On July 26 a declaration was issued, signed by the president and Prime
Minister Churchill and with the concurrence of Generalissimo Chiang
Kai-shek of Nationalist China, that in its result was as fateful, if not
more so, than the instruction of General Handy to General Spaatz. If the
recipient of the Potsdam Declaration, the government of Japan, had
responded with the surrender that the president and prime minister asked
for, the instruction of the day before would not have been carried
out.
Unfortunately the declaration was not an explicit warning that
the United States possessed nuclear weapons and would use them. Truman was
unwilling to be explicit, for Congress had tolerated an unknown project
costing nearly $2 billion and might object to an explanation offered an
enemy government without informing the legislative body that paid the
bill.
Perhaps because the warning was only a general statement, the
Japanese govrnment responded with something approaching contempt. The
prime minister chose to ignore it, employing the ambiguous word mokusatsu,
which means literally "to kill with silence," although it carries a nuance
of uncertainty. Tokyo radio used the word, saying the government would
mokusatsu the declaration and fight on. The English translation became
"reject," and the president took it as a rebuff. Years later he
remembered, "When we asked them to surrender at Potsdam, they gave us a
very snotty answer. That is what I got. . . . They told me to go to hell,
words to that effect."
In addition to being unaware that the United States possessed nuclear
weapons, the Japanese leaders also believed, foolishly, that they could
negotiate with the Americans, even though the Japanese were thoroughly
aware of the rapine and butchery associated with their nation's troops as
they fought across East Asia. Involved in those deeds was the emperor
himself about whose complicity the West knew little at the time and
continued to know little until after the death of Hirohito, when officials
of the imperial household revealed quite a diferent emperor than the world
had seen: The emperor supported his military commanders and often gave
political advice.
As the war was coming to an end the Americans, British, and Soviets
were publicly stating that they would arraign war criminals, but Tokyo
officials deluded themselves into believing it would be possible to
bargain to save the people involved; they had in mind an arrangement that
would put the matter delicately, in terms of preserving the imperial
institution, so that Japanese authorities rather than the Allies would
hold war-crimes trials. *1
"(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
might that now converges on Japan is immeasurably greater than that which,
when applied to the resisting Nazis, necessarily laid waste to the lands,
the industry and the method of life of the whole German people. 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. *2
(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.*3
(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 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 the 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."
SOURCE:
Foreign Relations of the United States: The
Conference of Berlin, 2 vols. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing
Office, 1960), II, 147~1476.
NOTES:
1.In the midst of the Potsdam Conference
it was necessary for Prime Minister Churchill and Foreign Secretary Eden
to return home to learn of the results of a British general election; the
vote had been delayed because of the time necessary to receive and count
the absentee votes of British army, air force, and naval personnel
stationed around the world. Because of the victory of the Labor party
Clement Attlee became the new prime minister; he returned to Potsdam
(where earlier he had been a member of the British delegation) with the
new foreign secretary, Ernest Bevin.
2. Early in the 1930s the
Japanese government accepted an arrangement whereby any navy or army
minister in the cabinet had to be on active service in his respective arm,
which meant that the military not merely controlled such appointments but
could prevent formation of cabinets by refusing to permit officers to
serve.
3. At a Cairo Conference, November 22-26, 1943, the United
States, Britain, and China, through President Roosevelt, Prime Minister
Churchill, and Generalissimo Chiang, promised to prosecute the war until
the Japanese surrendered unconditionally. Japan was to be deprived of all
Pacific islands acquired since 1914, that is, at the beginning of World
War I. Manchuria, Formosa, and other territories taken from China by Japan
were to be restored to China. The three powers were "determined that in
due course Korea shall become free and independent."
