Ten days later, the United States, Britain, and China issued the Potsdam Declaration, an ultimatum calling for Japan’s unconditional surrender and demanding immediate disarmament, postwar occupation, prosecution of war criminals, and the end of Japan’s imperial system. “The alternative for Japan,” the declaration read, “is prompt and utter destruction.” Some of Truman’s advisers believed this message could hasten Japan’s surrender and had advocated for the inclusion of a clause guaranteeing Japan’s retention of the emperor, but this idea was rejected for the final draft. The atomic bomb was
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