Short Abstract

This paper examines Japanese intellectual opposition to the San Francisco Peace Treaty, arguing that the 1951 debate marked both the first large-scale public discussion of peace in postwar Japan and the definitive breakdown of the postwar “community of remorse” amid Cold War polarization.

Long Abstract

he Treaty of San Francisco, signed on September 8, 1951, between Japan and the Allied powers of World War II, was an event that not only provided the basis for the end of the American occupation half a year later, but also profoundly shaped international relations, giving birth to what is often called the “San Francisco system.” Especially impactful—in the global Cold War context—was the refusal of the Soviet Union to sign the treaty, as well as the exclusion of Communist China from the treaty negotiations and conference.

Most studies analyze the Treaty of San Francisco from the perspectives of either Japan’s political history or international relations. This paper proposal is an attempt to shed light on the opposition to the treaty among contemporary Japanese intellectuals. My thesis is that the intellectual debate over the Treaty of San Francisco fulfilled two key functions in Japan’s early postwar history. First, it served as an instance in which the topic of peace (which emerged in Japan in late 1948 with the Peace Problem Discussion Group) became the subject of national public debate for the first time on such a large scale. The wider Japanese peace movement, which started in 1954, to a large extent drew on the arguments articulated during the 1951 debate over the peace treaty. Second, I argue that this debate marked the moment when the relatively tight-knit postwar community of Japanese intellectuals (often referred to as the “community of remorse”) definitively broke down, signaling rising tensions related to Cold War polarization.

This paper proposal is firmly rooted in my own research on the intellectual history of occupation-era Japan in the context of the Cold War, which was unfolding on a global scale at the time the treaty negotiations were taking place. My analysis is heavily based on Japanese primary sources, such as sōgō zasshi (“general opinion magazines”) including Sekai, Chūō Kōron, Tenbō, and Bungei Shunjū, as well as on memoirs of prominent historical actors. I utilize both English- and Japanese-language scholarship on the subject.