The Potsdam Declaration
The Potsdam Declaration
(1) WE–THE PRESIDENT of the United States, the President of the National Government of the Republic of China, and the Prime Minister of Great Britain, representing the hundreds of millions of our countrymen, have conferred and agree that Japan shall be given an opportunity to end this war.(2) The prodigious land, sea and air forces of the United States, the British Empire and of China, many times reinforced by their armies and air fleets from the west, are poised to strike the final blows upon Japan. This military power is sustained and inspired by the determination of all the Allied Nations to prosecute the war against Japan until she ceases to resist.
(3) The result of the futile and senseless German resistance to the might of the aroused free peoples of the world stands forth in awful clarity as an example to the people of Japan. . . . The full application of our military power, backed by our resolve, will mean the inevitable and complete destruction of the Japanese armed forces and just as inevitably the utter devastation of the Japanese homeland.
(4) The time has come for Japan to decide whether she will continue to be controlled by those self-willed militaristic advisers whose unintelligent calculations have brought the Empire of Japan to the threshold of annihilation, or whether she will follow the path of reason.
(5) Following are our terms. We will not deviate from them. There are no alternatives. We shall brook no delay.
(6) There must be eliminated for all time the authority and influence of those who have deceived and misled the people of Japan into embarking on world conquest, for we insist that a new order of peace, security and justice will be impossible until irresponsible militarism is driven from the world.
(7) Until such a new order is established and until there is convincing proof that Japan’s war-making power is destroyed, points in Japanese territory to be designated by the Allies shall be occupied to secure the achievement of the basic objectives we are here setting forth.
(8) The terms of the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out and Japanese sovereignty shall be limited to the islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku and such minor islands as we determine.
(9) The Japanese military forces, after being completely disarmed, shall be permitted to return to their homes with the opportunity to lead peaceful and productive lives.
(10) We do not intend that the Japanese shall be enslaved as a race or destroyed as a nation, but stern justice shall be meted out to all war criminals, including those who have visited cruelties upon our prisoners. The Japanese Government shall remove all obstacles to the revival and strengthening of democratic tendencies among the Japanese people. Freedom of speech, of religion, and of thought, as well as respect for the fundamental human rights shall be established.
(11) Japan shall be permitted to maintain such industries as will sustain her economy and permit the exaction of just reparations in kind, but not those which would enable her to re-arm for war. To this end, access to, as distinguished from control of, raw materials shall be permitted. Eventual Japanese participation in world trade relations shall be permitted.
(12) The occupying forces of the Allies shall be withdrawn from Japan as soon as these objectives have been accomplished and there has been established in accordance with the freely expressed will of the Japanese people a peacefully inclined and responsible government.
(13) We call upon the government of Japan to proclaim now the unconditional surrender of all Japanese armed forces, and to provide proper and adequate assurances of their good faith in such action. The alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction.
Context.
Still at war in July 1945, Japan was in dire straits. Germany had surrendered in Europe, and Japan’s own military had been reduced to a shell of what it once had been, with strong will but dwindling fuel, weapons, and resources. The homeland was under attack too; cities were being bombed, and everything from food to housing and clothing was in desperately short supply. Aware of this, Winston Churchill, Chiang Kaishek, and Harry Truman met in the German city of Potsdam and issued this declaration, designed to persuade Japan’s leaders to surrender. Japan’s Supreme War Council was split at the time, with half of its members favoring surrender and half determined to keep the war going. When the Prime Minister, Suzuki Kantarō, was informed of the declaration, he gave an ambiguous response to reporters, which was taken by the Allies as a rejection—with the result that the fighting continued until early August when the dropping of two atomic bombs and the Soviet Union’s entry into the war against Japan convinced the Council’s hawks that holding out no longer was possible. The emperor’s surrender message came on August 15.
Questions.
1. Evaluate the Potsdam Declaration as a document of persuasion. What negative arguments are used? What positive arguments? What threats? What positive promises?
2. The Declaration served as an outline of the directions the postwar Allied Occupation of Japan would take. Knowing that, what would you expect the main features of that Occupation to be?
3. Evaluate this document as it might have been read by a member of Japan’s Supreme War Council. What arguments and statement would have had more—and less—effect on you?
Terms.
Cairo Declaration. The leaders of China, Great Britain, and the United States had issued a statement in Egypt in November 1943, proclaiming that all necessary military force would be used against Japan and that Japan would be stripped of its territories when the war ended.
Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku. These are Japan’s four major islands, sometimes called its hondo or mainland. Thousands of small islands also are included in the Japanese archipelago.
Unconditional surrender. Underlying this phrase was the Allies’ refusal to make any promises about the emperor. Many Japanese wanted some assurance that the emperor would not be punished and the imperial institution would be maintained. Churchill, Truman, and Chiang insisted they would not give any pre-surrender assurances on this or any other issues.
Source: “The Potsdam Proclamation,” in Hugh Borton. Japan’s Modern Century. New York: The Ronald Press Company, 1945, 485-486.
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