Negative shows President Harry Truman giving the opening speech for the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference. He is standing at the podium in the center of the stage. Behind him sitting in chairs are Dean Acheson, U.S. Secretary of State, and Dr. Warren Kelchner, secretary-general of the peace conference, and two other men. Behind these men are the 51 flags of all of the nations represented at the confernce. On the floor in front of the stage is the Sixth Army Band who performed the music for the ceremony. [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. President Harry Truman arrived on Sept. 3 at the Coast Guard hanger at the San Francisco airport aboard his plane the "Independence." Truman officially opened the peace treaty conference on Sept. 4. He gave a rousing speech in favor of the treaty and very hard the the Russians and their aggression.