抄録
This paper investigates the issue of the participation of various countries in the Japanese Peace Treaty (hereafter JPT) Conference in 1951, with a particular emphasis on Korea, which was once a Japanese colony.
An investigation of the discussions about which countries should be invited to the JPT Conference is a good way to understand how powerful nations such as the U. S. and Britain achieved mutual consent on the issue of participation, and helps clarify the formation of the international situation and relations among the postwar nations. In particular, I will focus on the participation of former Western colonies in the JPT and the major powers' decision to reject Korea's request to participate in the Conference.
Firstly, I examine the differences among the Japanese, British, and American plans for the list of participants in the JPT Conference and also discuss the processes by which these differences were resolved. Cases such as the debate over the participation of China or Indochina show that the interests of powerful nations were more important in determining the participants of the JPT than a consistent logic of the law.
Secondly, I analyze the Korean issue in the JPT. The Republic of Korea (hereafter Korea) government put a considerable effort to participate in the Conference. In addition, the United States strongly wanted to see Korea take part in the JPT because it hoped to demonstrate its power over the Soviet Union by making the Korean government a part of an international conference. On the other hand, Britain, which hoped to resist the U. S. stance over the question of China's representation, opposed Korea's participation by reasoning that Korean participation might provoke China. Eventually, the United States accepted Britain's opposition to the Korean participation so as to avoid confrontation among the Western Allies. Then the United States notified Korea that it did not have the right to participate in the JPT Conference because Korea had not participated in the fight against Japan during World War II and the Allied Nations had not officially recognized the Korean Provisional Government during the war.
In this respect, the prewar ‘imperialism’ continued into the postwar era as well. As a result of this Anglo-American logic, Korea was not able to sign the Peace Treaty with Japan, which had colonized Korea for more than thirty-six years. In contrast, because Southeast Asian nations were former colonies of Allied nations, they were able to participate in the conference and gain the status of victorious nations. Consequently many problems between Japan and Korea were left unsolved.
