Once a source of fortune for Japanese fishermen hunting sea lions and abalone, a pair of remote rocks is now stopping the United States' two biggest allies in Asia from getting along.

The rocks in the Sea of Japan, or the East Sea, have been controlled by South Korea since 1954. None of the 1,200 fishermen on Okinoshima, the nearest inhabited Japanese island, have ever been there.

While the territorial tensions can ebb and flow, a more nationalistic government in Tokyo and media reports highlighting the dispute have again brought the islets into the public eye.

"It used to be that … the general public didn't really care about Takeshima," resident Shoza Yawata, 86, said in the village of Kumi on Okinoshima, about 160 kilometers from the rocks known as Dokdo in Korean.

"Recently, there has been a backlash against South Korea's control. As Japanese, our blood boils."

The dispute over the islets and their fishing rights, plus South Korea's lingering bitterness over the treatment of its women by Japan's Imperial Army in World War II, prevents a warming in relations between two of Asia's big economies.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who wants a more militarily assertive Japan, has seen his calls for a summit with President Park Geun-hye shunned, leaving the US a cheerleader on the sidelines urging better ties.

"Japan has zero chance of getting any Korean concession on the rocks," said Robert Dujarric, director of the Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies at Temple University in Japan.

The US wants Japan and South Korea to work together as it seeks to limit China's influence in the region and to better coordinate policy regarding North Korea, Dujarric said. "This Takeshima claim only helps China and North Korea and makes life harder for the US."

The largely bare rocks rise steeply from the ocean almost equidistant from the mainland of each country. Just three people — a fisherman, his wife, and a poet — live there, according to a South Korean government website, alongside a platoon of about 30 police officers. The sea lions whose skins once provided carpets for homes on Okinoshima have disappeared.

Japan and South Korea both say their documents show a history of use of the islets. On Okinoshima, with a population of 15,000, there is plenty of evidence of the dispute on show. A sign at the ferry terminal calls for the return of the rocks, and the local government office carries a similar banner. Boxes of "Takeshima cakes" are on display.

Japan incorporated the rocks in 1905, handing management to the local government. Five years later, it annexed the Korean peninsula, occupying it until its defeat in 1945. Months after Japan signed a 1951 peace treaty with 47 countries, South Korea drew a sea border staking its claim to what were known in Europe as the Liancourt Rocks.

Japanese officials next to a model of the disputed islands called Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea, as they inspect a museum for the disputed islands before attending a ceremony to mark the Takeshima Day, a commemoration day set by Japan's local government for the disputed islands in Matsue, Shimane prefecture, in 2014. Reuters/Kyodo

In 2005, the Shimane prefecture that takes in Okinoshima established an annual Takeshima Day on February 22, sparking protests in South Korea and prompting Gyeongsangbuk-do province to sever ties. Since 2009, all Shimane elementary and middle school students have lessons on the issue.

South Korea on Sunday protested Japan's sending of a high-level official to represent it at the annual ceremony in Matsue, condemning the move as a "provocation" that was "extremely deplorable."

Noting it was the third consecutive year of Tokyo doing so, the South Korean foreign ministry accused Japan of repeating its "regressive behaviour" of denying its history of imperialism and invasion of the Korean Peninsula.

At the ceremony, Yohei Matsumoto, a Cabinet Office parliamentary secretary, declared that Takeshima was "an inherent part of Japan's territory under international law."

Dozens of South Korean civic group members protested in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul to denounce Japan's claims to the islets.

Tensions flared when then-South Korean President Lee Myung-bak visited the islets in 2012, becoming the first leader to do so and prompting Japan to recall its envoy.

Almost 55% of Japanese respondents in a Genron NPO survey last year said they had an unfavorable opinion of South Korea, up from 37.3% in 2013. The most common reason they gave was South Korea's criticism of Japan over historical issues.

An activist being detained by South Korean police during a rally in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul in 2013. Reuters

The poll showed 70.9% of South Koreans had an unfavorable view of Japan, down from 76.6% in 2013. Genron interviewed about 1,000 people in each country in May and June.

Warmer government ties could boost economic links. South Korea and Japan are already each other's third-largest trading partner after China and the US, with US$95.9 billion (HK$744 billion) of two-way trade in 2013, down from US$104.9 billion in 2012. About 2.8 million South Koreans visited Japan last year, a rise of 12% on the previous year.

Japanese direct investment in Korea fell to US$2.7 billion in 2013 from US$4.6 billion in 2012, the year Lee visited the rocks, according to official Japanese figures. A three-way free-trade agreement between Japan, South Korea, and China, initially expected to wrap up by the end of 2014, might take another year, the Nikkei reported in December.

"Japan and South Korea are our closest partners," US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier this month. "We will continue to encourage them to work through some of the difficult issues they face."

Still, Mayor Kazuhisa Matsuda of Okinoshima wants the national government to take a bolder stance on the dispute with South Korea. Takeshima Day should be a national event, and the rocks should get their own central government bureau, he said last month.

Protesters scuffling with police officers after the police took away disgraced Japanese flags that protesters carried to burn, during an anti-Japan protest in front of a Japanese embassy in Seoul in 2012. Reuters

"Japan must make clear to the world that it has sovereignty over Takeshima," he said. "We should resolve it by appealing to international opinion."

Though an official was sent to the ceremony, the national government soft-pedals its claims to Takeshima compared with its other territorial disputes — Abe himself attends an annual event calling for the return of what Japan calls the Northern Territories — a group of islands off the north of Hokkaido that are administered by Russia.

Local fisheries cooperative head Toshinaga Hamada says he has modest goals, as fishermen on the island age and struggle to make a living. "Of course it would be best if Takeshima were returned," he said. "But it doesn't seem possible … in the near future. We would be very happy if we were able to fish alongside the South Korean fishermen."

With no boundary agreed between the exclusive economic zones of the two countries in the Sea of Japan, there are also no rules for fishing in a "provisional zone" around the islands.

Hamada said his members were barely able to operate in the zone — once known for rich catches of snow crabs — because of nets and baskets left by their South Korean counterparts.

"It's absolutely absurd to say the Dokdo area belongs to Japan," said Jung Sung-hwan, an official in the fisheries department of the Ulleung county office, on the closest South Korean island to the rocks. "Japanese fishermen are claiming the area just so they can get more fish."

Jeong Yung-hwan, who represents the fishing community on Ulleung, said his members had nothing to do with the Japanese fishermen's complaints.

Back on Okinoshima, Yawata, who remembers raising a sea lion cub at home as a child, keeps a plan of the rocks his uncle Isaburo drew after one of the monthlong visits he made in the 1930s. After the war, Isaburo was never able to return to the rocks he called the "treasure islands."

"South Korea took over and occupied these islands in a one-sided manner," Yawata said. "That is not normal. I want South Korea to think of a way we can get along better."