Will China And Japan Go To War Over Five Tiny Uninhabited Islands?

(Click on Image to Enlarge)

Why Are China and Japan Inching Toward War Over Five Tiny Islands? -- Eric Posner, Slate

Japan has the law on its side, but China doesn’t care.

Five tiny uninhabited islands slumber in the Pacific Ocean a short distance from Taiwan, China, and Japan. The Japanese call them the Senkaku Islands. The Chinese call them the Diaoyu Islands. Japan controls the islands, but China wants them. While international law favors Japan, it would be a mistake to think the law will stop China from grabbing them. That means that even though no one uses the islands currently for anything, if World War III takes place anytime soon, this is where it will start—implausible as that may sound.

Japan argues that the islands were vacant until 1895, when the Japanese government laid claim to them. Japanese nationals used and lived on them in the following decades—a fish-processing plant owned by a Japanese national once chugged away here. China did not dispute Japan’s claim to the islands during this period. Nor did China object when the United States took control of them during the occupation of Japan starting in 1945. The U.S. handed the islands back to Japan in 1972.

Read more ....

My Comment: If China and Japan should ever go to war .... it will not be due to five tiny uninhabited islands .... it will be the excuse to engage in hostilities. The real reason why both countries are hostile towards to each other is because of nationalism and a brutal history .... a history that neither side wants to forget or forgive.