From the Christian Science Monitor
What is Japan’s claim?
Japan’s foreign ministry cites surveys in 1885 confirming they were “uninhabited” with “no trace of having been under the control of China.” The government of Japan in January 1895 decided to incorporate the islands and to place a marker on one of them declaring them to be part of Japan.
But what do the Japanese say to the Chinese claim that the islands appear on Ming Dynasty maps?
Neither the Communist government that had taken over the Chinese mainland in 1949 nor the “Nationalist” Chinese government, driven to the island province ofTaiwan, objected when the San Francisco Peace Treaty of 1951 placed the islands under US administrative control.