THE WAR IN REVIEW
THE WAR IN REVIEW WORLD WAR II, bloodiest and most destructive in human history, ended this week when President Truman announced at 6 p. m. (CWT) Tuesday, A:»g. 14 Japanese acceptance of Allied...
...MacArthur were to be high-ranking officers of Great Britain, China, and Russia...
...there are no alternatives...
...His Majesty, the Emperor," the Japanese government said, "is prepared to authorize and insure the signature by his government and the imperial general headquarters of necessary terms for carrying out the provisions of the Potsdam declaration...
...Six days earlier a lone U. S. bomber made the most sensational news of the war arid perhaps of our time...
...8The terms of the Cairo declaration shall be car...
...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...
...His majesty is also prepared to issue his commands to all the military, naval, and air authorities of Japan and all the forces under their control wherever located to cease active operations, to surrender arms, and to issue such other orders as may be required by the supreme commander of the Allied forces for the execution of the above mentioned terms...
...ried out and Japanese sovereignty shall be limited to the islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Rhi-koku, and such other minor-islands as we determine...
...The Japanese Government shall remove all obstacles to the revival and strengthening of democratic tendencies among the Japanese people...
...The Tokyo radio announced that the city was the scene of incredible ruin...
...If the atomic energy in matter is made fully available for mechanical use, all other forms of energy would be antiquated, such as fuels and explosives...
...A handful of snow would heat a large apartment house for a year...
...Japan's formal surrender was to be accepted by Gen...
...The alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction...
...Immediately upon the surrender the Japanese government shall transport prisoners of war and civilian internees to places of safety, as directed, where they can quickly be placed aboard Allied transports...
...5The following are our terms...
...Because the Potsdam ultimatum has now become the formal basis for peace and because the interpretation of its provisions is bound to play a decisive part in shaping the course of the Pacific settlement, The Progressive herewith publishes it in full: IWe, 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 agreed that Japan shall be given the opportunity to end this war...
...MacArthur was appointed supreme Allied commander to receive the Japanese capitulation...
...Photographs showed that 30 per cent of the built-up area had been destroyed...
...After consulting by telephone with our Allies, Secretary of State James F. Byrnes, on the morning of Saturday, Aug...
...and in reply to inform you that the President of the United States has directed me to send to you for transmission by your government to the Jr^anese government the following message on behalf o* the governments of the United States, the United Freedom, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and China: Duties For The Emperor "With regard to the Japanese government's message accenting the terms of the Potsdam proclamation but containing the statement, 'with the understanding that the said declaration does not comprise any demand v-iich prejudices the prerogatives of his majesty as a sovereign ruler,' our position is as follows: "From the moment of surrender the authority of th-s emneror and the Japanese government to rule the state shall be subject to the supreme commander of the Allied powers who will take such steps as he deems pronar to effectuate the surrender terms...
...The pasteboard in a small railroad ticket would run a heavy passenger train several times around the globe...
...The ultimate form of government of Japan shall, in accordance with the Potsdam declaration, be established by the freely expressed will of the Japanese people...
...we shall brook no delay...
...Molotov revealed to the world—officially for the first time—that the Soviet Union had been asked by Japan in "about mid-July" to mediate in the war in the Pacific, and that the heads of the United States and Great Britain had been informed of the Japanese proposal...
...Crew members of the plane which unloaded the atomic bomb reported the results as'"good...
...3The result of the futile and senseless 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...
...See below...
...4The time nas come for Japan to decide whether ? she will continue to be controlled by these 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...
...13 We call upon the Government of Japan to pro...
...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...
...The emperor will be required to authorize and ensure the signature by the government of Japan and the Japanese imperial general headquarters of the surrender terms necessary to carry out the provisions of the Potsdam declaration, and shall issue his commands to all the Japanese military, naval, and air authorities and to all the forces under their control where-ever located to cease active operations and to surrender their arms, and to issue such other orders as the supreme commander may require to give effect to the surrender terms...
...The latter would be required to order all Japanese military, air, and naval authorities, on all fronts, to surrender...
...regardless of the cost in human lives, until we had wiped Japan off the map...
...11Japan slfall be permitted to maintain such in...
...The breathtaking unleashing of atomic power overshadowed another major development in the war against Japan...
...Dams and electrical transmission lines would be as outmoded as stagecoaches...
...This military power is sustained and inspired by the determination of all Allied nations to prosecute the war against Japan until she ceases to resist...
...To this end access to, as distinguished from control of, raw materials shall be permitted...
...The ultimate form of government in Japan should eventually be selected in accordance with the freely expressed wish of the Japanese people, Byrnes in ¦ isted...
...This conditional acceptance of the ultimatum touched off a bitter debate in countries fighting Japan...
...6There must be eliminated for all time the au...
...that we fi"ht on...
...Douglas MacAr-thnr, who led the great American drive up from Australia beginning in 1942...
...THE week which preceded the first announcement of Japan's desire to surrender was packed with historic action...
...The might that now converges on Japan is immeasurably greater than that which, when applied to the resisting Nazis, necessarily...
...Russia considered that the Japanese failure to accept the Potsdam ultimatum, which was announced on July 26, nullified Japan's mediation proposal, Molotov declared, and thus the Soviet Union decided to join forces with its Allies in speeding the end of the war...
...The impact of the bomb was so terrific, according to the Japanese, that virtually all living things were literally seared to death by the fantastic heat and pressure of the explosion...
...The Japanese offer to surrender would be accepted, he proclaimed, provided that the Supreme Allied military commander could rule conquered Japan through the authority of the Emperor...
...Loud voices were raised demanding that Hirohito be hung by bis thumbs, that we dumn more of the devilish atomic bombs on the Jananese...
...A breath of air would operate a powerful airplane for a year continuously...
...9, and a mighty Red Army struck simultaneously on a number of fronts, principally in Manchuria...
...claim now the unconditional surrender of all Japanese armed forces, and to provide proper and adequate assurances of their good faith in such action...
...They were published in The Advance of Science...
...If dropped a single bomb containing more^destruc-tive power than 20,000 tons of TNT on the Japanese city of Hiroshima...
...9Japanese military forces after being completely ? disarmed shall be permitted to return to their homes with the opportunity to lead peaceful and productive lives...
...thority and influence of these 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...
...Power Of The Atom By Science Service HERE is what atomic energy could do if and when it is ever made fully available to work for man: Smashing the atoms in one pound of water would create enough energy to heat 100 million tons of water from freezing to boiling temperature...
...Undersecretary of State Joseph Grew and other Administration officials consistently denied reports that the Japanese had made peace overtures...
...It was pointed out that ir...
...7LTntil 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...
...laid waste to the land, the industry, and the method of life of the whole German people...
...10, when the Tokyo radio flashed the sensational news to the world that Japan was willing to surrender under the terms of the Potsdam ultimatum, with one condition—that Emperor Hi'-ohito retain his sovereignty and "prerogatives...
...Eventual Japanese participation in world trade relations shall be permitted...
...Freedom of speech and religion and of thought, as well as respect for the fundamental human rights, shall be established...
...Soviet Russia declared war on Japan effective Thursday, Aug...
...14 Japanese acceptance of Allied surrender terms...
...Represented with Gen...
...11, announced the Allied answer...
...It was the long dreaded atomic bomb whose ghastly power was said to have destroyed 60 per cent of that city of 318,000 persons and to have killed perhaps 200.000 of them...
...A teacup of water would supply the power of a great generating station of 100,000 kilowatts capacity for a year...
...the Potsdam ultimatum the leaders of the United States, Great Britain, and China (Russia was not then fighting Japan) omitted all reference to the Emperor, thus almost inviting the Japanese to contend for that reservation to Unconditional Surrender...
...2The prodigious land, sea, and air forces of the ? United States, the British Empire, and China, many times reinforced by their armies and air fleets from the west, are poised to strike the final blow at Japan...
...we will not deviate ? from them...
...had been asked by her Allies to join the Pacific conflict in order to speed "universal peace...
...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...
...In the message of capitulation, the Japanese said they were accepting the provisions of the Potsdam declaration...
...FOREIGN Commissar Vyacheslav Molotov, in announcing Russia's entry into the war against Japan, asserted that the U.S.S.R...
...These estimates were made before the war (1934) when physicists were just beginning to visualize the tremendous potentialities of atomic research...
...The Japanese launched their bid for peace early in the morning of Friday, Aug...
...The armed forces of the Allied powers will remain in Japan until the purposes set forth in the Potsdam declaration are achieved...
...Here is the full text of the Byrnes letter: "I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your note of Aug...
...dustries as will sustain her economy and permit the payment of just reparations in kind, but not those industries which will enable her to return for war...
...The Byrnes limply Calmer voices were heard, too...
...Later that week the second atomic bomb was hurled on a Japanese city, this time on Nagasaki, an important military port...
...edited by Watson Davis and peb-lished by Doubleday, Doran and Company...
Vol. 9 • August 1945 • No. 34
