Aging Japanese recall life on Russian-held islands

TOKYO (Reuters) - Shohei Yamamoto was 17 when the Soviet Red Army invaded and seized four windswept islets in the southern Kurile chain in the closing days of World War Two, sending him and his family fleeing to Hokkaido.

He still recalls his happy childhood days on one of the four islands before they were controlled by Moscow.

"We picnicked at the river side and enjoyed swimming and fishing in the clean, beautiful rivers in the summer," said the 80-year-old, who was born and raised in a small fishing village on one of the islands, known in Japan as Etorofu.

Nearly six decades later, a dispute over who owns the mostly barren islands, known as the Southern Kuriles in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan, still dogs Russo-Japanese relations and stands in the way of a formal peace treaty.

"We children did things like trapping rabbits. Mountains were nice and clear in the winter, with bears hibernating so we could enjoy skiing," Yamamoto said in an interview with Reuters.

The islands, which lie between Japan's northern island of Hokkaido and Russia's Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, will be one topic on the agenda when Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda visits Moscow this week for talks with Russian leaders, but chances for progress appear slim.

Japan would gain rich fishing grounds if the islands, also close to oil and gas-producing regions of Russia, were returned.

But some analysts say the islands are of limited strategic and economic value and that both countries' refusal to give up their claims is largely a matter of pride.

Soviet troops seized the four tiny islands -- called Etorofu, Shikotan, Kunashiri and the Habomai islets in Japanese -- after Moscow declared war on Japan on Aug 8. 1945, just a week before Japan surrendered, sending about 17,000 Japanese fleeing.

DWINDLING NUMBERS, FADING HOPES

Yamamoto made his first visit to his childhood home in 1992 after Moscow lifted visa restrictions the previous year.

"When I first visited the island, tombstones on the hill in our village were completely destroyed, or probably looted," he said. "On the island, there were many waterfalls through which salmon and trout traveled. But they are no longer there."

But he said he felt the same tidal breeze near the island.

"When we sail close to the island, we can smell the same tide that reminds me of the good old days in our village," he said.

Former Etorofu resident Sakiko Suzuki, 69, recalls how school and village events were scrapped after the Soviet troops came.

"Before the Soviet Red Army moved in, life on the island was quiet and peaceful although we didn't have anything luxurious. It was so peaceful that we didn't need police," Suzuki said.

"We had only one policeman. In fact, he was the best actor at the annual village theatre," she said.

Of the Japanese citizens who fled or were forced to leave the islands, about 7,900 are alive. Their average age is about 75. About 16,000 Russians live on the islands now.

Hirokazu Suzuki, 76, born and raised on one of the Habomai islets, said he had taken his son on a visit to his home island last year, in case he ever got the chance to live there.

There are 52 cemeteries on the four islands, and the bones of about 4,450 people are buried there, he said. "We must not abandon those cemeteries for our parents, brothers and sisters," said Suzuki, whose parents used to engage in fishing.

But other former islanders were not optimistic.

"Whenever Japan and Russia had summit meetings, we were very excited with high expectations," said Sakiko Suzuki.

"But we were betrayed each time."

(Editing by Valerie Lee)