Negative shows part of the audience listening to Andrei Gromyko giving his speech at the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference. The photo was taken from the balcony press area and shows Gromyko at the podium and part of the desks where the conference officials sat. The front portion of the audience is visible. [Information provided by "The Oakland Tribune" Sept. 2-9, 1951] The Japanese Peace Treaty Conference was held at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco September 4-8, 1951. In 1945, the Opera House was also the place where the United Nations had come into existence. A total of 51 countries participated in this conference. The treaty officially ended the war with Japan started when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941. Some of the provisions of the treaty were: to end American occupation of Japan, make Japan pay some reparations for the war, and force it to comply with the peaceful wishes of other countries. The treaty allowed Japan to join the United Nations and rearm to a certain extent. Negotiations for the treaty had been going on for eleven months with John Foster Dulles as the primary force behind the negotions. Not all the countries participating were happy about the treaty. Some felt that Japan should be forced to pay reparations that were larger and should pay them immediately. The communists nations, primarily the Soviet Union, were not happy about the treaty as well, and the fact that they were not involved in the negotiations. They vowed even before the conference opened to cause as much trouble as possible. After some squabbling, primarily by the Communist countries, and after those countries offically walked out of the conference, the treaty was signed on September 8 by the remaining nations. Andrei Gromyko, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, was the leading communist on the scene. He tried to cause the most disruption at the conference and gave the strongest speech against it. The delegates from Poland and Czechoslovakia followed his lead. Gromyko, his actions and manners, seemed to be of the greatest interest to just about everyone at the conference. The sponsors of the treaty, primarily the U.S., did there best to make sure Gromyko had little real impact on the treaty contents. The Russians left the conference early (walking out before the signing, and then coming back but still refusing to support the treaty) having made little real impact.