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50th Anniversary of the U.S.— Japan Peace Treaty
Officially Ended WWII
Photo Exhibition to Celebrate
(San Francisco | July 2, 2001) — The University of San Francisco Center for the Pacific Rim is sponsoring a photo exhibition that will celebrate the golden anniversary of the U.S.-Japan Peace treaty of 1951, signed 50 years ago in San Francisco. The treaty officially ended World War II and the peace conference itself was attended by representatives of virtually every nation on earth.
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(Source: San Francisco Public Library)
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Called Peace in the Pacific: San Francisco and the U.S.—Japan Peace Treaty of 1951, the exhibit will help explain what happened during the conference, describe the peace treaty process and celebrate San Francisco’s vital role.
The exhibition will be displayed Aug.1 through Oct. 31, 2001, at the California State Building, 445 Golden Gate Ave. in San Francisco, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on weekdays. It is free and open to the public. A commemorate booklet is available free of charge at the exhibition and by request from the University of San Francisco Center for the Pacific Rim.
"The aim of the exhibit is to educate the public about what actually happened at the peace conference, and to spotlight individuals and groups involved in making history at the signing of the peace treaty," said University of San Francisco President Fr. Stephen Privett, S.J. "The display also tells a distinctively San Francisco story of a unique event for both The City and the world."
The exhibit is based on original research and curated by Uldis Kruze, Ph.D., associate professor of East Asian history at the University of San Francisco.
"By signing this document, the United States committed itself to ending its occupation of Japan and restoring all the rights of sovereignty to the Japanese people and its government," Kruze said. "In a larger context, the signing of the document brought to an end a half century of rivalry between two of the Pacific Rim’s most important nations and ushered in a new half century marked by U.S.- Japanese cooperation and friendship."
California historian and State Librarian Kevin Starr says, "Now 50 years later it is important for San Franciscans to recall these times and to resolve, once again, to remain ever-faithful to its internationalist destiny. The Japanese Peace Treaty Conference, it must be remembered, helped usher in the concept and practice of the Asia Pacific Basin as matrix for social, cultural, economic, and diplomatic interchange–and for San Francisco to serve that emergent Asian Pacific culture in its civil crossroads city, its Geneva of the Pacific.
"While the United Nations might be formally headquartered in New York, San Francisco remained, in so many ways, an intrinsically diplomatic city that by its very civility and joy of life, by the intricate amalgam of its cultural strands and identities, promoted an international point of view."
The exhibition is sponsored by the University of San Francisco’s Center for the Pacific Rim. The Center promotes understanding, communication and cooperation among the cultures and economies of the Pacific Rim and provides leadership in strengthening the position of the San Francisco Bay Area as a pre-eminent gateway to the Pacific.
Co-sponsors of the exhibit are the Asian Art Museum/Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture, Japan Society of Northern California, and the Stanford Program on International and Intercultural Education (SPICE).
For more information on the exhibit, call the USF Center for the Pacific Rim at (415) 422-6357 or visit the website: www.pacificrim.usfca.edu. To arrange an interview with curator Uldis Kruze, Ph.D., contact Gary McDonald, USF director of media relations at (415) 422-2699 or mcdonald@usfca.edu
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