Ex-residents visit family graves on disputed islets by air

September 24, 2017

KUSHIRO, HOKKAIDO- Former Japanese residents of disputed Russian-held islands visited family graves there on Saturday after traveling aboard a chartered plane from the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido.

This marked the first air trip by former islanders to any of the four northwestern Pacific islands, called the Northern Territories in Japan. It was planned as a day trip, but bad weather prevented the participants from returning home within the day.

A team of some 70 people, also including relatives of the former residents and Japanese government officials, left the Nakashibetsu airport in Hokkaido early Saturday morning. Kazuyuki Nakane, state minister for foreign affairs, was among the participants.

The plane unloaded former islanders and some other people on Kunashiri, one of the four Japanese-claimed islands, before taking the remaining participants to Etorofu, another island in the chain.

During a memorial ceremony held on Etorofu, team leader Tadaaki Iwasaki said, "We'll do our utmost to make the movement to demand the return of our territories even more tenacious and powerful."

After the grave visit, the plane left Etorofu, but it could not land on Kunashiri due to bad weather. Those aboard the plane went to the Russian city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk to stay a night. Jiji Press