Japanese right-wingers land on disputed island
January 2nd, 2009 From
>Date: Mon, 16 Jun 1997 09:59:26 -0700
>From: Mike Potter
>Reply-To: mike.potter@artecon.com
>Organization: Artecon, Inc.
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>To: mahan@microwrks.com
>Subject: Japanese right-wingers land on disputed island
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>Sender: mahan-owner@microworks.net
>
>Japanese right-wingers land on disputed island
>______________________________________________
>Copyright (c) 1997 Nando.net
>Copyright (c) 1997 Reuter Information Service
>
>TOKYO (June 15, 1997 00:44 a.m. EDT) – Japanese right-wing activists
>staged a brief landing on an island in the East China Sea at the centre
>of a regional territorial dispute, a coast guard official said on
>Sunday.
>
>Three people landed on Wednesday on one of the rocky uninhabited islands
>administered by Japan but claimed by China and Taiwan, an official said.
>
>The activists belong to a right-wing group that erected a makeshift
>lighthouse on the island last July, sparking furious reactions from
>China and Taiwan and anti-Japan street protests in Hong Kong.
>
>The official said the activists inspected the lighthouse and took video
>footage, returning to their boat after a two-hour stay.
>
>The landing, on one of the islands known in Japan as the Senkakus, was
>made despite a nearby patrol boat’s call to desist.
>
>It threatened to fan the flames of the decades-old dispute that the
>Japanese government is keen to play down to avoid straining ties with
>China.
>
>Embarrassed Japanese leaders said a May 6 landing by a conservative
>national legislator who planted Japan’s wartime emblem — the Rising Sun
>flag — on one of the islands was an “illegal act” that was bad for
>Tokyo’s foreign relations.
>
>Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto is hoping the islands dispute
>will not endanger a proposed exchange of visits with his Chinese
>counterpart Li Peng later this year to mark the 25th anniversary of
>bilateral ties.
>
>Japan administers the collection of rocky outcrops located midway
>between Taiwan and Okinawa and says they have been Japanese territory
>since 1895, while Beijing says it has owned the islets, which it calls
>the Diaoyu Islands, since ancient times.
>
>Taiwan also lay claims to the Senkaku islands, which it refers to as the
>Tiaoyutai.
>
>Activists from Taiwan and Hong Kong sailed to the islands last month to
>challenge Japan’s claim but were kept away by Japanese patrol ships.
>
>–