Potsdam Declaration
The Potsdam Declaration of July 26, 1945 laid down the official American-British-Chinese conditions for the surrender of Japan at the end of World War II . It should not be confused with the Potsdam Agreement, which is sometimes referred to in the same way .
The Potsdam Declaration was formulated by US President Harry S. Truman and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill at the Potsdam Conference and co-signed by telegram by Chinese President Chiang Kai-shek . It contained the following main points:
- (1) Japan should be given a (last) chance to end the war.
- (2–3) Military operations would continue until Japan gave up the resistance. The military might, which had already devastated Germany, would lead to the complete annihilation of the Japanese homeland in an immeasurably greater way.
- (4–5) The time has come when Japan must choose whether to continue to follow the military leaders or to tread the path of reason. The Allies would not deviate from their terms of surrender.
- (6) The influence and power of the agents of the Japanese policy of world conquest must be eliminated for all time. Only without militarism can peace, security and justice be achieved.
- (7) Until this new order has been achieved and the Japanese war apparatus eliminated, there would be a targeted occupation of Japan by the Allies.
- (8) The conditions of the Cairo Declaration would have to be fulfilled and the sovereignty of Japan would be limited to the four main Japanese islands and smaller ones to be identified.
- (9) The Japanese armed forces would be able to return home after their complete disarmament.
- (10) The Japanese people would not be enslaved or destroyed as a nation, but war criminals would be severely punished. Democracy and human rights should be introduced.
- (11) Japan will remain an industrialized country, albeit without military potential. It will also participate in world trade again.
- (12) The occupation would end as soon as these goals were achieved and a peaceful government supported by the people was in place.
- (13) The Allies called on the Japanese government to unconditionally surrender its armed forces. The alternative is immediate and total annihilation. ("The alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction.")
The text of the Potsdam Declaration was broadcast over the radio and printed on leaflets dropped over Japan. On July 28, 1945, Japanese Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki held a press conference and commented on the Potsdam Declaration that it was only a new edition of the Cairo Declaration. The Japanese government did not find any significant news in this. In connection with the attitude of his government towards the declaration, Suzuki used the word mokusatsu ( gegenüber 殺 ), which means something like "silence" or "left behind" (but not "reject") and thus a hesitant, divided and indecisive attitude of the cabinet reflected in the question of a possible surrender . On July 29, a communiqué by the official Japanese press agency Domei Tsushin translated mokusatsu as reject . To the Allied public, this reaction appeared to be indomitable, and this impression has not been corrected by Japan.
On July 21, 1945, President Truman had approved the use of American nuclear weapons . After the policy failed to produce results, two atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945 .
The Soviet Union fulfilled its commitment made at the Yalta Conference on the very day to start the war in Europe in the Far East 90 days after the end of the war and to attack both Japan and its allies. After the neutrality pact with Japan was terminated on April 5, 1945 , the Soviet Union transmitted a declaration of war to Japan on August 8 . With Operation August Storm , the Red Army began to occupy Manchuria (or the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo ) with over a million soldiers . The conquered area was returned to the Republic of China by the Soviet Union in 1946 in accordance with the Allied war aims ( Cairo Declaration ) .
On August 14, 1945, in view of the hopeless situation , the Tennō decided to adopt an imperial decree on the end of the war ( 終 戦 の 詔書 , shūsen no shōsho ), which recognized the conditions of the Potsdam Declaration and broadcast it on the radio ( Gyokuon-hōsō ) on August 15, 1945 has been. On September 2, the unconditional surrender of the Japanese armed forces was signed with express reference to the Potsdam Declaration .
