The Evening Star (February 9, 1946)
Editorial: The Kuriles
The Kuriles, now disclosed to have been promised to the Soviet Union, have been wanted by Russia for a long time. Thirty-two in number, they are a chain of islands stretching from Yezo to Kamchatka. Their coast lines measure nearly fifteen hundred miles, and their total surface area has been estimated as sixty-one hundred and fifty-nine square miles. A vast net of seaweed entangles the whole archipelago. The name by which the entire group commonly is known derives from the Russian word “kurit,” meaning “to smoke” and hinting at the active volcanic character of the isles in the past as well as in the present.
All of the Kuriles are mountainous, and the presence of hot sulphur springs at their bases suggests a considerable turmoil within the peaks. One, approximately seventy-four hundred feet high, is “a cone within a cone, the inner and higher of the two being – so the natives say – surrounded by a lake.” Extensive forests cover most of the islands, sheltering bears, foxes and other animals formerly hunted for their pelts by Japanese fishermen who “work” the surrounding waters for salmon, cod and crab. The climate is hostile through three-quarters of an average year. Snow falls from September until May, and heavy fogs hang for weeks at a time over the narrow shores. The population, according to the most recent census, is less than five thousand, though it is possible that there has been an increase of immigration due to the war.
Japan’s claim to the three southern isles – Kunashiri, Etorofu and Shikotan – dates back for centuries. But the Russians ever since their conquest of Kamchatka in 1707 have been pressing toward the occupation of the whole group coincidentally with their penetration of the entirety of Sakhalin. Under the Soviet system as under the Czars, they have sought the domination and control of that portion of the Pacific Ocean denominated the Sea of Okhotsk. A glance at the map will suffice to show the relation of the Kuriles to the Siberian mainland. They are roughly comparable to Long Island, Block Island, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket off the coast of New York and New England or the marginal islands of North Carolina between Cape Lookout and Cape Hatteras east of Pamlico Bay.