Potsdam Declaration

The Potsdam Declaration, formally the Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender, was issued on 26 July 1945 during the Potsdam Conference by the President of the United States, the President of the National Government of the Republic of China and the Prime Minister of Great Britain. It told Japan that it would be given an opportunity to end the war and warned that the Allied forces were poised to strike the final blows if resistance continued. The text called for the elimination of the authority and influence of those who had led Japan into world conquest, provided for Allied occupation of designated points in Japanese territory until war-making power was destroyed, and stated that the terms of the Cairo Declaration would be carried out and that Japanese sovereignty would be limited to the islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku and such minor islands as the Allies determined. It is a unilateral declaration of terms by the Allies rather than a negotiated treaty, and it set out the conditions on which Japan later surrendered.