Originally Posted by Shmack

To Russia.
Until the early 18th century the archipelago was populated by independent tribes called Ainu. During the 18th century the islands were divided by Japan (two southermnost islands) and Russia (all others). In late 19th century Russia gave up all archipelago to Japan in exchange for the southern part of Sakhalin island which later Russia lost to Japan anyway during a war in 1905. During WWII all Kuril archipelago and Sakhalin island were overtaken by the Soviet Union. Since then nothing changed.

Originally Posted by Prapor

Definately Russia. In 1905, Japan attacked Russia, managed to capture the islands and South Sakhalin, as Shmack said. But in 1945, we took it all back.

In any case, handing it back now would be ridiculous. There are no japanese left there, not even those indegenous people, Ainu or whatever. All the population is Slavic, with some (in the tens of thousands) native Sakhalin Koreans still living on that island. Nobody there speaks Japanese, or knows much about Japan or their history or culture. They would never integrate there. The Japanese would just try to chase them off the land. And there would be a fight. Russia may not always care about its peoples rights and such, but it does care when some outside prick tries to hurt em