The Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands (; rus, Кури́льские острова́, r=Kuril'skiye ostrova, p=kʊˈrʲilʲskʲɪjə ɐstrɐˈva;

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

: or ) are a volcanic

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Arc ...

currently administered as part of

Sakhalin Oblast Sakhalin Oblast ( rus, Сахали́нская о́бласть, r=Sakhalínskaya óblast', p=səxɐˈlʲinskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast) comprising the island of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands in the Russian ...

in the

Russian Far East The Russian Far East (russian: Дальний Восток России, r=Dal'niy Vostok Rossii, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in Northeast Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asian continent; and is admin ...

. It stretches approximately northeast from

Hokkaido is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The lar ...

in Japan to

Kamchatka Peninsula The Kamchatka Peninsula (russian: полуостров Камчатка, Poluostrov Kamchatka, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and w ...

in Russia separating the Sea of Okhotsk from the north

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

. There are 56 islands and many minor rocks. The Kuril Islands consist of the Greater Kuril Chain and the Lesser Kuril Chain. They cover an area of around , with a population of roughly 20,000. The islands have been under Russian administration since their 1945 invasion as the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

towards the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Japan claims the four southernmost islands, including two of the three largest ( Iturup and

Kunashir , other_names = kz, Kün Ashyr; ja, 国後島 , location = Sea of Okhotsk , locator_map = File:Kurily Kunashir.svg , coordinates = , archipelago = Kuril Islands , total_islands = , major_islands = , area = , length = , width = fr ...

), as part of its territory, as well as Shikotan and the Habomai islets, which has led to the ongoing Kuril Islands dispute. The disputed islands are known in Japan as the country's "Northern Territories".

Etymology

The name ''Kuril'' originates from the

autonym Autonym may refer to: * Autonym, the name used by a person to refer to themselves or their language; see Exonym and endonym * Autonym (botany), an automatically created infrageneric or infraspecific name See also * Nominotypical subspecies, in zo ...

of the aboriginal Ainu, the islands' original inhabitants: ''kur'', meaning 'man'. It may also be related to names for other islands that have traditionally been inhabited by the Ainu people, such as ''Kuyi'' or ''Kuye'' for

Sakhalin Sakhalin ( rus, Сахали́н, r=Sakhalín, p=səxɐˈlʲin; ja, 樺太 ''Karafuto''; zh, c=, p=Kùyèdǎo, s=库页岛, t=庫頁島; Manchu: ᠰᠠᡥᠠᠯᡳᠶᠠᠨ, ''Sahaliyan''; Orok: Бугата на̄, ''Bugata nā''; Nivkh ...

and ''Kai'' for Hokkaidō. In

, the Kuril Islands are known as the Chishima Islands (

Kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

: , literally, 'Thousand Islands Archipelago'), also known as the Kuriru Islands (

Katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived f ...

: , literally, ''Kuril Archipelago''). Once the Russians reached the islands in the 18th century they found a pseudo-etymology from Russian ''kurit′'', курить 'to smoke' due to the continual fumes and steam above the islands from volcanoes.

Geography and climate

The Kuril Islands form part of the ring of

tectonic Tectonics (; ) are the processes that control the structure and properties of the Earth's crust and its evolution through time. These include the processes of mountain building, the growth and behavior of the strong, old cores of continents ...

instability encircling the Pacific Ocean referred to as the

Ring of Fire The Ring of Fire (also known as the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Rim of Fire, the Girdle of Fire or the Circum-Pacific belt) is a region around much of the rim of the Pacific Ocean where many volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur. The Ring o ...

. The islands themselves are summits of stratovolcanoes that are a direct result of the subduction of the Pacific Plate under the

Okhotsk Plate The Okhotsk Plate is a minor tectonic plate covering the Kamchatka Peninsula, Magadan Oblast, and Sakhalin Island of Russia; Hokkaido, Kantō and Tōhoku regions of Japan; the Sea of Okhotsk, as well as the disputed Kuril Islands. It was ...

, which forms the Kuril Trench some east of the islands. The chain has around 100 volcanoes, some 40 of which are active, and many hot springs and fumaroles. There is frequent

seismic activity An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...

, including a

magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object *Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector *Order of ...

8.5 earthquake in 1963 and one of magnitude 8.3 recorded on November 15, 2006, which resulted in

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...

waves up to reaching the

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

coast. Raikoke Island, near the centre of the archipelago, has an active volcano which erupted again in June 2019, with emissions reaching . The climate on the islands is generally severe, with long, cold, stormy winters and short and notoriously foggy summers. The average annual precipitation is , a large portion of which falls as snow. The

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

of most of the Kurils is subarctic (''Dfc''), although

humid continental A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freez ...

(''Dfb''). However, the Kuril Islands’ climate resembles the

subpolar oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ...

of southwest Alaska much more than the hypercontinental climate of

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...

and interior Siberia, as precipitation is heavy and permafrost completely absent. It is characterized by mild summers with only 1 to 3 months above and cold, snowy, extremely windy winters below , although usually above . The chain ranges from temperate to sub-Arctic climate types, and the vegetative cover consequently ranges from

tundra In physical geography, tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. The term ''tundra'' comes through Russian (') from the Kildin Sámi word (') meaning "uplands", "treeless mou ...

in the north to dense spruce and

larch Larches are deciduous conifers in the genus ''Larix'', of the family Pinaceae (subfamily Laricoideae). Growing from tall, they are native to much of the cooler temperate northern hemisphere, on lowlands in the north and high on mountains fur ...

forests on the larger southern islands. The highest elevations on the islands are Alaid volcano (highest point: ) on

Atlasov Island Atlasov Island, known in Russian as Ostrov Atlasova (Остров Атласова), or in Japanese as Araido (阿頼度島), is the northernmost island and volcano and also the highest volcano of the Kuril islands, part of the Sakhalin Oblast ...

at the northern end of the chain and Tyatya volcano () 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 lake Crater Lake ( Klamath: ''Giiwas'') is a volcanic crater lake in south-central Oregon in the western United States. It is the main feature of Crater Lake National Park and is famous for its deep blue color and water clarity. The lake partly fill ...

s and

peat bogs A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and muskeg ...

. The soils are generally productive, owing to the periodic influxes of volcanic ash and, in certain places, owing to significant enrichment by

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same enviro ...

guano. However, many of the steep, unconsolidated slopes are susceptible to landslides and newer volcanic activity can entirely denude 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,

(Oyakoba in Japanese), is an almost-perfect

volcanic A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates a ...

cone rising sheer out of the sea; it has been praised by the Japanese in

haiku is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a ''kireji'', or "cutting word", 17 '' on'' (phonetic units similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern, and a ''kigo'', or s ...

, wood-block prints, and other forms, in much the same way as the better-known Mount Fuji. Its summit is the highest point in

Ecology

Marine

Owing to their location along the Pacific shelf edge and the confluence of Okhotsk Sea gyre and the southward

Oyashio Current , also known as Oya Siwo, Okhotsk or the Kurile current, is a cold subarctic ocean current that flows south and circulates counterclockwise in the western North Pacific Ocean. The waters of the Oyashio Current originate in the Arctic Ocean an ...

, 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 Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordat ...

: Extensive

kelp Kelps are large brown algae seaweeds that make up the order Laminariales. There are about 30 different genera. Despite its appearance, kelp is not a plant - it is a heterokont, a completely unrelated group of organisms. Kelp grows in "underwa ...

beds surrounding almost every island provide crucial habitat for sea urchins, various mollusks and countless other invertebrates and their associated predators. Many species of squid provide a principal component of the diet of many of the smaller marine mammals and birds along the chain.

Fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...

: Further offshore, walleye pollock,

Pacific cod The Pacific cod (''Gadus macrocephalus)'' is a species of ray-finned fish in the family Gadidae. It is a bottom-dwelling fish found in the northern Pacific Ocean, mainly on the continental shelf and upper slopes, to depths of about . It can gro ...

, several species of flatfish are of the greatest commercial importance. During the 1980s, migratory Japanese

sardine "Sardine" and "pilchard" are common names for various species of small, oily forage fish in the herring family Clupeidae. The term "sardine" was first used in English during the early 15th century, a folk etymology says it comes from the It ...

was one of the most abundant fish in the summer.

Pinniped Pinnipeds (pronounced ), commonly known as seals, are a widely range (biology), distributed and diverse clade of carnivorous, fin-footed, semiaquatic, mostly marine mammal, marine mammals. They comprise the extant taxon, extant family (biology ...

: 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 on Raykoke island, were extirpated. In contrast, commercial harvest of the true seals and Steller 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 extinct

Japanese sea lion The Japanese sea lion (''Zalophus japonicus'') ( ja, ニホンアシカ, translit=Nihon ashika, Korean:강치, 바다사자) was an aquatic mammal that became extinct in the 1970s. It was considered to be a subspecies of the related California se ...

, which was known to occasionally haul out on the Kuril islands.

Sea otters The sea otter (''Enhydra lutris'') is a marine mammal native to the coasts of the northern and eastern North Pacific Ocean. Adult sea otters typically weigh between , making them the heaviest members of the weasel family, but among the smalle ...

: 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.

Seabirds Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same envi ...

: The Kuril islands are home to many millions of seabirds, including northern fulmars, tufted puffins,

murre ''Uria'' is a genus of seabirds in the auk family known in Britain as guillemots, in most of North America as murres, and in Newfoundland and Labrador as turr. These are medium-sized birds with mainly brown or black plumage in the breeding sea ...

kittiwake The kittiwakes (genus ''Rissa'') are two closely related seabird species in the gull family Laridae, the black-legged kittiwake (''Rissa tridactyla'') and the red-legged kittiwake (''Rissa brevirostris''). The epithets "black-legged" and "red-l ...

guillemot Guillemot is the common name for several species of seabird in the Alcidae or auk family (part of the order Charadriiformes). In British use, the term comprises two genera: '' Uria'' and ''Cepphus''. In North America the ''Uria'' species ...

s, auklets,

petrel Petrels are tube-nosed seabirds in the bird order Procellariiformes. Description The common name does not indicate relationship beyond that point, as "petrels" occur in three of the four families within that group (all except the albatross f ...

gull Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and skimmers and only distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders. Until the 21st century ...

s and cormorants. 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 as Important Bird Areas (IBAs) by BirdLife International because they support populations of various

threatened Threatened species are any species (including animals, plants and fungi) which are vulnerable to endangerment in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of ''critical depensa ...

bird species, including many waterbirds,

s and

wader 245px, A flock of Dunlins and Red knots">Red_knot.html" ;"title="Dunlins and Red knot">Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflat ...

Terrestrial

The composition of terrestrial species on the Kuril islands is dominated by Asian mainland taxa via migration from Hokkaido and

Islands and by Kamchatkan taxa from the North. While highly diverse, there is a relatively low level of

endemism Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

on a species level. The WWF divides the Kuril Islands into two

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of ...

s. The southern Kurils, along with southwestern

, comprise the South Sakhalin-Kurile mixed forests ecoregion. The northern islands are part of the Kamchatka-Kurile meadows and sparse forests, a larger ecoregion that extends onto the

and

Commander Islands The Commander Islands, Komandorski Islands, or Komandorskie Islands (russian: Командо́рские острова́, ''Komandorskiye ostrova'') are a series of treeless, sparsely populated Russian islands in the Bering Sea located about ea ...

. Because of the generally smaller size and isolation of the central islands, few major terrestrial mammals have colonized these, though

red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

and

Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenland), Finland, Iceland, N ...

foxes were introduced for the sake of the fur trade in the 1880s. The bulk of the terrestrial mammal biomass is taken up by rodents, many introduced in historical times. The largest southernmost and northernmost islands are inhabited by brown bear,

foxes Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

, and martens. Leopards once inhabited the islands. Some species of

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the re ...

are found on the more southerly islands. It is claimed that a wild cat, the

Kurilian Bobtail The Kurilian Bobtail is a cat breed (or breed group, depending on registry) originating from the (disputed) Russian Kuril Islands, as well as Sakhalin Island and the Kamchatka peninsula of Russia. Short- or long-haired, it has a semi-cobby b ...

, 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. Among terrestrial birds, ravens, peregrine falcons, some wrens and wagtails are common.

History

Early history

The Ainu people inhabited the Kuril Islands from early times, although few records predate the 17th century.From the Kamakura period to the Muromachi 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 the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characte ...

(1603-1868) in the form of claims by the Matsumae clan. The '' Shōhō Era Map of Japan'' (), a map of Japan made by the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

in 1644, shows 39 large and small islands northeast of Hokkaido's Shiretoko Peninsula and Cape Nosappu. A Dutch expedition under

Maarten Gerritsz Vries Maarten Gerritszoon Vries, or Fries, also referred to as de Vries, (18 February 1589, Harlingen, Netherlands – late 1647, at sea near Manila) was a 17th-century Dutch cartographer and explorer, the first Western European to leave an account of ...

explored the islands in 1643. Russian popular legend has Fedot Alekseyevich Popov sailing into the area . Russian Cossacks landed on

Shumshu russian: Шумшу ja, 占守島 , image_name = Shumshu.jpg , image_caption = A Landsat 7 image of Shumshu Island. The northern tip of Paramushir Island is at left. The First Kuril Strait lies across the upper portion of the image. , image_size ...

in 1711. American

whaleship A whaler or whaling ship is a specialized vessel, designed or adapted for whaling: the catching or processing of whales. Terminology The term ''whaler'' is mostly historic. A handful of nations continue with industrial whaling, and one, Japa ...

s caught right whales off the islands between 1847 and 1892. Three of the ships were wrecked on the islands: two on

Urup Urup ( ja, 得撫島, Uruppu-to; russian: Уру́п, Urúp, ain, ウルㇷ゚, Urup) is an uninhabited volcanic island in the Kuril Islands chain in the south of the Sea of Okhotsk, northwest Pacific Ocean. Its name is derived from the Ainu la ...

in 1855 and one on Makanrushi in 1856. In September 1892, north of Kunashir Island, a

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

n schooner seized the bark ''Cape Horn Pigeon'', of New Bedford and escorted it to

Vladivostok Vladivostok ( rus, Владивосто́к, a=Владивосток.ogg, p=vɫədʲɪvɐˈstok) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia. The city is located around the Golden Horn Bay on the Sea of Japan, c ...

, where it was detained for nearly two weeks.

Japanese administration

At the very end of the 19th century, the Japanese administration started the forced assimilation of the native Ainu people. 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 required to adopt Japanese names, and ordered to cease religious practices such as animal sacrifice and the custom of tattooing. Although not compulsory education, education was conducted in Japanese. Prior to Japanese colonization (in 1868) about 100 Ainu reportedly lived on the Kuril islands.

World War II

* In 1941 Admiral

Isoroku Yamamoto was a Marshal Admiral of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet during World War II until he was killed. Yamamoto held several important posts in the IJN, and undertook many of its changes and reor ...

ordered the assembly of the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrend ...

strike-force for the Hawaii Operation attack on Pearl Harbor in Tankan or Hitokappu 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. * On 10 July 1943 the first bombardment against the Japanese bases in

and

Paramushir Paramushir (russian: Парамушир, Paramushir, ja, 幌筵島, Paramushiru-tō, ain, パラムシㇼ, translit=Para=mu=sir) is a volcanic island in the northern portion of Kuril Islands chain in the Sea of Okhotsk in the northwest Pacific Oc ...

by American forces occurred. From Alexai airfield 8 B-25 Mitchells from the 77th Bombardment Squadron took off, led by Capt James L. Hudelson. This mission principally struck Paramushir. * Another mission was flown during 11 September 1943 when the Eleventh Air Force dispatched eight B-24 Liberators and 12 B-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 in

Kamchatka The Kamchatka Peninsula (russian: полуостров Камчатка, Poluostrov Kamchatka, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and west ...

. * The Eleventh Air Force implemented other bombing missions against the northern Kurils, including a strike by six B-24s from the 404th Bombardment Squadron and 16 P-38s from the 54th Fighter Squadron on 5 February 1944. * Japanese sources report that the

Matsuwa Matua (russian: Матуа, ja, 松輪島, Matsuwa-tō) is an uninhabited volcanic island near the center of the Kuril Islands chain in the Sea of Okhotsk in the northwest Pacific Ocean, across Golovnin Strait from Raikoke. Its name is derived ...

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. 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 and Hokkaidō area in anticipation that the Americans might invade from

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

* American planners had briefly contemplated an invasion of northern Japan from the

Aleutian Islands The Aleutian Islands (; ; ale, Unangam Tanangin,”Land of the Aleuts", possibly from Chukchi ''aliat'', "island"), also called the Aleut Islands or Aleutic Islands and known before 1867 as the Catherine Archipelago, are a chain of 14 large v ...

during the autumn of 1943 but rejected that idea as too risky and impractical. They considered the use of

Boeing B-29 The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 F ...

Superfortresses, on Amchitka and

Shemya Shemya or Simiya ( ale, Samiyax̂) is a small island in the Semichi Islands group of the Near Islands chain in the Aleutian Islands archipelago southwest of Alaska, at . It has a land area of , and is about southwest of Anchorage, Alaska. It i ...

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. * Between 18 August and 31 August 1945 Soviet forces invaded the North and South Kurils. * 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 the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

sent two B-24s on reconnaissance missions over the North Kuril Islands with the intention of taking photos of the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

occupation in the area. Soviet fighters intercepted and forced them away. In February 1945 the

Yalta Agreement The Yalta Conference (codenamed Argonaut), also known as the Crimea Conference, held 4–11 February 1945, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union to discuss the post ...

promised to the

South Sakhalin Karafuto Prefecture ( ja, 樺太庁, ''Karafuto-chō''; russian: Префектура Карафуто, Prefektura Karafuto), commonly known as South Sakhalin, was a prefecture of Japan located in Sakhalin from 1907 to 1949. Karafuto became ter ...

and the Kuril islands in return for entering the Pacific War against the Japanese during World War II. In August 1945 the Soviet Union mounted an armed invasion of

at the cost of over 5,000 Soviet and Japanese lives.

Russian administration

The Kuril Islands are split into three administrative districts (

raion A raion (also spelt rayon) is a type of administrative unit of several post-Soviet states. The term is used for both a type of subnational entity and a division of a city. The word is from the French (meaning 'honeycomb, department'), and is co ...

s) part of

: * Severo-Kurilsky District ( Severo-Kurilsk) *

Kurilsky District Kurilsky District (russian: Кури́льский райо́н, Kuríl'skiy rayón) is an administrative district (raion) of Sakhalin Oblast, Russia; one of the seventeen in the oblast.Law #25-ZO Municipally, it is incorporated as Kurilsky Urban ...

( Kurilsk) *

Yuzhno-Kurilsky District Yuzhno-Kurilsky District (russian: Ю́жно-Кури́льский райо́н) is an administrative district ( raion) of Sakhalin Oblast, Russia; one of the seventeen in the oblast.Law #25-ZO Municipally, it is incorporated as Yuzhno-Kuril ...

( Yuzhno-Kurilsk) Japan maintains a claim to the four southernmost islands of

, Iturup, Shikotan, and the Habomai rocks, together called the ''Northern 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. On 8 February 2017 the Russian government gave names to five previously unnamed Kuril islands in

: Derevyanko Island (after Kuzma Derevyanko, ), Gnechko Island (after

Alexey Gnechko Alexey, Alexei, Alexie, Aleksei, or Aleksey (russian: Алексе́й ; bg, Алексей ) is a Russian and Bulgarian male first name deriving from the Greek ''Aléxios'' (), meaning "Defender", and thus of the same origin as the Latin ...

, ), Gromyko Island (after

Andrei Gromyko Andrei Andreyevich Gromyko (russian: Андрей Андреевич Громыко; be, Андрэй Андрэевіч Грамыка; – 2 July 1989) was a Soviet communist politician and diplomat during the Cold War. He served as ...

, ), Farkhutdinov Island (after Igor Farkhutdinov, ) and Shchetinina Island (after

Anna Shchetinina Anna Ivanovna Shchetinina (russian: Анна Ивановна Щетинина; 26 February 1908 – 25 September 1999) was a Soviet merchant marine sailor who became the world's first woman to serve as a captain of an ocean-going vessel. Shche ...

, ).

Demographics

, 19,434 people inhabited the Kuril Islands, of which over 16,700 live on the four disputed islands. These include ethnic

Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 '' Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...

Ukrainians Ukrainians ( uk, Українці, Ukraintsi, ) are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. They are the seventh-largest nation in Europe. The native language of the Ukrainians is Ukrainian. The majority of Ukrainians are Eastern Ort ...

, Belarusians,

Tatars The Tatars ()Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different

, Nivkhs, Oroch, and Ainus. Russian Orthodox Christianity is the main religion. Some of the villages are permanently manned by Russian soldiers (especially in

following recent tensions). Others are inhabited by civilians, which are mostly fishers, workers in fish factories, dockers, and social sphere workers (police, medics, teachers, etc.). Recent construction works on the islands attracts a lot of migrant workers from the rest of Russia and other

post-Soviet states The post-Soviet states, also known as the former Soviet Union (FSU), the former Soviet Republics and in Russia as the near abroad (russian: links=no, ближнее зарубежье, blizhneye zarubezhye), are the 15 sovereign states that wer ...

. , there were only 8 inhabited islands out of a total of 56.

Iturup Island , other_names = russian: Итуру́п; ja, 択捉島 , location = Sea of Okhotsk , coordinates = , archipelago = Kuril Islands , total_islands = , major_islands = , area_km2 = 3139 , length_km = 200 , width_km = 27 , coastline = , highest_moun ...

is over 60% ethnically Ukrainian.

Economy

Fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

is the primary occupation. The islands have strategic and economic value, in terms of fisheries and also mineral deposits of

pyrite The mineral pyrite (), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Fe S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral. Pyrite's metallic luster and pale brass-yellow hue giv ...

, sulfur, and various

polymetallic In chemistry or mining, polymetal or polymetallic is a substance composed of a combination of different metals. When the substance contains only two metals the term '' bimetal'' (''bimetallic'') is sometimes preferred. A (or ') is an ore that ...

ores. There are hopes that oil exploration will provide an economic boost to the islands. 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 of Yuzhno-Kurilsk Mendeleyevo Airport. 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 at Mount Baransky, an active volcano, where steam and hot water can be found.

Military

The main Russian force stationed on the islands is the

18th Machine Gun Artillery Division The 18th Machine Gun Artillery Division is a division of the Russian Ground Forces stationed in the Sakhalin Oblast with administration over the Kuril Islands. It is currently deployed to Eastern Ukraine. First formation It was first formed as ...

, which has its headquarters in Goryachiye Klyuchi on

. 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 systems Tor and Buk,

coastal defence Coastal management is defence against flooding and erosion, and techniques that stop erosion to claim lands. Protection against rising sea levels in the 21st century is crucial, as sea level rise accelerates due to climate change. Changes in s ...

missile system Bastion,

Kamov Ka-52 The Kamov Ka-50 "Black Shark" (russian: Чёрная акула, translit=Chyornaya akula, English: kitefin shark, NATO reporting name: Hokum A) is a Soviet/Russian single-seat attack helicopter with the distinctive coaxial rotor system of th ...

combat helicopters and one ''Varshavyanka'' project submarine came on defence of Kuril Islands. During the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine it was reported that parts of the 18th Machine Gun Artillery Division were redeployed to Eastern Ukraine.

List of main islands

While in Russian sources the islands are mentioned for the first time in 1646, the earliest detailed information about them was provided by the explorer

Vladimir Atlasov Vladimir Vasilyevich Atlasov or Otlasov ( or Отла́сов; between 1661 and 1664 – 1711) was a Siberian Cossack who was the first Russian to organize systematic exploration of the Kamchatka Peninsula. Atlasov Island, an uninhabited volcani ...

in 1697. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, the Kuril Islands were explored by

Danila Antsiferov Danila Yakovlevich Antsiferov (; died in 1712) was a Russian explorer. Upon the death of Vladimir Atlasov in 1711, Danila Antsiferov was elected Cossack ataman of the Kamchatka. Together with Ivan Kozyrevsky, he was one of the first Russian Cos ...

, I. Kozyrevsky,

Ivan Yevreinov Ivan Mikhaylovich Yevreinov (russian: Ива́н Миха́йлович Евре́инов) (1694 – 3 February O.S. 1724) was a Russian geodesist and explorer. Ivan Yevreinov was born in Poland, then brought to Russia and baptiz ...

Fyodor Luzhin Fyodor Fyodorovich Luzhin ( Russian: ''Федор Федорович Лужин'') (died 1727) was a Russian geodesist and cartographer. Fyodor Luzhin was first a student at the School for Mathematical and Navigational Sciences in Moscow and then ...

, Martin Shpanberg,

Adam Johann von Krusenstern Adam Johann von Krusenstern (also Krusenstjerna in Swedish; russian: Ива́н Фёдорович Крузенште́рн, tr. ; 10 October 177012 August 1846) was a Russian admiral and explorer, who led the first Russian circumnavigatio ...

Vasily Golovnin Vasily Mikhailovich Golovnin ( Russian: Василий Михайлович Головнин; , Gulyniki, Ryazan Oblast – , Saint Petersburg) was a Russian navigator, Vice Admiral, and corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences ...

, and Henry James Snow. The following table lists information on the main islands from north to south: } ! scope="col" , ja, Name ! scope="col" , Alternative
names ! scope="col" , Island Group ! scope="col" , Administrative centre /
! scope="col" , Other settlements ! scope="col" data-sort-type="number" , Area ! scope="col" , , - , Severo-Kurilsky District , , , North Kurils , North Kurils (Kita-chishima / 北千島) , Severo-Kurilsk , Shelikovo,

Podgorny Nikolai Viktorovich Podgorny, ''Mykola Viktorovych Pidhornyy'' rus, Никола́й Ви́кторович Подго́рный, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj ˈvʲiktərəvʲɪtɕ pɐdˈgornɨj, links=yes ( – 12 January 1983) was a Soviet statesman who ...

, Baikovo , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 2,560 , - ,

, Шумшу , , Shumushu , North Kurils , Baikovo , , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 20 , - , Atlasov , Атласова , , Oyakoba, Araido , North Kurils , Alaidskaya Bay , , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 0 , - ,

, Парамушир , , Paramushiru, Horomushiro , North Kurils , Severo-Kurilsk , Shelikovo,

, style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 2,540 , - ,

Antsiferov Antsiferov (feminine form: Antsiferova) is a Russian-language surname derived from the archaic Russian first name "Antsifer" (Анцифер), in turn derived from "Onisifor" (Онисифор, Onesiphorus). People with the name include: *Alexei A ...

, Анциферова , , Shirinki , North Kurils , Antsiferov beach , Cape Terkut , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 0 , - , Makanrushi , Маканруши , , Makanru , North Kurils , Zakat , , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 0 , - , Avos' , Авось , , Hokake, Hainoko , North Kurils , , , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 0 , - ,

Onekotan Onekotan (russian: Онекотан; Japanese 温禰古丹島; Onekotan-tō, occasionally Onnekotan-tō, ain, オネコタン　or　オネコタㇴ) is an uninhabited volcanic island located near the northern end of the Kuril Islands chain in ...

, Онекотан , , Onwakotan , North Kurils , Mussel , Kuroisi, Nemo, Shestakov , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 0 , - , Kharimkotan , Харимкотан ,
, Harimukotan, Harumukotan , North Kurils , Sunazhma , Severgin Bay , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 0 , - , Ekarma , Экарма , , Ekaruma , North Kurils , Kruglyy , , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 0 , - , Chirinkotan , Чиринкотан , , , North Kurils , Cape Ptichy , , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 0 , - , Shiashkotan , Шиашкотан , , Shasukotan , North Kurils , Makarovka , , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 0 , - , Lowuschki-Felsen , Ловушки , , Mushiru , North Kurils , , , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 0 , - ,

Raikoke Raikoke (russian: Райкоке, ja, 雷公計島), also spelled Raykoke, is, as of 2019 a Russian uninhabited volcanic island near the centre of the Kuril Islands chain in the Sea of Okhotsk in the northwest Pacific Ocean, distant from the is ...

, Райкоке , , , North Kurils , Raikoke , , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 0 , - , Matua , Матуа , , Matsuwa , North Kurils , Sarychevo , , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 0 , - , Rasshua , Расшуа , , Rashowa, Rasutsua , North Kurils , Arches Point , , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 0 , - , Srednego , Среднего , , Suride , North Kurils , , , , style="text-align: right;" , 0 , - ,

Ushishir Ushishir (russian: Ушишир; Japanese: 宇志知島; Ushishiru-tō; Ainu: ウシシㇼ, lit. "Land of the bay") is a collective name for two uninhabited volcanic islands and several reefs, all being parts of an eponymous partially submerged v ...

, Ушишир , , Ushishiru , North Kurils , Kraternya , Ryponkicha , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 0 , - , Ketoy , Кетой , , Ketoi , North Kurils , Storozheva , , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 0 , - ,

, , , Middle Kurils (Naka-chishima / 中千島) , split between both Japanese groups , Kurilsk , Reidovo, Kitovyi, Rybaki, Goryachiye Klyuchi, Kasatka, Burevestnik, Shumi-Gorodok, Gornyy , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 6,606 , - , Simushir , Симушир , , Shimushiru, Shinshiru , North Kurils , Kraternyy , Srednaya bay , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 0 , - ,

Broutona Broutona (russian: о.Броутона; Japanese language, Japanese 武魯頓島; Buroton-tō) is an uninhabited volcanic island located near the northern end of the southern Kuril Islands chain in the Sea of Okhotsk in the northwest Pacific Ocea ...

, Броутона , , Buroton, Makanruru , North Kurils , Nedostupnyy , , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 0 , - , Chirpoy , Чирпой , , Chirihoi, Chierupoi , North Kurils , Peschanaya Bay , , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 0 , - , Brat Chirpoyev , Брат Чирпоев , , Chirihoinan , North Kurils , Garovnikova , Semenova , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 0 , - ,

, Уруп , , Uruppu , North Kurils , Mys Kastrikum , Mys Van-der-Lind , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 0 , - , Other , , , , North Kurils , , , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 0 , - , Iturup , Итуруп , , Etorofu, Ietorupu , South Kurils (Minami-chishima / 南千島) , Kurilsk , Reidovo, Kitovyi, Rybaki, Goryachiye Klyuchi, Kasatka, Burevestnik, Shumi-Gorodok, Gornyy , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 6,602 , - ,

, , , South Kurils , South Kurils , Yuzhno-Kurilsk , Malokurilskoye, Rudnaya, Lagunnoye, Otrada, Goryachiy Plyazh, Aliger, Mendeleyevo, Dubovoye, Polino, Golovnino , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 10,268 , - ,

, Кунашир , , Kunashiri , South Kurils , Yuzhno-Kurilsk , Rudnaya, Lagunnoye, Otrada, Goryachiy Plyazh, Aliger, Mendeleyevo, Dubovoye, Polino, Golovnino , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 7,800 , - , Shikotan Group , Шикотан , , , South Kurils , Malokurilskoye , Dumnova, Otradnaya, Krabozavodskoye (formerly Anama), Zvezdnaya, Voloshina, Kray Sveta , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 2,440 , - , Shikotan Island , Шикотан , , , South Kurils , Malokurilskoye , Dumnova, Otradnaya, Krabozavodskoye (formerly Anama), Zvezdnaya, Voloshina, Kray Sveta , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 2,440 , - , Other , , , , South Kurils , , Ayvazovskovo , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 0 , - , Khabomai , Хабомаи , , Habomai , South Kurils , Zorkiy , Zelyony, Polonskogo , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 28 , - , Polonskogo , Полонского , , Taraku , South Kurils , Moriakov Bay station , , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 2 , - , Oskolki , Осколки , , Todo, Kaiba , South Kurils , , , , style="text-align: right;" , 0 , - , Zelyony , Зелёный , , Shibotsu , South Kurils , Glushnevskyi station , , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 3 , - , Kharkar , Харкар , , Harukaru, Dyomina , South Kurils , Haruka , , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 0 , - , Yuri , Юрий , , Yuri , South Kurils , Kalernaya , , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 0 , - ,

Anuchina Anuchina (russian: Анучина , ja, 秋勇留島, Akiyuri-to, ain, アキ・ユリ, translit=Aki-Yuri) is an uninhabited island in the Habomai Islands sub-group of the Kuril Islands chain in the south of the Sea of Okhotsk, northwest Pacifi ...

, Анучина , , Akiyuri , South Kurils , Bolshoye Bay , , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 0 , - , Tanfil'yev , Танфильев , , Suishō , South Kurils , Zorkiy , Tanfilyevka Bay, Bolotnoye , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 23 , - , Storozhevoy , Сторожевой , , Moemoshiri , South Kurils , , , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 0 , - , Rifovyy , Рифовый , オドケ島 , Odoke , South Kurils , , , , style="text-align: right;" , 0 , - , Signal'nyy , Сигнальный , , Kaigara , South Kurils , , , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 0 , - , Other , , , , South Kurils , , Opasnaga, Udivitelnaya , style="text-align: right;" , , style="text-align: right;" , 0 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan="7" style="text-align: right;" scope="row" , Total: ! style="text-align: right;" , ! style="text-align: right;" , 19,434

References

External links

Southern Kuriles / Northern Territories: A Stumbling-block in Russia-Japan Relationship
history and analysis by Andrew Andersen, Department of Political Science, University of Victoria, May 2001 * http://depts.washington.edu/ikip/index.shtml (Kuril Island Biocomplexity Project) * (includes space imagery)

a
Natural Heritage Protection Fund

* http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/europe/russia/territory/index.html
Chishima: Frontiers of San Francisco Treaty in Hokkaido
Short film on the disputed islands from a Japanese perspective
USGS Map showing location of Magnitude 8.3 Earthquake 46.616°N, 153.224°E Kuril Islands region, November 15, 2006 11:14:16 UTC

Pictures of Kuril Islands

Kuril Islands
at

Encyclopædia Britannica The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various t ...

{{Authority control Archipelagoes of the Pacific Ocean Islands of the Sea of Okhotsk Islands of the Russian Far East Archipelagoes of Japan Geography of Northeast Asia Archipelagoes of Sakhalin Oblast Disputed islands Disputed territories in Asia Pacific Coast of Russia Landforms of the Sea of Okhotsk Volcanoes of Sakhalin Oblast Stratovolcanoes of Russia Former Japanese colonies Shipwrecks in the Sea of Okhotsk Important Bird Areas of the Kurile Islands Seabird colonies