This book describes the origins and development of one of the most significant strategic rivalries in the world today, that between Japan and the USSR over the Kuriles Islands in N.E. Asia. In seizing these islands, the USSR gained a very strong advantage in the region but at the same time lost its potential political leverage with Japan. Often drawing on original sources, The Soviet Seizure of the Kuriles relates in detail the military and diplomatic processes during World War II and its aftermath, through which the Kuriles became Soviet territory and also shows in detail how and why Japan has retained its claim to the South Kuriles.