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I was reading about how the East Asian territorial disputes recently, and I started wondering what disputed territories might exist in ATLs. Please be realistic; don't just state that Israel claims the Lower East Side of Manhattan, for example. Bonus points if you are able to come up with a map.:)

My contribution:

Akutan Islands Dispute:

The Akutan Islands dispute concerns a group of North Pacific Islands, called the Aleutian Islands by the US, and the Akutan Islands by the Empire of Japan. During the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), Japan was able to destroy two Russian fleets, thereby gaining control of the seas. By 1905, Japan was seeking a way to force Russia to the negotiating table. Therefore, they decided to expand the war by sending a naval force to the Aleutian Island chain off the coast of Russian Alaska.

The Russian government, realizing it was unable to send reinforcements to Alaska, and seeking more funds to pay for the war, announced that it had arranged for the United States to buy Alaska--even the islands already under Japanese control. Based on historical records, it seems that President Taft's motive was to eliminate the last foreign powers in North America. Russia was already gone, and the new US paper claim would, he hoped, allow the US to pressure Japan to sell the Alaskan islands to them.

This move backfired. Many in the Empire of Japan felt like the US was siding with Russain against them, in a repeat of the Triple Intervention. Despite Japan's dire fiscal situation, it was politically untenable to sell the islands. When the final peace treaty was signed, it made no mention of the Akutan Islands, despite transfering Sahklin Island to Japan. The Russian Empire maintained that despite Japanese control of the islands, sovereignty over them could only be transfered by treaty, and had been transfered to the US. Japan maintained that Russia could not transfer what it no longer possessed, and so the transfer to the US was invalid.

This dispute would keep relations between the US and Japan cool for decades. Following Japan's defeat by the Soviet Union in 1938, however, the US and Japan became partners in the US-lead coalition against the USSR. Indeed, during this time Japan even allowed the US to build several listening posts on Sahklin Island to listen to Soviet military radio. However, since the fall of the Soviet Union, relations between the two powers cooled, and the US is once again reiterating its claims to the Akutan island chain. (Although the US never officially dropped its claim, it did not press Japan on the issue during the Cold War.)
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