Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945 (The Pacific War Trilogy Book 3)

by Ian W. Toll

ON JULY 26, THE POTSDAM DECLARATION was released to the global press by the governments of the United States, Great Britain, and China. It demanded the immediate and unconditional surrender of Japanese armed forces, and warned that refusal would result in the “utter devastation” of the Japanese homeland: “Following are our terms. We will not deviate from them. There are no alternatives. We shall brook no delay.”107 Japan would never again be permitted to embark on a career of foreign conquest. The influence of the militarist caste would be completely and permanently eliminated. War crimes would be prosecuted in international tribunals. All foreign territories would be given up, and Japanese sovereignty would be forever limited to the home islands. Its forces overseas would be disarmed and permitted to return home in peace. The Allies would occupy “points in Japanese territory” for as long as necessary to ensure that the “self-willed militaristic advisers” were ousted and the military demobilized. Industry would be permitted to recover, and the economy would have access to international trade. Contrary to the propaganda disseminated by the Japanese regime, said the statement, “We do not intend that the Japanese shall be enslaved as a race or destroyed as a nation,” and a peaceful and responsible government would be instituted “in accordance with the freely expressed will of the Japanese people.”