Which treaty ended Japan’s legal state of war with the Allies and restored its sovereignty in 1952?

The Treaty of San Francisco ended Japan’s legal state of war with the Allies and restored its sovereignty in 1952.

Also called the Treaty of Peace with Japan, it was signed on 8 September 1951 at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco. The treaty came into force on 28 April 1952, ending the Allied occupation and formally re-establishing Japan as a sovereign state.

The treaty followed the 1945 surrender but was not the surrender document itself. Japan had already accepted defeat and signed the Instrument of Surrender aboard USS Missouri. The San Francisco treaty instead established the postwar peace settlement, including Japan’s renunciation of claims to several territories and its acceptance of responsibility for certain wartime judgments.

Forty-nine nations signed the treaty, although not every country that had fought Japan participated. China was not invited because the United States and other powers disagreed over whether the Republic of China or the People’s Republic of China represented China. The Soviet Union attended the conference but did not sign.