The Taiwanese San Francisco Peace Treaty Study Society commemorated the 59th anniversary of the peace treaty that ended World War II between the United States and Japan with a seminar. The event was held at the Taiwan American Center in San Jose, California in the Bay area.
The treaty study group meeting on the anniversary of the implementation of the SFPT featured keynote speaker John Hsieh. Hsieh is chairman of the Taiwan Civil Rights Litigation Organization. Hsieh discussed Taiwan’s post-World War II history and the mandates of the San Francisco Peace Treaty.
In the San Francisco treaty, Japan dropped all claim to Formosa, as Taiwan is also called, and named the United States as “principal occupying Power” of the island. The United States remains the principal power under the treaty but has delegated its authority to the exiled Republic of China government.
Meanwhile, to the south in Los Angeles, a group of Taiwanese-Americans that maintained a six-month weekly vigil at the Federal Building returned to commemorate the SFPT anniversary with signs and handbills.
The Los Angeles activists, toughened by the all-weather 2010 vigil, seemed to be enjoying themselves back on the streets for Taiwan. Group members held signs, greeted pedestrians, and handbilled motorists stopped in traffic.
Vigil organizer Nieco Tsai said: “April 28th marks a special day for people of Taiwan. The San Francisco Peace Treaty was initiated on this day. Due to the U.S. government not following the Treaty, the people of Taiwan were put in a stateless condition which is a political purgatory. No government was established to represent the people of Taiwan. We are petitioning to President Obama to enforce the treaty and terminate the ROC exile government in order to let Taiwan be a real Taiwan.”
Although many Americans are not familiar with the San Francisco Peace Treaty, it is better known in Japan where the treaty created a number of regional territorial conflicts over various islands, including Taiwan.
The online Asia-Pacific Journal recently reported on the SFPT legacy of territorial disputes and provides some insight into the origins of the “strategic ambiguity” that shrouds Taiwan’s status.
Mark Seldon wrote, “Through successive treaty drafts, US policies shifted in tune with geopolitical considerations in the context of the US-Korean War and the US-Soviet/China conflict.”
Seldon continued, “By the time the Treaty was signed in September 1951, specification of the precise borders and disposition of all of the [disputed] territories had given way to vague formulations that left their precise disposition unresolved and opened the way for potential discord between Japan and her neighbors.”
The political maneuvering of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles as the Cold War heated up and the Korean conflict raged resulted in vague treaty language that allowed the United States plenty of room to make foreign policy decisions, thus the strategic ambiguity was born. Unfortunately for the people of Taiwan, the unfinished SFPT business has left the island an outcast, barred from the United Nations and not even allowed membership in the World Health Organization.
For further information on Taiwan’s status click HERE
Source: Michael Richardson - Boston Progressive Examiner
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