Aside from national pride, ownership could give Japan or China
control of oil and gas resources. For most of human history, the
five rocky islets in the eye of the current diplomatic storm
between China and Japan have sat in remote and irrelevant
obscurity, lapped by the tropical waters of the East China Sea.
But for generations of humbler folk on both sides, the islands
have meant one thing: fish. The Chinese name for the island
group, Diaoyu, means "catch fish." The Japanese name for the
largest island, Uotsuri, means "fish catch." There may be oil
and gas in nearby waters, according to some surveys, making
ownership of the islands – and their adjacent exclusive economic
zone – even more attractive. But all the tiny islands themselves
have ever been good for is albatross feathers (for the fashion
trade) and a Japanese-owned fish-processing plant that operated
for the first 40 years of the past century. Japan bases its
claim to the islands, which it calls the Senkaku, on a cabinet
decision in January 1895 wh