The core values of the Declaration were not sufficiently reflected in reality, and were distorted in the drafting of the San Francisco Peace Treaty for legal termination of the Pacific War. In addition, countries that were colonies & victims of the war such as the Republic of Korea (ROK) and Taiwan were not included as treaty signatory nations. One reason for their exclusion can be traced back to the fundamental changes in US foreign policy towards East Asia in the Cold War order since The Truman Doctrine (March 12, 1947). Additionally, Japan’s persistent lobbying (e.g., by William Sebald) of the US Government, along with security considerations such as the building of weather and radar stations on Dokdo Island, also contributed to the exclusion.
As a result, the San Francisco Peace Treaty did not become a punishment treaty, but rather an indulgence treaty that failed to punish Japanese war criminals and address the issue of compensation for victims. The war criminals were mostly released from the Tokyo War Criminal Trial (1946–1948). Such failures demonstrate that the San Francisco Peace Treaty was a relic of the Cold War order of the 1950s, and failed to implement the core values of the Cairo Declaration.
Today, East Asia is drifting in uncertainty due to conflicts over regional territorial and history. Institutionalization of an East Asia peace community is a long way off. The effects of surviving colonialism have made regional collaboration among countries very difficult. The long division of the ROK and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) created a new Cold War structure in East Asia, further hindering regional collaboration. Finally, the remnants of colonialism and the long division of the Korean Peninsula can be traced to the limitations of the San Francisco Peace Treaty, which was based on the Cold War order. Likewise, the Korean Armistice (1953) and the Korea-Japan Agreement (1965) are also by-products of the Cold War order. These historical disputes in East Asia come from the limitations of the San Francisco Peace Treaty. This paper suggests exit strategies to overcome such limitations. Action plans include “adopting the Civil Society Charter” towards peace and human rights in East Asia to overcome the San Francisco Peace Treaty system on the basis of universal norms and values for a peaceful East Asian community.