Putin Proposes Building Bridge Connecting Russia to Japan

[bill barilko]

Some Good News from people who should have more in common.An old friend of mine grew up in Hokkaido and he used to talk about what it was like to know Russia was 'right there' and never have anything to do with the place ostensibly because the two countries had nothing in common.Oddly enough he ended up owning a Sushi bar in Moscow for a number of years but never learned any Russian apart from 'Spasiba' which as he likes to say he rarely used.

Putin Proposes Building Bridge Connecting Russia to Japan as Sign of Peace

President Vladimir Putin spoke of plans to build a bridge connecting Russia to Japan in a bid to resolve tensions over a chain of disputed Pacific islands, the state-run news agency TASS reported Thursday.

“We are planning to build a bridge on Sakhalin that would connect Sakhalin to Hokkaido,” Putin said at the Third Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.

“These are things of an absolutely global nature that could lead to significant changes in infrastructure, energy, and high technology,” Putin was quoted as saying by TASS, while also announcing plans to extend the Trans-Siberian Railroad to South Korea.

Relations between the countries have been strained over a chain of islands in the western Pacific, known as the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia. The islands were seized by Soviet forces in World War II, and since then the two countries have not signed a peace treaty.

Speaking at the forum on Thursday, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the two countries had “a duty to draw a line under this abnormal situation, when there is still no peace agreement.”

Large-scale construction projects undertaken by Russia and Japan “will form a completely different context for the Kuril Islands,” Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said Thursday at the forum, Interfax reported.

The Sakhalin-Hokkaido bridge, which would span the roughly 42-kilometer La Pérouse Strait, could be built in the “foreseeable future,” Shuvalov said, and should be seen as “a reflection of the trust that is being formed between the two countries.”

 

[Bar Sinister]

Interesting idea. It could link to the Trans-Siberian Railway.

 

[B00Mer]

Great first earthquake and Tsunami it's ukered.

 

[White_Unifier]

Not a bad idea in principle, but they might want to build a bridge that can withstand a tsunami and that has safety features built in for when the bridge does collapse. For example, a floating bridge on the surface of the water (so not far down to fall if it breaks) along with enclosures to prevent drownings when a tsunami strikes. It would need to be quite the feat of engineering.

 

[Kreskin]

It would it make things much easier to get tanks into Japan.

 

[White_Unifier]

It would it make things much easier to get tanks into Japan.

When we consider Japan's population density, I'm sure just giving the Japanese enough hand-held rocket launchers would suffice to dissuade the Russians.

Plus, getting enough tanks along one single bridge would make for a pretty easy target.

 

[Danbones]

It'll have two big spans that look just like Sarah Palin's boobs

some of the lapanese rockets might go off in their launchers

 

[Bar Sinister]

Great first earthquake and Tsunami it's ukered.

Japan has a bridge crossing the Akashi Strait that has withstood a major earthquake. I suspect it could duplicate the feat.

 

[petros]

Japan has a bridge crossing the Akashi Strait that has withstood a major earthquake. I suspect it could duplicate the feat.

Absolutely.

Anything not seismic resistant is long gone for some reason.

 

[Blackleaf]

The two countries have fought wars over Sakhalin island. The southern half of it used to be part of Japan until Russia seized it from the Japs in 1945.

 

[Bar Sinister]

The two countries have fought wars over Sakhalin island. The southern half of it used to be part of Japan until Russia seized it from the Japs in 1945.

Of course the Japanese seized it from the Russians after the Russo-Japanese War.

 

[Blackleaf]

Of course the Japanese seized it from the Russians after the Russo-Japanese War.

And Japan first claimed sovereignty of the island (which is around the size of Scotland) in 1807. The Japanese settled on it long before the Russians did.

The Japanese set up a settlement at Ootomari on Sakhalin's southern end in 1679.

The first Europeans there were the Dutch in 1643. The French, slightly later, arrived.

Alarmed by all these Europeans tourning up at the island, the Japanese established sovereignty over it in 1807.

In 1849, Russian settlers began establishing coal mines, administration facilities, schools and churches on the island.

In 1855, the two countries signed the Treaty of Shimoda, which declared that nationals of both countries could inhabit the island: Russians in the north, and Japanese in the south, without a clearly defined boundary between.

Japan proclaimed its sovereignty over Sakhalin (which they called Karafuto) yet again in 1865, and the government built a stele announcing the claim at the northern extremity of the island. The island remained under shared sovereignty until the signing of the 1875 Treaty of Saint Petersburg, in which Japan surrendered its claims in Sakhalin to Russia in exchange for the Kuril Islands.

Japanese forces invaded and occupied Sakhalin in the closing stages of the Russo-Japanese War In accordance with the Treaty of Portsmouth of 1905, the southern part of the island below the 50th parallel north reverted to Japan, while Russia retained the northern three-fifths.

The Russians then re-conquered the island in August 1945 and it has been Russian ever since.

So the island was Japanese long before the Russians arrived.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakhalin#European_and_Japanese_exploration

 

[Bar Sinister]

And Japan first claimed sovereignty of the island (which is around the size of Scotland) in 1807. The Japanese settled on it long before the Russians did.

The Japanese set up a settlement at Ootomari on Sakhalin's southern end in 1679.

The first Europeans there were the Dutch in 1643. The French, slightly later, arrived.

Alarmed by all these Europeans tourning up at the island, the Japanese established sovereignty over it in 1807.

In 1849, Russian settlers began establishing coal mines, administration facilities, schools and churches on the island.

In 1855, the two countries signed the Treaty of Shimoda, which declared that nationals of both countries could inhabit the island: Russians in the north, and Japanese in the south, without a clearly defined boundary between.

Japan proclaimed its sovereignty over Sakhalin (which they called Karafuto) yet again in 1865, and the government built a stele announcing the claim at the northern extremity of the island. The island remained under shared sovereignty until the signing of the 1875 Treaty of Saint Petersburg, in which Japan surrendered its claims in Sakhalin to Russia in exchange for the Kuril Islands.

Japanese forces invaded and occupied Sakhalin in the closing stages of the Russo-Japanese War In accordance with the Treaty of Portsmouth of 1905, the southern part of the island below the 50th parallel north reverted to Japan, while Russia retained the northern three-fifths.

The Russians then re-conquered the island in August 1945 and it has been Russian ever since.

So the island was Japanese long before the Russians arrived.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakhalin#European_and_Japanese_exploration

Looks to me like it belonged to no one before the Japanese arrived, except the aboriginal inhabitants.

 

[Blackleaf]

Looks to me like it belonged to no one before the Japanese arrived, except the aboriginal inhabitants.

Just like Canada, then.

 

[darkbeaver]

And England.

 

[Blackleaf]

And England.

The difference being that the Anglo-Saxons were invited.

 

[Bar Sinister]

Just like Canada, then.

Exactly.

The difference being that the Anglo-Saxons were invited.

How exactly? Did the Celtic inhabitants write the Germanic chieftains a letter?