Pact Lets Japanese Visit Family Graves in Soviet Territory

Japan and the Soviet Union agreed Thursday on the times and places where Japanese families can visit ancestral graves in the Soviet Union, the Foreign Ministry said.

Ministry officials said Japanese families will be allowed to visit two Soviet-held islands off northern Japan between Aug. 25 and 28. Visits to Sakhalin will be allowed sometime in September, and those to Moscow and to Cherntsy, about 125 miles northeast of Moscow, will be permitted for several days starting Sept. 20.

Grave visits to the islands of Etorofu and Kunashiri, part of a series of islands claimed by Japan but occupied by the Soviet Union since the end of World War II, resumed last year for the first time in 11 years under an agreement between former Foreign Minister Shintaro Abe and Soviet Ambassador Nikolai Solovjev.

The islands, which Japan calls the “northern territories,” have been a key issue in bilateral relations, with Japan claiming them as Japanese territory and Moscow saying there is no dispute. The issue has prevented the two countries from concluding a peace treaty for World War II.

Japan formerly occupied part of Sakhalin.