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San Francisco Peace Treaty

Name commonly given to the treaty of peace signed by Japan and 48 other nations at San Francisco on September 8, 1951 and formally implemented on April 28, 1952. Japan was deprived of all its territories seized since 1895, including Taiwan, Korea, southern Sakhalin, and subsidiary islands. US trusteeship of the Ryūkyū Islands including Okinawa was permitted indefinitely, although a 1972 treaty later returned these islands to Japan. The United States-Japan Security Treaties, signed two hours after the peace treaty, assured the continued presence of US forces and military bases in Japan. In the legal sense, the peace treaty ended the state of war between Japan and most of the Allied powers and it is notable chiefly for its relatively generous terms with regard to reparations and "war guilt." However, the treaty and its accompanying entanglements actually set the stage for a new relationship between Japan and the United States that would become a major source of political contention in Japan for years. (adapted from Japan: An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Tokyo: Kodansha, 1993)

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