this impoverished outpost, reads: "The Kurils are Russian territory....."To read more go to:
As in the days of Noah....
