As far as I know, Soviet Union took them because it rings around the entrance to Sea of Okhotsk.
They didn't "take" them. Japan surrendered them in the treaty of San Francisco, in 1951. It is NOT Japanese territory. Then again, I think that the treaty says that those islands are ours. :-)
17 posted on 08/15/2006 11:31:01 PM PDT by wyattearp
(Study! Study! Study! Or BONK, BONK, on the head!)