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The islands known as the Senkaku Islands (尖閣諸島; -Shoto) in Japanese and Diaoyutai Islands or Diaoyu Islands (钓鱼台列岛; pinyin: Diàoyútái Lièdǎo, spelt 釣魚台列嶼 Diaoyutai Lieyu in Taiwan) in Chinese are disputed islands administered by Japan but claimed by the People's Republic of China and Taiwan (Republic of China).
The group is made up of five small volcanic islands:
Note: China refers to both the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC) if unspecified.
The islands are administered by Japan as part of Ishigaki City , Okinawa prefecture, but claimed by China as part of Daxi Village (大溪里), Toucheng Township (頭城鎮), Yilan County, Taiwan Province.
China claims that she had already ruled these islands before Japan controlled them while Japan claims that they were terra nullius.
These islands were on the sea route between Okinawa Mainland and Fujian. Chinese envoys to the Ryukyu Kingdom and, in far higher frequency, Okinawan ships passed by them.
China claims that these islands were within Ming's sea-defense area and belonged to Taiwan. The Chinese claimed that the islands were first mentioned in literature in 1372. The islands were first documented during the Ming Dynasty, by royal visitors from Ming China to the Ryukyu Kingdom at the current Okinawa prefecture of Japan. The documentation mentions, "When crossing the sea, we can saw black [ocean] current underneath. The guide said, after passing this black current, they will leave the boundary of China. At this stage, we can see a series of islands that cannot be seen in the return trip." During the Qing Dynasty, when the ex-Ming Dynasty general Zheng Jing was defeated, Taiwan and its surrounding islands became under the control of the Qing. The islands were used only as a landmark for the trip to Ryukyu kingdoms. Some Chinese insist that during the Cixi era, the islands were presented as a gift to a mandarin "for the purpose of collecting herbs on the islands," but its credibility is questioned.
Japanese scholars claims that neither China nor Okinawa had recognition of sovereignty over the uninhabited islands so that Chinese documents only prove that Kumejima, the first inhabited island the Chinese met, belonged to Okinawa. Japanese scholars show that the History of Ming, the official history book of the Ming Dynasty compiled during the Qing period, classifies Taiwan and surrounding island to "foreign countries". They also bring official Chinese records about Taiwan or Fujian that never mention to these islands. Anyway, it is certain that no one effectively controlled them.
After the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese Government conducted surveys of the islands from 1885 that confirmed for her that these uninhabited islands had no trace of having been under the control of China. Thus Japan decided to erect a marker on the islands to formally incorporate them in a Cabinet Decision on 14 January 1895. Among these islands, four islands were borrowed and developed by the Koga family.
Today China does not approve Japan's formal incorporation and claims that it is the Treaty of Shimonoseki on April 17, 1895, in which China ceded Taiwan to Japan, also ceded the islands, although the treaty lacks the explicit mention to them. Thus China claims that they should have been returned together with Taiwan after World War II, under provisions of the Cairo Declaration, Potsdam Proclamation, and Article 2 of the San Francisco Treaty. However, in her testimonial in 1920 the ROC admitted that they belonged to the Yaeyama District of Okinawa Prefecture.
After World War II, the islands came under the U.S. occupation as part of Okinawa. The U.S. and the Ryukyu Government under the U.S. occupation explicitly ruled these island, and the U.S. navy used Kuba-jima and Taisho-jima as maneuver areas. In 1972 the islands were returned from the U.S. to Japan as part of Okinawa.
Japanese scholars point out that it was not so difficult for the ROC to occupy these island in 1945 because she had already incorporated Taiwan and the surrounding islands two months before the U.S. military occupation extended to Yaeyama Islands. Thus they claim that this proves her lack of willingness to own the islands. They also bring official Chinese publications that show the island as part of Okinawa.
It was not until a survey in 1968 found potential oil fields on the East China Sea that both Chinas claimed sovereignty over the islands. The ROC claimed them for the first time on June 11, 1971, which was followed by the PRC on December 30.
In 1988, the Japan Youth Association set up a lighthouse on the main island. On July 14, 1996 they built a 5-m high, solar-powered, aluminum lighthouse on another islet. A Hong Kong protester drowned on September 26, trying to swim to Uotsuri-jima . On October 7, protesters placed the flags of the ROC and the PRC on the main island, but they were later removed by the Japanese.
On March 24, 2004, a group of Chinese activists from the PRC landed on the islands, planning to stay on the islands for 3 days. The seven who landed on the island were arrested by the Japanese government for illegal entry. The Japanese Foreign Ministry forwarded a complaint to the PRC government, and the PRC in turn demanded their release. They were then deported from Japan.
The U.S., who once occupied the islands as part of Okinawa, states that the U.S.-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security is applied to them, although she carefully avoids any involvement in the dispute itself.
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