Potsdam Declaration

Despite Germany s surrender, Japan continued to resist the unconditional surrender demanded by the Allied Forces. Knowing that the U.S. would shortly have enriched uranium and plutonium bombs ready for use enabled Truman to avoid extending Japan an offer of surrender that allowed the Emperor to continue to rule. On July 26, 1945, the Potsdam Declaration was issued via radio to Japan. President Truman, Chiang Kai-Shek of Nationalist China, and Winston Churchill of Great Britain called on the Japanese government to proclaim now the unconditional surrender of all Japanese armed forces. The alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction. 4 Japanese leadership rejected the declaration on July 29, 1945. 

When to issue the Potsdam Declaration now became essentially a... 

Stimson reported Harrison s several estimates to Truman on Tuesday morning, July 24. The President was pleased and said he would use them to time the release of the Potsdam Declaration. The Secretary took advantage of the moment to appeal to Truman to consider assuring the Japanese privately that they could keep their Emperor if they persisted in making that concession a condition of surrender. Deliberately noncommittal, the President said he had the point in mind and would take care of it. 

Strategy and delivery intersected on July 26 and synchronized. The Indianapolis arrived at Tinian. Three Air Transport Command C-54 cargo planes departed Kirtland Air Force Base with the three separate pieces of the Little Boy target assembly two more ATC C-54 s departed with Fat Man s initiator and plutonium core. Meanwhile Truman s staff released the Potsdam Declaration to the press at 7 p.m. for dispatch from Occupied Germany at 9 20. It offered on behalf of the President of the United States, the President of Nationalist China and the Prime Minister of Great Britain to give Japan an opportunity to end this war ... 

We faced a terrible decision, Byrnes wrote in 1947. We could not rely on Japan s inquiries to the Soviet Union about a negotiated peace as proof that Japan would surrender unconditionally without the use of the bomb. In fact, Stalin stated the last message to him had said that Japan would fight to the death rather than accept unconditional surrender. Under the circumstances, agreement to negotiate could only arouse false hopes. Instead, we relied upon the Potsdam Declaration. ... 

The ultimate form of government shall, in accordance with the Potsdam Declaration, be established by the freely expressed will of the Japanese people. 

At the Potsdam Conference, the Allies settled for the most part on dismantling or banning the. German armaments and autarky industry. The upper limits of the Potsdam Declaration were specified according to the Industrial Level Plan of March 28,1946. The plan restricted chemical production to just 60% of its 1938 rate. °... 

With the establishment of the SAG companies, the decentralization of the German economy, postulated in the Potsdam Declaration, was replaced by centralization. Although all four occupying powers wanted to break up LG. Farben into units as small as possible, this concept was never enforced by any of the occupying forces. ... 

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