<P> Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Ceylon, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, the Soviet Union, Syria, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Vietnam attended the Conference . </P> <P> Neither the Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan nor the People's Republic of China (PRC) on mainland China were invited because of the Chinese Civil War and the controversy over governmental legitimacy and therefore whom to invite . The lack of invitation to either or both of these parties resulted in the controversial political status of Taiwan, since the Treaty of Peace did not specify to whom Taiwan's sovereignty was to be turned over, and left the ROC's administration and sovereignty over Taiwan disputed and unresolved in international law . </P> <P> Burma, India, and Yugoslavia were also invited, but did not participate; India considered certain provisions of the Treaty to constitute limitations on Japanese sovereignty and national independence . India signed a separate peace treaty, the Treaty of Peace Between Japan and India, for the purpose of giving Japan a proper position of honor and equality among the community of free nations, on June 9, 1952 . As a consequence of U.K.--U.S. disagreement over Chinese participation, neither North nor South Korea was invited . Italy was not invited either, notwithstanding the fact that the government had issued a formal declaration of war to Japan on July 14, 1945, just a few weeks before the end of the war . Pakistan as a state had not existed at the time of the war but was invited anyway since it was a successor state to British India, a major combatant against Japan . Portugal was also not invited--even though its territory of East Timor had been invaded by Japan, disregarding Portugal's status as neutral country in the war . </P> <P> The Soviet Union took part in the San Francisco conference, and the Soviet delegation was led by the Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko . From the start of the conference the Soviet Union expressed vigorous and vocal opposition to the draft treaty text prepared by the United States and the United Kingdom . The Soviet delegation made several unsuccessful procedural attempts to stall the proceedings . The Soviet Union's objections were detailed in a lengthy September 8, 1951 statement by Gromyko . The statement contained a number of Soviet Union's claims and assertions: that the treaty did not provide any guarantees against the rise of Japanese militarism; that China was not invited to participate despite being one of the main victims of the Japanese aggression; that the Soviet Union was not properly consulted when the treaty was being prepared; that the treaty sets up Japan as an American military base and draws Japan into a military coalition directed against the Soviet Union; that the treaty was in effect a separate peace treaty; that the draft treaty violated the rights of China to Taiwan and several other islands; that several Japanese islands were ceded by the treaty to the United States despite the U.S. not having any legitimate claim to them; that the draft treaty, in violation of the Yalta agreement, did not recognize the Soviet Union's sovereignty over South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands; and other objections . It was not until October 19, 1956, that Japan and the Soviet Union signed a Joint Declaration ending the war and reestablishing diplomatic relations . </P>

Where was the treaty signed to end the civil war