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.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.
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.
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.Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender Source: Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender, Issued, at Potsdam, J(Birth of the Constitution of Japan, National Diet Library, Japan). The Potsdam Declaration also outlined what continuing the war – or, alternatively, what peace – would mean for Japan. Truman took advantage of the meeting in Potsdam to issue a joint statement (with Britain and the Republic of China the Soviet Union did not sign because it had not declared war on Japan) demanding Japan’s unconditional surrender. On July 16, 1945, a day before the Potsdam conference began, President Truman received word that the United States had successfully detonated an atomic bomb in the New Mexico desert. Meanwhile, the war in the Pacific continued. During the war, the Allies had called for Germany’s unconditional surrender, and the Potsdam Conference decided what “unconditional surrender” meant. Germany was also required to disarm completely. The Allies agreed to separate Germany and Berlin into four zones, each controlled by a different Allied nation (France, Britain, USSR, and the United States). Truman – who as Vice President had become president upon the death of Franklin Roosevelt on Ap– British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. The major Allied delegations were led by US President Harry S. They gathered in Potsdam, Germany, just outside Berlin, from July 17–August 2, 1945.
Potsdam conference how to#
During this ‘Cold War’, there were repeated discussions about how the Potsdam Agreement was to be interpreted.Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945, but Allied leaders did not meet until July to decide how to handle the transition to peace. On 7 August 1945 the French government acceded to the Potsdam Agreement, albeit with certain reservations with regard to a number of points.Īt the Potsdam Conference it became clear that the end of the war also meant the end of a common policy of the wartime Allies and the beginning of new conflicts. Since the Soviet Union was not satisfied with that, it was agreed that additional reparations would be provided to it from the Western occupation zones.Īlthough France was informed of the Potsdam decisions, it took no part in the decision-making process. It was decided that each occupying power was to meet its reparations claims from its own zone. But the ultimate determination of the German-Polish border was to be delayed until a later peace conference.įurthermore it was stipulated to suspend further expulsions of German populations from Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary and to insure an orderly transfer to Germany. The German-Polish border was to be shifted westwards to the Oder-Neiße line. The ‘Big Three’ came to an agreement about the political principles for the government of Germany during the occupation: decentralization, demilitarization, denazification and democratization. With the end of the combat operations in Europe, the three government leaders of the victorious powers, Harry Truman, Winston Churchill (replaced by Clement Attlee) and Joseph Stalin, met in person to discuss the new order in Europe and Germany. In the summer of 1945, world history was written at Cecilienhof Palace in Potsdam, just southwest of Berlin. The results of the conference were contained in the Potsdam Agreement. The three government leaders of the victorious powers met in person to discuss the new order in Europe and Germany. In the summer of 1945, world history was written in Potsdam, just outside Berlin.
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