evidence: Against these claims, the Russian counterargument is that the 1855 Treaty fixed the border in the Chishima (Kurile) region confirming that the islands north of Uruppu were Russian territory while Karafuto (Sakhalin) remained unpartitioned between Japan and Russia and that, under the 1875 Treaty for the Exchange of Sakhalin for the Kurile Islands, Japan exchanged its title to Karafuto (Sakhalin) with the Kurile Islands; as a result, it was established that Sakhalin was Russian territory; nonetheless Japan started the Russo-Japanese War and attempted to take Sakhalin (had the southern half ceded to them under the 1905 Portsmouth Peace Treaty); and therefore Japan had no right to bring up border agreements that Japan itself had violated.