# Exploring Japan's Remote Border with Russia (no one comes here)

## Метаданные

- **Канал:** Yes Theory
- **YouTube:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PB1ti2hFTM
- **Дата:** 24.05.2026
- **Длительность:** 25:22
- **Просмотры:** 1,099,911
- **Источник:** https://ekstraktznaniy.ru/video/52044

## Описание

Go to https://surfshark.com/yestheory or use code YESTHEORY at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN!
We venture into the very far North of Japan, in search of lost stories, of an unresolved conflict dating all the way back to WW2.. Join us as we explore and seek to meet the humans who live here and still remember the stories.

Thank you to Kai @bykaiotomo for being our master translator and fixer in Japan!!

Thank you to Daiki Shinomiya for helping us capture this experience! Follow his work here:
www.instagram.com/daiki.shino

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## Транскрипт

### Segment 1 (00:00 - 05:00) []

We are currently heading north alongside the  border between Russia and Japan to get us close   to the contested islands that very few people  have ever heard of. If we would drive out there,   we would get shots. I've got a confession. I've  got a slight obsession with maps. And an odd   pastime of mine is to roam on Google Maps, zooming  into strange and unusual part of our globe,   searching for our world's hidden stories. And  as we were preparing for our trip to Japan,   I found something that surprised me. Russia.   Just a few kilometers away from Japan are a   mysterious stretch of islands oddly close that I'd  never heard of before. The deeper we looked, the   more confusing it became, as neither of the two  countries have been able to actually agree on who   these islands belong to. But today, they are fully  in the hands of Russia. Yet, Japan does not agree,   meaning that on this little corner of our planet,  a dispute that dates all the way back to World War   II never fully ended. With lots of questions about  this stretch of islands, but initially feeling   very unclear what we would find in this unexplored  region, we decided to simply book our flights and   head straight into this mystery at Japan's Wild  Northern Edge. Here in yet another of the least   populated places in the country, we'll explore  three locations along this coastline with the   mission of finding someone with direct stories  and experiences from these islands, asking the   question, what happened here? And what stories  hide in this strange and unexplored part of Japan? Over the next few days, we're  going to be going along this wild,   untamed coastline to see what we can  find and who we can meet. And we're   starting with seeing how close we can get  to these islands from this little ship. This is as far as we can get while  still being in Japan. Once we cross   past a certain amount of kilometers  off the coastline, then you cross   the border. And you can see just how massive  one of the contested islands right here is. The people who live along this  coast have to look at it every day. After getting back to dry land, we headed down the  coast from Rausu to the coastal town of Shibetu to   see if we could find some locals that could help  us understand more about how these islands became   so contested. But as we began to walk around,  the town seemed almost completely deserted. We are in a tiny little fishing town smack in the  middle of the U that surrounds these islands   on the map that we want to explore. This entire  street here are closed restaurants. It just feels   like used to be a life here that no longer exists.   We're not too sure which direction we should go,   but the real end point is going to be getting to  the very last cape on the other side going south,   getting as close as we possibly can to the border.   That's a bit trippy. It's a bit strange to know   that these disputes and conflicts are going on  and people wanting to go there but not able to.    This is going to be a bit challenging  to find the right people to talk to,   but uh we're going to be on the search. Oh my god, we are so close. These islands that we're looking at right  now, Japan claims are theirs. Yeah. People   were sent away from there. Yeah. 17 20,000  people. So close to the home,   you know, like people over here.   Some of them lived over there. Yeah. Do you live here or where do you live?

### Segment 2 (05:00 - 10:00) [5:00]

Byebye. Imagine kids.   They would never ever argue,   fight disputes about like things like  this. Don't kids fight over like toys   all the time though? Oh, true. No, that  was more you, man. Not me. Here we share.    You were a mature child. We see a man bird  watching. So, we're going to slowly and steadily Do you feel these islands belong to Japan? This is a place that clearly very few people come  to. There are barely any hotels, restaurants,   and locals are confused by what we're  even doing here. And to be honest,   I'm not quite sure we even know. As we  continued searching these eerie, empty streets,   we suddenly experienced firsthand some of  the tension that lies in these neighborhoods. I have no idea. She doesn't like foreigners.   Maybe very like cute older lady. She just like   screamed. I got so mad. just uh yeah, just  by just by seeing me and didn't say   or do anything. Was not in her way or  anything. Just got like really really   mad. I wonder if it was because yeah, she  thought that I was Russian or something. Ladies and gentlemen, we have now reached the  absolute eastern point that we could possibly get   to. And this is the closest to the Carl Islands  that we can get. And we are at the very final   lighthouse at the edge of Japan and what feels  like the edge of the world. And it is pretty   wild. They're just a few kilometers away. You can  literally see the coastline. We've made our way   to the entire U. We've been told that Nimro, where  we are now, is sort of one of the center points of   this conflict. And everywhere we've been driving,  there's been signs written in Japanese saying,   "Give us back the islands. " Maybe one day the  people of this area will be able to return back   to their islands. Look at how close we are to  that those ones. Oh, wow. You can literally We   are right in front of them. I can see a house on  the other side. You can? Yeah. That's a house on   a contested island. Yeah. We don't know if there's  any civilians left there, right? As far as I know,   it's basically military. There were civilians  at one point, but are there people that actually   live on these islands these days? It's hard  to say, right? When you look at Google Maps,   there's nothing on these island. There's no  road. There's nothing. It's just land. Oh,   wow. It's a house straight by the water  that looks towards Japan. Yeah. We got the dad   zoom in this one. That's how you know we got a  dad on our hands. Getting out here to this part   of Japan has been one of the more logistically  wild trips we've done in a while. Researching   what was even possible. Booking things in a  language we don't speak. Hopping between cafe   Wi-Fi and hotel Wi-Fi or whatever random network  we could find along the way. It was a lot. Which   is actually the perfect moment to bring in  the sponsor of today's video, Surf Shark,   because they have been genuinely a part of how we  put this whole trip together. Surf Shark is a VPN   and whenever you're jumping between random Wi-Fi  networks like we've been, hotels, airports, cafes,   it encrypts your data so no one else on that  network can see what you're doing. Passwords,   bank information, messages, all of it. When you  travel the way we do, that peace of mind is not   a small thing. It's also the tool we use to stay  connected to services from home. Pick a location,   hit connect, done. One account covers unlimited  devices, so the whole crew is protected on the   same subscription. And the app is genuinely one  of the simplest ones we use on the road. Go to   surf shark. com/y Theory or use code yes theory at  checkout to get four extra months of Surf Shark.    There's also a 30-day money back guarantee,  so there's no risk in trying it. Being able   to focus on the actual adventure rather than  worry about whether the Wi-Fi of some random   guest house is going to compromise our accounts  is literally what this is all about. Okay,   now let's get back to exploring this very strange  and unique part of Japan. After exploring this

### Segment 3 (10:00 - 15:00) [10:00]

entire coastline in search of answers, we really  only uncovered more questions. What was the logic   behind this territorial dispute? And why did the  Japanese still believe these islands rightfully   belonged to them? It felt like we weren't  getting very far by approaching strangers. So,   after returning to the main fishing village, we  headed to the front desk of our hotel in search   of new leads, which ended up sending us on  a bit of a wild goose chase around town. Let's go to this uh place next door. Hi, thank  you. This guy here said there's a city council   where we could go and we could potentially  find someone who actually lived on this island   before but were sent here. Let's do that.   Until eventually we found a promising lead. Wow. 10 minutes. It's like one of those  video games where you meet one character   that introduces you to another character.   Yeah. Slowly, we're making progress. Oh, wow. We are inside the Northern Territories Museum. Where are you born? if we can ask. He's like, I'm from the Northern  Islands that you guys are trying   to take away from us. No, we're not Russian. We're on your team, sir. We're on your team. You, too. You as well. You, too. You, too.   Legend. This explains why this woman   was pissed at us before. She thought we were  Russians. We have walked into a lecture right   now of a man who thought we were trying to take  these islands. This man is dedicated. He has   waited for this moment, I think, for a while.   He's had a whole box of things prepared here. Though we started to get a general idea of  the island's history from some of the locals,   we'd finally found a historian who had had  firstirhand experience with the conflict who   could give us a full lecture to explain exactly  how these islands ended up. the way they did. The Coral Islands sit in a geographically  strategic location and have a long history   of habitation, conflict, and colonization. The  original inhabitants of these islands were an   indigenous ethnic group known as the Inu people.   For centuries, their homelands stretch across the   northern islands of Japan. They lived in fishing  and hunting villages while also trading with some   communities across the seas in Japan and Siberia.   But by the 1700s, the Inu found themselves caught   between two expanding empires. Japan pushing  northward and Russia expanding eastward. Both   powers saw the islands as strategically valuable  for fishing, trade, and military control. By the 18th and 19th centuries, Russia and  Japan were increasingly competing politically   and diplomatically over control of the  Kural Islands and Sackland. Eventually,   Japan fully incorporated Hokkaido and the  Kural Islands into the modern Japanese state,   subjecting the indigenous people to  aggressive assimulation policies as   their land was taken and communities displaced  by the Japanese settling across the region. Wow. How many people lived on the island? During World War II, the islands became a  critical part of Japan's military strategy   in the Pacific. In 1941, ships from the  Imperial Japanese Navy gathered in the   remote waters of the Kurls before launching the  surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. The event that   would pull the United States into the war. But  in the following years, the war turned against   Japan and control of the islands would once again  change hands. In the final days of World War II,   the Soviet Union invaded the Coral Islands as  part of its offensive against Japan. And following

### Segment 4 (15:00 - 20:00) [15:00]

Japan's surrender in 1945, almost immediately,  tens of thousands of Japanese residents across   the region were abruptly displaced from their  homes and forced to relocate to mainland Japan. Today, many decades later, most of the  people never got the chance to return to   the homes they left behind on the islands  now under Russian control and are forced   to live with the memory of a homeland still  visible on the horizon. yet completely out   of reach. Why did the Russians take these  islands? Cuz it feels as a set of islands,   it's a little hard to understand why they would  siege them when they had so much land already. Following the Soviet takeover, life on the  Coral Islands changed almost overnight. Japanese   communities that had existed on the islands for  generations were dismantled as Soviet authorities   forced the remaining Japanese population to leave.   Homes were abandoned, villages were repopulated,   and the islands that had once been a part of  Japan became absorbed into the Soviet Union. So they came in and destroyed people's family  homes. Yeah. And yet despite the tensions   between the two nations, there was still one  small concession that remained. In later years,   Japan and Russia agreed to allow limited visa-free  visits for former residents and their families   to return to the islands to visit the graves of  loved ones they had left behind. For many, it was   the first time seeing their homeland again since  being forced to leave as children after the war. However, after the outbreak of the war  in Ukraine, those visits were suspended   indefinitely. And today, nearly 80 years after  the end of World War II, the islands remain at   the center of a dispute that has never truly been  resolved. Does he hope to one day get to go back? What's your name? I get very touched by the fact. You can tell  that we get very touched by the things that   he's sharing. He has a very beautiful way  of seeing life and seeing how we shall see   each other as brothers and sisters.   He's the best professor we ever had. Thank you very much. What a  beautiful human being. Yeah.    To think that he didn't seem to have  much resentment shows his character.    And it also shows that he's just focused  on what matters, which is being able to   go home. There's no envy or sentiments of  revenge. It's just as simple as wanting to   have his childhood home back. That's what it's  about for him. He wishes you guys were girls. Nice. Homestead.

### Segment 5 (20:00 - 25:00) [20:00]

Could be cool to see that. That would be amazing. Okay. Okay, we are getting into the car now. Is  there anyone in this fishing village that   would have been better to meet than  this man? I don't think so. He's got   photos at the museum. I think he's  the guy. I think he's the one guy. Oh my god. Oh wow. When he said that he has a Russian room,  he really does. Even though Russia is the   country that displaced him from his home,  he hosted Russians that came to visit here   and built a room from the souvenirs that they  brought. That is insane. That is incredible. and she was his girlfriend. Oh man. because he likes them. Oh, that's the house on the island.   That's him. No way. Wow. The legend. Wow. Do you like he doesn't seem to have any resentment at all  towards Russians? Is there a reason for that? You can tell him you wish to  be like him when we grew up. This is not what I expected at all,  but um I feel like I learned a lot.    My perspective is like totally different. Yeah. An executive decision have been taken by Mr.   Peacemaker. We're going down to the ocean. We're   going to look at the water together. So, Oh my  god. To be honest, we weren't fully sure what we   would find when we first embarked on this journey.   But Fukus Aawasan opened our eyes to something we   had never been exposed to so vividly before. A  compassion despite the pain. An acknowledgement   of our shared humanity despite disagreements and  conflict. Pretty amazing that we walked around   this village looking for someone this morning.   Yeah. And here he stands. that   they said this is the island. Yeah. There are some  moments on certain trips where we don't really   know what we're looking for, but we know when we  found it. And sitting in this room with this man,   hearing about his rare perspective felt like  finding the diamond that we've been looking for. legend. We literally picked this town by looking  at Google Maps before boarding the plane being   like this town looks like kind of in the middle.   Let's go there. Well, to all the people asking   what well what's your favorite country? Well, it's  Japan. It's Japan. So, I've officially decided.    Me, too. This, at least for now, is another  story without a happy ending. These islands,   despite meaning so much for those who were once  displaced, seem so far down the priority list   of both nations. But instead, our lesson is  one to simply endure, to keep our heads high,   and to, in our best efforts, build  bridges with those we may disagree with.

### Segment 6 (25:00 - 25:00) [25:00]

Thank you for watching and  we'll see you next week.