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The Kurile islands, now generally
written 'Kuril' islands, stretch northeast from
Hokkaido,
Japan, to
Kamchatka; very much as the
Ryukyu islands stretch southwest from
Saikaido (Kyushu),
Japan, to
Taiwan. They separate the
Sea of Okhotsk from the North
Pacific Ocean.
They are known in Japanese as the
クリル列島 (=Kuril
Archipelago) or 千島
(= the thousand islands). They were inhabited by the
Ainu from time immemorial until they were expelled by the
Russians. Japan inherited them all in
1875 in exchange for ceding
Sakhalin to
Russia.
The islands are renowned for their fogginess but are rich
in seaweed and marine life, such as fish and otters. The northernmost,
Oyakoba, is an almost perfect
volcanic cone rising sheer out of the sea and has led to many Japanese
eulogies in
haiku, wood-block prints, etc., extolling its beauty, much as they do
the more well-known
Fuji. The southernmost islands are claimed by both Russia and Japan, a
continuing
Kurile Island conflict.
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