# Legal authority of US government in post-WW2 Japan

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-authority-of-us-government-in-post-ww2-japan/1029514>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 23, 2026, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-authority-of-us-government-in-post-ww2-japan/1029514 "2026-04-23T14:43:10Z")\
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**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-authority-of-us-government-in-post-ww2-japan/1029514/13 "2026-04-24T00:37:49Z")

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So your position is that a war started without a formal declaration of war still needs a formal peace treaty to end?

By that same logic, are we still at war with China as well?

Don’t even get me started on the Battle of New Orleans (hint: the conventional contrarian wisdom that the war was already over is demonstrably false, and not just by reference to all the fighting that was still going on).

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