Treaty of Taipei

What Happened

On 28 April 1952, representatives of Japan and the Republic of China signed a peace treaty at the Taipei Guest House in Taipei, Taiwan. The agreement formally ended the Second Sino-Japanese War, which had begun in 1937 and merged into the wider Second World War. The treaty took effect on 5 August of the same year.

The signing came seven years after the fighting stopped. Japan had surrendered in 1945, but no peace had been concluded between Japan and the government in Taipei, because that government had not been party to the San Francisco Peace Treaty of the previous year. The Treaty of Taipei closed that gap.

Background

When the San Francisco Peace Conference convened in 1951, neither the Republic of China nor the People's Republic of China was invited. The Chinese Civil War had resumed after 1945, and the governments that took part could not agree on which of the two was the legitimate government of China. Japan therefore signed peace with the Allied powers in San Francisco without settling its relationship with either Chinese state.

The United States pressed Japan to conclude a separate peace with the Republic of China. The resulting treaty largely mirrors the San Francisco terms, particularly on the question of Taiwan. Signed in April 1952, it brought the state of war between Japan and the Republic of China to a formal close.

Why It Mattered

The Treaty of Taipei gave the Second Sino-Japanese War a legal ending. For eight years after the guns fell silent, the two states had remained technically at war; the April 1952 signature removed that status.

The treaty also settled, in bilateral form, matters that the San Francisco settlement had left open with respect to China. Its provisions on Taiwan corresponded closely to those of the San Francisco treaty. For the Republic of China, the agreement represented a formal victory and a recognition, by Japan, of the government in Taipei as the counterpart in the peace.

The arrangement did not last. In 1972, Japan established diplomatic relations with the government of the People's Republic of China in Beijing and unilaterally terminated the Treaty of Taipei. The treaty had stood for twenty years.

The Name in Japanese

The Japanese name of the agreement is 日本国と中華民国との間の平和条約, read にほんこくとちゅうかみんこくとのあいだのへいわじょうやく (Nihonkoku to Chūka Minkoku to no aida no heiwa jōyaku). The shorter form 日華平和条約 (にっかへいわじょうやく, Nikka heiwa jōyaku) is also used. The official English name is the Treaty of Peace between the Republic of China and Japan; in Chinese it is 中華民國與日本國間和平條約, commonly called 臺北和約, the "Taipei Peace Treaty".

Character by character:

• 日 — read に here (elsewhere ひ or にち); "sun," and by extension "Japan," as in 日本.
• 本 — read ほん; "origin" or "book." Together 日本 (にほん) means "Japan," literally "origin of the sun."
• 国 — read こく; "country." 日本国 (にほんこく) is the formal name of the Japanese state, "the State of Japan."
• と — hiragana; the particle "and," joining the two states.
• 中 — read ちゅう; "middle" or "centre."
• 華 — read か; "flower" or "splendour," used here as the traditional literary name for China.
• 民 — read みん; "people."
• 国 — read こく; "country." 中華民国 (ちゅうかみんこく) is "Republic of China," literally "Middle Splendour People's State."
• と — the particle "and" again.
• の — hiragana; the possessive particle, "of."
• 間 — read あいだ; "interval" or "between." との間の (とのあいだの) means "between [the parties]."
• 平 — read へい; "flat," and by extension "peace."
• 和 — read わ; "harmony." 平和 (へいわ) is the standard word for "peace."
• 条 — read じょう; "article" or "clause."
• 約 — read やく; "promise" or "agreement." 条約 (じょうやく) is "treaty," literally "articles of agreement."

The structure repays attention: 日本国と中華民国との間の平和条約 literally reads "the treaty of peace between the State of Japan and the Republic of China." Japanese official documents routinely use this 〜との間の formula for bilateral agreements, and the formal state name 日本国 rather than plain 日本 signals a document between governments.

Key Figures

The treaty was signed at the Taipei Guest House, a building dating from the Japanese colonial period in Taiwan, which had ended in 1945. The agreement bears the signatures of the Japanese and Republic of China delegations at that ceremony on 28 April 1952.

The treaty's existence owed much to American pressure on Japan to conclude a separate peace with the government in Taipei, following the exclusion of both Chinese governments from the San Francisco conference. Its termination in 1972 followed Japan's establishment of diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, after which the Treaty of Taipei was unilaterally ended.