Which peace treaty formally ended the state of war between Japan and most Allied countries in 1952?

The Treaty of San Francisco formally ended the state of war between Japan and most Allied countries in 1952.

Japan and 48 Allied nations signed the treaty in San Francisco on September 8, 1951. It entered into force on April 28, 1952, ending the Allied occupation of Japan and restoring Japan’s sovereignty in relations with most of the countries that had fought it during World War II.

The treaty was separate from the 1945 Instrument of Surrender. The surrender document ended active hostilities and established Japan’s submission to Allied authority, while the later peace treaty created the legal framework for postwar relations and territorial renunciations.

The Soviet Union attended the conference but did not sign the treaty. China was also not a signatory because the United States and other powers disagreed over whether the government in Taipei or the People’s Republic of China should represent China. Consequently, the treaty did not settle every bilateral issue involving Japan and former wartime opponents.

The treaty is sometimes confused with the Potsdam Declaration, which set surrender terms in 1945, or the Treaty of Portsmouth, which ended the Russo-Japanese War in 1905. Those agreements belonged to different conflicts and periods.