The surrender of the
Empire of Japan
The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of Japan, 1947 constitu ...
in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
was
announced by
Emperor
An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...
Hirohito on 15 August and formally
signed on 2 September 1945,
bringing the war's hostilities to a close. By the end of July 1945, the
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrend ...
(IJN) had become incapable of conducting major operations and an
Allied invasion of Japan was imminent. Together with the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
and
China, the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
called for the
unconditional surrender
An unconditional surrender is a surrender in which no guarantees are given to the surrendering party. It is often demanded with the threat of complete destruction, extermination or annihilation.
In modern times, unconditional surrenders most ofte ...
of the Japanese armed forces in the
Potsdam Declaration
The Potsdam Declaration, or the Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender, was a statement that called for the surrender of all Japanese armed forces during World War II. On July 26, 1945, United States President Harry S. Truman, Uni ...
on 26 July 1945—the alternative being "prompt and utter destruction". While publicly stating their intent to fight on to the bitter end, Japan's leaders (the
Supreme Council for the Direction of the War, also known as the "Big Six") were privately making entreaties to the publicly neutral
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
to mediate peace on terms more favorable to the Japanese. While maintaining a sufficient level of diplomatic engagement with the Japanese to give them the impression they might be willing to mediate, the Soviets were covertly preparing to attack Japanese forces in
Manchuria
Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...
and
Korea
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
(in addition to
South Sakhalin
Karafuto Prefecture ( ja, 樺太庁, ''Karafuto-chō''; russian: Префектура Карафуто, Prefektura Karafuto), commonly known as South Sakhalin, was a prefecture of Japan located in Sakhalin from 1907 to 1949.
Karafuto became ter ...
and the
Kuril Islands
The Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands (; rus, Кури́льские острова́, r=Kuril'skiye ostrova, p=kʊˈrʲilʲskʲɪjə ɐstrɐˈva; Japanese: or ) are a volcanic archipelago currently administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast in the ...
) in fulfillment of promises they had secretly made to the United States and the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
at the
Tehran
Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
and
Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference (codenamed Argonaut), also known as the Crimea Conference, held 4–11 February 1945, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union to discuss the post ...
s.
On 6 August 1945, at 8:15 AM local time, the United States
detonated
Detonation () is a type of combustion involving a supersonic exothermic front accelerating through a medium that eventually drives a shock front propagating directly in front of it. Detonations propagate supersonically through shock waves with ...
an
atomic bomb over the Japanese city of
Hiroshima. Sixteen hours later, American President
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...
called again for Japan's surrender, warning them to "expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth." Late in the evening of 8 August 1945, in accordance with the Yalta agreements, but in violation of the
Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact, the
Soviet Union declared war on Japan, and soon after midnight on 9 August 1945, the
Soviet Union invaded the Imperial Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. Hours later, the United States
dropped a second atomic bomb, this time on the Japanese city of
Nagasaki
is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan.
It became the sole Nanban trade, port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hi ...
. Following these events,
Emperor Hirohito
Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...
intervened and ordered the Supreme Council for the Direction of the War to accept the terms the
Allies had set down in the
Potsdam Declaration
The Potsdam Declaration, or the Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender, was a statement that called for the surrender of all Japanese armed forces during World War II. On July 26, 1945, United States President Harry S. Truman, Uni ...
for ending the war. After several more days of behind-the-scenes negotiations and
a failed ''coup d'état'', Emperor Hirohito gave a recorded
radio address across the Empire on 15 August announcing the surrender of Japan to the Allies.
On 28 August, the
occupation of Japan led by the
Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers began. The surrender ceremony was held on 2 September, aboard the United States Navy battleship , at which officials from the
Japanese government signed the
Japanese Instrument of Surrender
The Japanese Instrument of Surrender was the written agreement that formalized the surrender of the Empire of Japan, marking the end of hostilities in World War II. It was signed by representatives from the Empire of Japan and from the Allied n ...
, thereby ending the hostilities. Allied
civilian
Civilians under international humanitarian law are "persons who are not members of the armed forces" and they are not " combatants if they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war". It is slightly different from a non-combatant ...
s and
military personnel
Military personnel are members of the state's armed forces. Their roles, pay, and obligations differ according to their military branch (army, navy, marines, air force, space force, and coast guard), rank (officer, non-commissioned officer, or ...
alike celebrated
V-J Day
Victory over Japan Day (also known as V-J Day, Victory in the Pacific Day, or V-P Day) is the day on which Imperial Japan surrendered in World War II, in effect bringing the war to an end. The term has been applied to both of the days on ...
, the end of the war; however, isolated soldiers and personnel from Japan's far-flung forces throughout
Asia and the Pacific refused to surrender for months and years afterwards, some even refusing into the 1970s. The role of the atomic bombings in Japan's unconditional surrender, and
the ethics of the two attacks, is
still debated. The state of war formally ended when the
Treaty of San Francisco
The , also called the , re-established peaceful relations between Japan and the Allied Powers on behalf of the United Nations by ending the legal state of war and providing for redress for hostile actions up to and including World War II. It w ...
came into force on 28 April 1952. Four more years passed before Japan and the Soviet Union signed the
Soviet–Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956
The Soviet Union did not sign the Treaty of Peace with Japan in 1951. On October 19, 1956, Japan and the Soviet Union signed a Joint Declaration providing for the end of the state of war and for the restoration of diplomatic relations between ...
, which formally brought an end to their state of war.
Background
![US landings](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/US_landings.jpg)
By 1945, the Japanese had suffered a string of defeats for nearly two years in the
South West Pacific
Oceania (, , ) is a geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern and Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of and a population of around 44.5 million as of ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
, the
Marianas campaign, and the
Philippines campaign. In July 1944, following the
loss of Saipan, General
Hideki Tōjō
Hideki Tojo (, ', December 30, 1884 – December 23, 1948) was a Japanese politician, general of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA), and convicted war criminal who served as prime minister of Japan and president of the Imperial Rule Assista ...
was replaced as
prime minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
by General
Kuniaki Koiso, who declared that the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
would be the site of the decisive battle.
After the Japanese loss of the Philippines, Koiso in turn was replaced by Admiral
Kantarō Suzuki
Baron was a Japanese general and politician. He was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy, member and final leader of the Imperial Rule Assistance Association and Prime Minister of Japan from 7 April to 17 August 1945.
Biography
Early l ...
. The Allies captured the nearby islands of
Iwo Jima and
Okinawa
is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi).
Naha is the capital and largest city ...
in the first half of 1945. Okinawa was to be a
staging area
A staging area (otherwise staging point, staging base, or staging post) is a location in which organisms, people, vehicles, equipment, or material are assembled before use. It may refer to:
* In construction, a designated area in which vehicles, ...
for
Operation Downfall, the Allied invasion of the Japanese
Home Islands. Following
Germany's defeat, the Soviet Union began quietly redeploying its battle-hardened forces from the European theatre to the Far East, in addition to about forty divisions that had been stationed there
since 1941, as a counterbalance to the million-strong
Kwantung Army
''Kantō-gun''
, image = Kwantung Army Headquarters.JPG
, image_size = 300px
, caption = Kwantung Army headquarters in Hsinking, Manchukuo
, dates = April ...
.
The
Allied submarine campaign and the
mining of Japanese coastal waters had largely destroyed the Japanese merchant fleet. With few natural resources, Japan was dependent on raw materials, particularly oil, imported from Manchuria and other parts of the East Asian mainland, and from the conquered territory in the
Dutch East Indies. The destruction of the Japanese merchant fleet, combined with the
strategic bombing of Japanese industry, had wrecked Japan's war economy. Production of coal, iron, steel, rubber, and other vital supplies was only a fraction of that before the war.
As a result of the losses it had suffered, the
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrend ...
(IJN) had ceased to be an effective fighting force. Following
a series of raids on the
Japanese shipyard at Kure, the only major warships in somewhat fighting order were six aircraft carriers, four cruisers, and one battleship, of which many were heavily damaged and none could be fueled adequately. Although 19 destroyers and 38 submarines were still operational, their use was also limited by the lack of fuel.
[.]
Defense preparations
Faced with the prospect of an invasion of the Home Islands, starting with
Kyūshū, and the prospect of a Soviet invasion of Manchuria—Japan's last source of natural resources—the War Journal of the Imperial Headquarters concluded in 1944:
As a final attempt to stop the Allied advances, the Japanese Imperial High Command planned an all-out defense of Kyūshū codenamed
Operation Ketsugō. This was to be a radical departure from the
defense in depth
Defence in depth (also known as deep defence or elastic defence) is a military strategy that seeks to delay rather than prevent the advance of an attacker, buying time and causing additional casualties by yielding space. Rather than defeating ...
plans used in the invasions of
Peleliu
Peleliu (or Beliliou) is an island in the island nation of Palau. Peleliu, along with two small islands to its northeast, forms one of the sixteen states of Palau. The island is notable as the location of the Battle of Peleliu in World War II.
H ...
,
Iwo Jima, and
Okinawa
is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi).
Naha is the capital and largest city ...
. Instead, everything was staked on the beachhead; more than 3,000
kamikaze
, officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending t ...
s would be sent to attack the amphibious transports before troops and cargo were disembarked on the beach.
If this did not drive the Allies away, they planned to send another 3,500 kamikazes along with 5,000
''Shin'yō'' suicide motorboats and the remaining destroyers and submarines—"the last of the Navy's operating fleet"—to the beach. If the Allies had fought through this and successfully landed on Kyūshū, 3,000 planes would have been left to defend the remaining islands, although Kyūshū would be "defended to the last" regardless.
The strategy of making a last stand at Kyūshū was based on the assumption of continued Soviet neutrality.
Supreme Council for the Direction of the War
Japanese policy-making centered on the
Supreme Council for the Direction of the War (created in 1944 by earlier Prime Minister
Kuniaki Koiso), the so-called "Big Six"—the
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
,
Minister of Foreign Affairs
A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between co ...
,
Minister of the Army,
Minister of the Navy, Chief of the
Army
An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
General Staff, and Chief of the
Navy
A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...
General Staff. At the formation of the Suzuki government in April 1945, the council's membership consisted of:
![Kantaro Suzuki cabinet - June 9, 1945](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Kantaro_Suzuki_cabinet_-_June_9%2C_1945.jpg)
* Prime Minister: Admiral
Kantarō Suzuki
Baron was a Japanese general and politician. He was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy, member and final leader of the Imperial Rule Assistance Association and Prime Minister of Japan from 7 April to 17 August 1945.
Biography
Early l ...
* Minister of Foreign Affairs:
Shigenori Tōgō
(10 December 1882 – 23 July 1950), was Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Empire of Japan at both the start and the end of the Axis–Allied conflict during World War II. He also served as Minister of Colonial Affairs in 1941, and assume ...
* Minister of the Army: General
Korechika Anami
was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II who was War Minister during the surrender of Japan.
Early life and career
Anami was born in Taketa city in Ōita Prefecture, where his father was a senior bureaucrat in the Home M ...
* Minister of the Navy: Admiral
Mitsumasa Yonai
was a Japanese general and politician. He served as admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy, Minister of the Navy, and Prime Minister of Japan in 1940.
Early life and career
Yonai was born on 2 March 1880, in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture, the firs ...
* Chief of the Army General Staff: General
Yoshijirō Umezu
(January 4, 1882 – January 8, 1949) was a Japanese general in World War II and Chief of the Army General Staff during the final years of the conflict. He was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Biography Early life a ...
* Chief of the Navy General Staff: Admiral
Koshirō Oikawa
was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy and Naval Minister during World War II.
Biography
Oikawa was born into a wealthy family in rural Koshi County, Niigata Prefecture, but was raised in Morioka city, Iwate prefecture in northern Jap ...
(later replaced by Admiral
Soemu Toyoda
was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II.
Biography Early career
Toyoda was born in what is now part Kitsuki city, Ōita Prefecture. He graduated from the 33rd class of the Imperial Japanese Navy Academy in 1905, ranked 26 ...
)
All of these positions were nominally appointed by the Emperor and their holders were answerable directly to him. Nevertheless, Japanese civil law from 1936 required that the Army and Navy ministers had to be active duty flag officers from those respective services while Japanese military law from long before that time prohibited serving officers from accepting political offices without first obtaining permission from their respective service headquarters which, if and when granted, could be rescinded at any time. Thus, the Japanese Army and Navy effectively held a legal right to nominate (or refuse to nominate) their respective ministers, in addition to the effective right to order their respective ministers to resign their posts.
Strict constitutional convention dictated (as it technically still does today) that a prospective Prime Minister could not assume the premiership, nor could an incumbent Prime Minister remain in office, if he could not fill all of the cabinet posts. Thus, the Army and Navy could prevent the formation of undesirable governments, or by resignation bring about the collapse of an existing government.
Emperor
Hirohito and
Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal Kōichi Kido
Marquis (July 18, 1889 – April 6, 1977) was a Japanese statesman who served as Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal of Japan from 1940 to 1945, and was the closest advisor to Emperor Hirohito throughout World War II. He was convicted of war crimes ...
also were present at some meetings, following the Emperor's wishes. As
Iris Chang
Iris Shun-Ru Chang (March 28, 1968November 9, 2004) was a Chinese American journalist, author of historical books and political activist. She is best known for her best-selling 1997 account of the Nanking Massacre, ''The Rape of Nanking'', and ...
reports, "... the Japanese deliberately destroyed, hid or falsified most of their secret wartime documents before General MacArthur arrived."
Japanese leadership divisions
For the most part, Suzuki's military-dominated cabinet favored continuing the war. For the Japanese, surrender was unthinkable—Japan had never been successfully invaded or lost a war in its history. Only Mitsumasa Yonai, the Navy minister, was known to desire an early end to the war. According to historian
Richard B. Frank:
After the war, Suzuki and others from his government and their apologists claimed they were secretly working towards peace, and could not publicly advocate it. They cite the Japanese concept of ''
haragei
is a Japanese concept of interpersonal communication.Davies, R & Ikeno, O; ''The Japanese Mind: Understanding Contemporary Japanese Culture''; Tuttle 2002 p103-108 It also appears in martial arts circles, with a somewhat different meaning; see be ...
''—"the art of hidden and invisible technique"—to justify the dissonance between their public actions and alleged behind-the-scenes work. However, many historians reject this.
Robert J. C. Butow wrote:
Japanese leaders had always envisioned a negotiated settlement to the war. Their prewar planning expected a rapid expansion and consolidation, an eventual conflict with the United States, and finally a settlement in which they would be able to retain at least some new territory they had conquered. By 1945, Japan's leaders were in agreement that the war was going badly, but they disagreed over the best means to negotiate its end. There were two camps: the so-called "peace" camp favored a diplomatic initiative to persuade
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
, the leader of the Soviet Union, to mediate a settlement between the Allies and Japan; and the hardliners who favored fighting one last "decisive" battle that would inflict so many casualties on the Allies that they would be willing to offer more lenient terms.
Both approaches were based on Japan's experience in the
Russo–Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...
, forty years earlier, which consisted of a series of costly but largely indecisive battles, followed by the decisive naval
Battle of Tsushima.
![Kantaro Suzuki suit](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Kantaro_Suzuki_suit.jpg)
In February 1945, Prince
Fumimaro Konoe gave Emperor Hirohito a memorandum analyzing the situation, and told him that if the war continued, the
imperial family
A royal family is the immediate family of King, kings/Queen regnant, queens, Emir, emirs/emiras, Sultan, sultans/Sultana (title), sultanas, or raja/rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the ...
might be in greater danger from an internal revolution than from defeat. According to the diary of
Grand Chamberlain Hisanori Fujita
was a Japanese admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy, court official and Shinto priest. After retiring from active service, he served as Chief Priest of Meiji Shrine and the Grand Chamberlain to Emperor Shōwa during World War II.
Biography
Fu ...
, the Emperor, looking for a decisive battle (), replied that it was premature to seek peace "unless we make one more military gain". Also in February, Japan's treaty division wrote about Allied policies towards Japan regarding "unconditional surrender, occupation, disarmament, elimination of militarism, democratic reforms, punishment of war criminals, and the status of the emperor." Allied-imposed disarmament, Allied punishment of Japanese war criminals, and especially occupation and removal of the Emperor, were not acceptable to the Japanese leadership.
On 5 April, the Soviet Union gave the required 12 months' notice that it would not renew the five-year
Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact[Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact](_blank)
13 April 1941. ( Avalon Project at Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
)
Declaration Regarding Mongolia
13 April 1941. ( Avalon Project at Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
) (which had been signed in 1941 following the
Nomonhan Incident
The Battles of Khalkhin Gol (russian: Бои на Халхин-Голе; mn, Халхын голын байлдаан) were the decisive engagements of the undeclared Soviet–Japanese border conflicts involving the Soviet Union, Mongolia, Jap ...
).
Soviet Denunciation of the Pact with Japan
'. Avalon Project, Yale Law School. Text from United States Department of State Bulletin Vol. XII, No. 305, 29 April 1945. Retrieved 22 February 2009. Unknown to the Japanese, at the
Tehran Conference
The Tehran Conference ( codenamed Eureka) was a strategy meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill from 28 November to 1 December 1943, after the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran. It was held in the Soviet Union's embass ...
in November–December 1943, it had been agreed that the Soviet Union would enter the war against Japan once Germany was defeated. At the
Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference (codenamed Argonaut), also known as the Crimea Conference, held 4–11 February 1945, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union to discuss the post ...
in February 1945, the United States had made substantial concessions to the Soviets to secure a promise that they would declare war on Japan within three months of the surrender of Germany. Although the five-year Neutrality Pact did not expire until 5 April 1946, the announcement caused the Japanese great concern, because Japan had amassed its forces in the South to repel the inevitable US attack, thus leaving its Northern islands vulnerable to Soviet invasion.
["Molotov's note was neither a declaration of war nor, necessarily, of intent to go to war. Legally, the treaty still had a year to run after the notice of cancellation. But the Foreign Commissar's tone suggested that this technicality might be brushed aside at Russia's convenience."]
So Sorry, Mr. Sato
. ''Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'', 16 April 1945. Soviet Foreign Minister
Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich Molotov. ; (;. 9 March Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O._S._25_February.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O. S. 25 February">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dat ...
, in Moscow, and
Yakov Malik
Yakov Alexandrovich Malik (russian: Яков Александрович Малик) (11 February 1980) was a Soviet diplomat.
Biography
Born in Ostroverkhovka village, Kharkov Governorate, Malik was educated at Kharkiv Institute of National ...
, Soviet ambassador in Tokyo, went to great lengths to assure the Japanese that "the period of the Pact's validity has not ended".
![Shigenori Togo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Shigenori_Togo.jpg)
At a series of high-level meetings in May, the Big Six first seriously discussed ending the war, but none of them on terms that would have been acceptable to the Allies. Because anyone openly supporting Japanese surrender risked assassination by zealous army officers, the meetings were closed to anyone except the Big Six, the Emperor, and the Privy Seal. No second or third-echelon officers could attend. At these meetings, despite the dispatches from Japanese ambassador
Satō
is the most common Japanese surname, often romanized as Sato, Satoh or Satou. A less common variant is . Notable people with the surname include:
*, Japanese actress and voice actress
*, Japanese actress
*, Japanese judoka
*, Japanese writer
* ...
in Moscow, only Foreign Minister Tōgō realized that Roosevelt and Churchill might have already made concessions to Stalin to bring the Soviets into the war against Japan. Tōgō had been outspoken about ending the war quickly. As a result of these meetings, he was authorized to approach the Soviet Union, seeking to maintain its neutrality, or (despite the very remote probability) to form an alliance.
In keeping with the custom of a new government declaring its purposes, following the May meetings the Army staff produced a document, "The Fundamental Policy to Be Followed Henceforth in the Conduct of the War," which stated that the Japanese people would fight to extinction rather than surrender. This policy was adopted by the Big Six on 6 June. (Tōgō opposed it, while the other five supported it.) Documents submitted by Suzuki at the same meeting suggested that, in the diplomatic overtures to the USSR, Japan adopt the following approach:
On 9 June, the Emperor's confidant Marquis
Kōichi Kido
Marquis (July 18, 1889 – April 6, 1977) was a Japanese statesman who served as Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal of Japan from 1940 to 1945, and was the closest advisor to Emperor Hirohito throughout World War II. He was convicted of war crimes ...
wrote a "Draft Plan for Controlling the Crisis Situation," warning that by the end of the year Japan's ability to wage modern war would be extinguished and the government would be unable to contain civil unrest. "... We cannot be sure we will not share the fate of Germany and be reduced to adverse circumstances under which we will not attain even our supreme object of safeguarding the Imperial Household and preserving the national polity." Kido proposed that the Emperor take action, by offering to end the war on "very generous terms." Kido proposed that Japan withdraw from the formerly European colonies it had occupied provided they were granted independence and also proposed that Japan recognize the independence of the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
, which Japan had already mostly lost control of and to which it was well known that the U.S. had long been planning to grant independence. Finally, Kido proposed that Japan disarm provided this not occur under Allied supervision and that Japan for a time be "content with minimum defense." Kido's proposal did not contemplate Allied occupation of Japan, prosecution of war criminals or substantial change in Japan's system of government, nor did Kido suggest that Japan might be willing to consider relinquishing territories acquired prior to 1937 including
Formosa,
Karafuto
Karafuto Prefecture ( ja, 樺太庁, ''Karafuto-chō''; russian: Префектура Карафуто, Prefektura Karafuto), commonly known as South Sakhalin, was a prefecture of Japan located in Sakhalin from 1907 to 1949.
Karafuto became ter ...
,
Korea
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
, the formerly
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
islands in the Pacific and even
Manchukuo. With the Emperor's authorization, Kido approached several members of the
Supreme Council, the "Big Six." Tōgō was very supportive. Suzuki and Admiral
Mitsumasa Yonai
was a Japanese general and politician. He served as admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy, Minister of the Navy, and Prime Minister of Japan in 1940.
Early life and career
Yonai was born on 2 March 1880, in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture, the firs ...
, the
Navy minister, were both cautiously supportive; each wondered what the other thought. General
Korechika Anami
was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II who was War Minister during the surrender of Japan.
Early life and career
Anami was born in Taketa city in Ōita Prefecture, where his father was a senior bureaucrat in the Home M ...
, the
Army minister, was ambivalent, insisting that diplomacy must wait until "after the United States has sustained heavy losses" in
Operation Ketsugō.
In June, the Emperor lost confidence in the chances of achieving a military victory. The
Battle of Okinawa was lost, and he learned of the weakness of the Japanese army in China, of the
Kwantung Army
''Kantō-gun''
, image = Kwantung Army Headquarters.JPG
, image_size = 300px
, caption = Kwantung Army headquarters in Hsinking, Manchukuo
, dates = April ...
in Manchuria, of the navy, and of the army defending the Home Islands. The Emperor received a report by
Prince Higashikuni from which he concluded that "it was not just the coast defense; the divisions reserved to engage in the decisive battle also did not have sufficient numbers of weapons."
According to the Emperor:
On 22 June, the Emperor summoned the Big Six to a meeting. Unusually, he spoke first: "I desire that concrete plans to end the war, unhampered by existing policy, be speedily studied and that efforts made to implement them." It was agreed to solicit Soviet aid in ending the war. Other neutral nations, such as
Switzerland,
Sweden, and the
Vatican City
Vatican City (), officially the Vatican City State ( it, Stato della Città del Vaticano; la, Status Civitatis Vaticanae),—'
* german: Vatikanstadt, cf. '—' (in Austria: ')
* pl, Miasto Watykańskie, cf. '—'
* pt, Cidade do Vati ...
, were known to be willing to play a role in making peace, but they were so small they were believed unable to do more than deliver the Allies' terms of surrender and Japan's acceptance or rejection. The Japanese hoped that the Soviet Union could be persuaded to act as an agent for Japan in negotiations with the United States and Britain.
Manhattan Project
After several years of preliminary research, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
had authorized the initiation of a massive, top-secret project to build
atomic bombs in 1942. The
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...
, under the authority of Major General
Leslie R. Groves Jr.
Lieutenant general (United States), Lieutenant General Leslie Richard Groves Jr. (17 August 1896 – 13 July 1970) was a United States Army Corps of Engineers Officer (armed forces), officer who oversaw the construction of the Pentagon and di ...
employed hundreds of thousands of American workers at dozens of secret facilities across the United States, and on 16 July 1945, the first prototype weapon was detonated during the
Trinity nuclear test
Trinity was the code name of the first detonation of a nuclear weapon. It was conducted by the United States Army at 5:29 a.m. on July 16, 1945, as part of the Manhattan Project. The test was conducted in the Jornada del Muerto desert abo ...
.
As the project neared its conclusion, American planners began to consider the use of the bomb. In keeping with the Allies' overall strategy of securing final victory in Europe first, it had initially been assumed that the first atomic weapons would be allocated for use against Germany. However, by this time it was increasingly obvious that Germany would be defeated before any bombs would be ready for use. Groves formed a committee that met in April and May 1945 to draw up a list of targets. One of the primary criteria was that the target cities must not have been damaged by conventional bombing. This would allow for an accurate assessment of the damage done by the atomic bomb.
The targeting committee's list included 18 Japanese cities. At the top of the list were
Kyoto
Kyoto (; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin, Keihanshin metropolitan area along wi ...
,
Hiroshima,
Yokohama
is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of T ...
,
Kokura
is an ancient castle town and the center of Kitakyushu, Japan, guarding the Straits of Shimonoseki between Honshu and Kyushu with its suburb Moji. Kokura is also the name of the penultimate station on the southbound San'yō Shinkansen li ...
, and
Niigata. Ultimately, Kyoto was removed from the list at the insistence of
Secretary of War
The secretary of war was a member of the U.S. president's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War", had been appointed to serve the Congress of the ...
Henry L. Stimson
Henry Lewis Stimson (September 21, 1867 – October 20, 1950) was an American statesman, lawyer, and Republican Party politician. Over his long career, he emerged as a leading figure in U.S. foreign policy by serving in both Republican and D ...
, who had visited the city on his honeymoon and knew of its cultural and historical significance.
Although the previous
Vice President
A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on ...
,
Henry A. Wallace, had been involved in the Manhattan Project since the beginning, his successor,
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...
, was not briefed on the project by Stimson until 23 April 1945, eleven days after he became president on Roosevelt's death on 12 April 1945. On 2 May 1945, Truman approved the formation of the
Interim Committee, an advisory group that would report on the atomic bomb. It consisted of Stimson,
James F. Byrnes
James Francis Byrnes ( ; May 2, 1882 – April 9, 1972) was an American judge and politician from South Carolina. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in U.S. Congress and on the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as in the executive branch, ...
,
George L. Harrison,
Vannevar Bush
Vannevar Bush ( ; March 11, 1890 – June 28, 1974) was an American engineer, inventor and science administrator, who during World War II headed the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), through which almost all warti ...
,
James Bryant Conant,
Karl Taylor Compton
Karl Taylor Compton (September 14, 1887 – June 22, 1954) was a prominent American physicist and president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 1930 to 1948.
The early years (1887–1912)
Karl Taylor Compton was born in ...
,
William L. Clayton
William Lockhart "Will" Clayton (February 7, 1880 – February 8, 1966) was an American business leader and government official. Much of his business career centered on cotton trading. He and his three brothers-in-law formed a partnership that gr ...
, and
Ralph Austin Bard
Ralph Austin Bard (July 29, 1884 – April 5, 1975) was a Chicago financier who served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1941–1944, and as Under Secretary, 1944–1945. He is noted for a memorandum he wrote to Secretary of War He ...
, advised by a Scientific Panel composed of
Robert Oppenheimer
J. Robert Oppenheimer (; April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist. A professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, Oppenheimer was the wartime head of the Los Alamos Laboratory and is often ...
,
Enrico Fermi,
Ernest Lawrence
Ernest Orlando Lawrence (August 8, 1901 – August 27, 1958) was an American nuclear physicist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1939 for his invention of the cyclotron. He is known for his work on uranium-isotope separation fo ...
, and
Arthur Compton. In a 1 June report, the Committee concluded that the bomb should be used as soon as possible against a war plant surrounded by workers' homes and that no warning or demonstration should be given.
The committee's mandate did not include the use of the bomb—its use upon completion was presumed. Following a protest by scientists involved in the project, in the form of the
Franck Report, the Committee re-examined the use of the bomb, posing the question to the Scientific Panel of whether a "demonstration" of the bomb should be used before actual battlefield deployment. In a 21 June meeting, the Scientific Panel affirmed that there was no alternative.
Truman played very little role in these discussions. At Potsdam, he was enthralled by the successful report of the Trinity test, and those around him noticed a positive change in his attitude, believing the bomb gave him leverage with both Japan and the Soviet Union. Other than backing Stimson's play to remove Kyoto from the target list (as the military continued to push for it as a target), he was otherwise not involved in any decision-making regarding the bomb, contrary to later retellings of the story (including Truman's own embellishments).
Proposed invasion
On 18 June 1945, Truman met with the Chief of Army Staff General
George Marshall
George Catlett Marshall Jr. (December 31, 1880 – October 16, 1959) was an American army officer and statesman. He rose through the United States Army to become Chief of Staff of the United States Army, Chief of Staff of the US Army under Pre ...
, Air Force General
Henry Arnold, Chief of Staff Admiral
William Leahy and Admiral
Ernest King
Ernest Joseph King (23 November 1878 – 25 June 1956) was an American naval officer who served as Commander in Chief, United States Fleet (COMINCH) and Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) during World War II. As COMINCH-CNO, he directed the U ...
, Navy Secretary
James Forrestal
James Vincent Forrestal (February 15, 1892 – May 22, 1949) was the last Cabinet-level United States Secretary of the Navy and the first United States Secretary of Defense.
Forrestal came from a very strict middle-class Irish Catholic fami ...
, Secretary for War Henry Stimson and Assistant Secretary for War
John McCloy to discuss
Operation Olympic
Operation Downfall was the proposed Allied plan for the invasion of the Japanese home islands near the end of World War II. The planned operation was canceled when Japan surrendered following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ...
, part of a plan to invade the Japanese home islands. General Marshall supported the entry of the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...
, believing that doing so would cause Japan to capitulate. McCloy had told Stimson that there were no more Japanese cities to be bombed and wanted to explore other options of bringing about a surrender. He suggested a political solution and asked about warning the Japanese of the atomic bomb. James Byrnes, who would become the new Secretary of State on 3 July, wanted to use it as quickly as possible without warning and without letting the Soviets know beforehand.
Soviet Union negotiation attempts
![Naotake Sato](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Naotake_Sato.jpg)
On 30 June, Tōgō told
Naotake Satō
was a Japanese diplomat and politician. He was born in Osaka, graduated from the Tokyo Higher Commercial School (東京高等商業学校, ''Tōkyō Kōtō Shōgyō Gakkō'', now Hitotsubashi University) in 1904, attended the consul course of ...
, Japan's ambassador in Moscow, to try to establish "firm and lasting relations of friendship." Satō was to discuss the status of Manchuria and "any matter the Russians would like to bring up." Well aware of the overall situation and cognizant of their promises to the Allies, the Soviets responded with delaying tactics to encourage the Japanese without promising anything. Satō finally met with Soviet Foreign Minister
Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich Molotov. ; (;. 9 March Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O._S._25_February.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O. S. 25 February">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dat ...
on 11 July, but without result. On 12 July, Tōgō directed Satō to tell the Soviets that:
The Emperor proposed sending Prince Konoe as a special envoy, although he would be unable to reach Moscow before the
Potsdam Conference
The Potsdam Conference (german: Potsdamer Konferenz) was held at Potsdam in the Soviet occupation zone from July 17 to August 2, 1945, to allow the three leading Allies to plan the postwar peace, while avoiding the mistakes of the Paris P ...
.
Satō advised Tōgō that in reality, "unconditional surrender or terms closely equivalent thereto" was all that Japan could expect. Moreover, in response to Molotov's requests for specific proposals, Satō suggested that Tōgō's messages were not "clear about the views of the Government and the Military with regard to the termination of the war," thus questioning whether Tōgō's initiative was supported by the key elements of Japan's power structure.
On 17 July, Tōgō responded:
In reply, Satō clarified:
On 21 July, speaking in the name of the cabinet, Tōgō repeated:
American cryptographers
had broken most of Japan's codes, including the
Purple code
In the history of cryptography, the "System 97 Typewriter for European Characters" (九七式欧文印字機) or "Type B Cipher Machine", codenamed Purple by the United States, was an encryption machine used by the Japanese Foreign Office f ...
used by the Japanese Foreign Office to encode high-level diplomatic correspondence. As a result, messages between
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...
and Japan's embassies were provided to Allied policy-makers nearly as quickly as to the intended recipients. Fearing heavy casualties, the Allies wished for Soviet entry in the
Pacific War at the earliest possible date. Roosevelt had secured Stalin's promise at
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...
, which was re-affirmed at
Yalta
Yalta (: Я́лта) is a resort city on the south coast of the Crimean Peninsula surrounded by the Black Sea. It serves as the administrative center of Yalta Municipality, one of the regions within Crimea. Yalta, along with the rest of Cri ...
. That outcome was greatly feared in Japan.
Soviet intentions
Security concerns dominated Soviet decisions concerning the Far East. Chief among these was gaining unrestricted access to the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...
. The year-round ice-free areas of the Soviet Pacific coastline—
Vladivostok
Vladivostok ( rus, Владивосто́к, a=Владивосток.ogg, p=vɫədʲɪvɐˈstok) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia. The city is located around the Golden Horn Bay on the Sea of Japan, c ...
in particular—could be blockaded by air and sea from
Sakhalin island and the
Kurile Islands
The Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands (; rus, Кури́льские острова́, r=Kuril'skiye ostrova, p=kʊˈrʲilʲskʲɪjə ɐstrɐˈva; Japanese: or ) are a volcanic archipelago currently administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast in the ...
. Acquiring these territories, thus guaranteeing free access to the
Soya Strait, was their primary objective. Secondary objectives were leases for the
Chinese Eastern Railway
The Chinese Eastern Railway or CER (, russian: Китайско-Восточная железная дорога, or , ''Kitaysko-Vostochnaya Zheleznaya Doroga'' or ''KVZhD''), is the historical name for a railway system in Northeast China (als ...
,
Southern Manchuria Railway,
Dairen
Dalian () is a major sub-provincial port city in Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, and is Liaoning's second largest city (after the provincial capital Shenyang) and the third-most populous city of Northeast China. Located on the ...
, and
Port Arthur.
To this end, Stalin and Molotov strung out the negotiations with the Japanese, giving them false hope of a Soviet-mediated peace. At the same time, in their dealings with the United States and Britain, the Soviets insisted on strict adherence to the Cairo Declaration, re-affirmed at the Yalta Conference, that the Allies would not accept separate or conditional peace with Japan. The Japanese would have to surrender unconditionally to all the Allies. To prolong the war, the Soviets opposed any attempt to weaken this requirement. This would give the Soviets time to complete the transfer of their troops from the Western Front to the Far East, and conquer
Manchuria
Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...
,
Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...
, northern
Korea
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
,
South Sakhalin
Karafuto Prefecture ( ja, 樺太庁, ''Karafuto-chō''; russian: Префектура Карафуто, Prefektura Karafuto), commonly known as South Sakhalin, was a prefecture of Japan located in Sakhalin from 1907 to 1949.
Karafuto became ter ...
, the
Kuriles
The Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands (; rus, Кури́льские острова́, r=Kuril'skiye ostrova, p=kʊˈrʲilʲskʲɪjə ɐstrɐˈva; Japanese: or ) are a volcanic archipelago currently administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast in the ...
, and possibly
Hokkaidō (starting with a landing at
Rumoi).
Events at Potsdam
The leaders of the major Allied powers met at the
Potsdam Conference
The Potsdam Conference (german: Potsdamer Konferenz) was held at Potsdam in the Soviet occupation zone from July 17 to August 2, 1945, to allow the three leading Allies to plan the postwar peace, while avoiding the mistakes of the Paris P ...
from 16 July to 2 August 1945. The participants were the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
, the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, and the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
, represented by Stalin,
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...
(later
Clement Attlee), and Truman respectively.
Negotiations
Although the Potsdam Conference was mainly concerned with European affairs, the war against Japan was also discussed in detail. Truman learned of the successful Trinity test early in the conference and shared this information with the British delegation. The successful test caused the American delegation to reconsider the necessity and wisdom of Soviet participation, for which the U.S. had lobbied hard at the
Tehran
Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
and
Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference (codenamed Argonaut), also known as the Crimea Conference, held 4–11 February 1945, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union to discuss the post ...
s. High on the United States' list of priorities was shortening the war and reducing American casualties—Soviet intervention seemed likely to do both, but at the cost of possibly allowing the Soviets to capture territory beyond that which had been promised to them at Tehran and Yalta, and causing a postwar division of Japan similar to that which had
occurred in Germany.
In dealing with Stalin, Truman decided to give the Soviet leader vague hints about the existence of a powerful new weapon without going into details. However, the other Allies were unaware that Soviet intelligence had penetrated the Manhattan Project in its early stages, so Stalin already knew of the existence of the atomic bomb but did not appear impressed by its potential.
The Potsdam Declaration
It was decided to issue a statement, the
Potsdam Declaration
The Potsdam Declaration, or the Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender, was a statement that called for the surrender of all Japanese armed forces during World War II. On July 26, 1945, United States President Harry S. Truman, Uni ...
, defining "Unconditional Surrender" and clarifying what it meant for the position of the emperor and for Hirohito personally. The American and British governments strongly disagreed on this point—the United States wanted to abolish the position and possibly try him as a war criminal, while the British wanted to retain the position, perhaps with Hirohito still reigning. Furthermore, although it would not initially be a party to the declaration, the Soviet government also had to be consulted since it would be expected to endorse it upon entering the war. Assuring the retention of the emperor would change the Allied policy of unconditional surrender and necessitated consent from Stalin. The American Secretary of State James Byrnes, however, wanted to keep the Soviets out of the Pacific war as much as possible and persuaded Truman to delete any such assurances. The Potsdam Declaration went through many drafts until a version acceptable to all was found.
On 26 July, the United States, Britain and China released the Potsdam Declaration announcing the terms for Japan's surrender, with the warning, "We will not deviate from them. There are no alternatives. We shall brook no delay." For Japan, the terms of the declaration specified:
* the elimination "for all time
fthe authority and influence of those who have deceived and misled the people of Japan into embarking on world conquest"
* the occupation of "points in Japanese territory to be designated by the Allies"
* that the "Japanese sovereignty shall be limited to the islands of
Honshū,
Hokkaidō,
Kyūshū,
Shikoku
is the smallest of the four main islands of Japan. It is long and between wide. It has a population of 3.8 million (, 3.1%). It is south of Honshu and northeast of Kyushu. Shikoku's ancient names include ''Iyo-no-futana-shima'' (), '' ...
and such minor islands as we determine." As had been announced in the
Cairo Declaration in 1943, Japan was to be reduced to her pre-1894 territory and stripped of her pre-war empire including
Korea
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
and
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
, as well as all her recent conquests.
* that "
e Japanese
military forces
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
, after being completely disarmed, shall be permitted to return to their homes with the opportunity to lead peaceful and productive lives."
* that "
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."
![Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R67561, Potsdamer Konferenz, Konferenztisch](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-R67561%2C_Potsdamer_Konferenz%2C_Konferenztisch.jpg)
On the other hand, the declaration stated that:
* "The Japanese Government shall remove all obstacles to the revival and strengthening of democratic tendencies among the Japanese people.
Freedom of speech,
of religion, and
of thought, as well as respect for the
fundamental
Fundamental may refer to:
* Foundation of reality
* Fundamental frequency, as in music or phonetics, often referred to as simply a "fundamental"
* Fundamentalism, the belief in, and usually the strict adherence to, the simple or "fundamental" idea ...
human rights
Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...
shall be established."
* "Japan shall be permitted to maintain such industries as will sustain her economy and permit the exaction of just reparations in kind, but not those which would enable her to rearm for war. To this end, access to, as distinguished from control of, raw materials shall be permitted. Eventual Japanese participation in world trade relations shall be permitted."
* "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 only use of the term "
unconditional surrender
An unconditional surrender is a surrender in which no guarantees are given to the surrendering party. It is often demanded with the threat of complete destruction, extermination or annihilation.
In modern times, unconditional surrenders most ofte ...
" came at the end of the declaration:
* "We call upon the government of Japan to proclaim now the unconditional surrender of all Japanese armed forces, and to provide proper and adequate assurances of their good faith in such action. The alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction."
Contrary to what had been intended at its conception, the Declaration made no mention of the Emperor at all. Secretary of State
Joseph Grew
Joseph Clark Grew (May 27, 1880 – May 25, 1965) was an American career diplomat and Foreign Service officer. He is best known as the ambassador to Japan from 1932 to 1941 and as a high official in the State Department in Washington from 1944 to ...
had advocated for retaining the emperor as a constitutional monarch. He hoped that preserving Hirohito's central role could facilitate an orderly capitulation of all Japanese troops in the Pacific theatre. Without it, securing a surrender could be difficult. Navy Secretary
James Forrestal
James Vincent Forrestal (February 15, 1892 – May 22, 1949) was the last Cabinet-level United States Secretary of the Navy and the first United States Secretary of Defense.
Forrestal came from a very strict middle-class Irish Catholic fami ...
and other officials shared the view. Allied intentions on issues of utmost importance to the Japanese, including whether Hirohito was to be regarded as one of those who had "misled the people of Japan" or even a war criminal, or alternatively, whether the Emperor might become part of a "peacefully inclined and responsible government" were thus left unstated.
The "prompt and utter destruction" clause has been interpreted as a veiled warning about American possession of the atomic bomb (which had been tested successfully on the first day of the conference). On the other hand, the declaration also made specific references to the devastation that had been wrought upon Germany in the closing stages of the European war. To contemporary readers on both sides who were not yet aware of the atomic bomb's existence, it was easy to interpret the conclusion of the declaration simply as a threat to bring similar destruction upon Japan using conventional weapons.
Japanese reaction
On 27 July, the Japanese government considered how to respond to the Declaration. The four military members of the Big Six wanted to reject it, but Tōgō, acting under the mistaken impression that the Soviet government had no prior knowledge of its contents, persuaded the cabinet not to do so until he could get a reaction from Moscow. The cabinet decided to publish the declaration without comment for the time being. In a telegram, Shun'ichi Kase, Japan's ambassador to Switzerland, observed that "unconditional surrender" applied only to the military and not to the government or the people, and he pleaded that it should be understood that the careful language of Potsdam appeared "to have occasioned a great deal of thought" on the part of the signatory governments—"they seem to have taken pains to Face (sociological concept), save face for us on various points." The next day, Japanese newspapers reported that the Declaration, the text of which had been broadcast and dropped by Airborne leaflet propaganda, leaflet into Japan, had been rejected. In an attempt to manage public perception, Prime Minister Suzuki met with the press, and stated:
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hisatsune Sakomizu had advised Suzuki to use the expression . Its meaning is ambiguous and can range from "refusing to comment on" to "ignoring (by keeping silence)".
[Kenkyusha. 2004. Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary 5th ed. ] What was intended by Suzuki has been the subject of debate.
Tōgō later said that the making of such a statement violated the cabinet's decision to withhold comment.
On 30 July, Ambassador Satō wrote that Stalin was probably talking to Roosevelt and Churchill about his dealings with Japan, and he wrote: "There is no alternative but immediate unconditional surrender if we are to prevent Russia's participation in the war." On 2 August, Tōgō wrote to Satō: "it should not be difficult for you to realize that ... our time to proceed with arrangements of ending the war before the enemy lands on the Japanese mainland is limited, on the other hand it is difficult to decide on concrete peace conditions here at home all at once."
Hiroshima, Manchuria, and Nagasaki
6 August: Hiroshima
On 6 August at 8:15 AM local time, the ''Enola Gay'', a Boeing B-29 Superfortress piloted by Colonel Paul Tibbets, Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, dropped an atomic bomb (code-named Little Boy by the U.S.) on the city of
Hiroshima in southwest Honshū. Throughout the day, confused reports reached Tokyo that Hiroshima had been the target of an air raid, which had leveled the city with a "blinding flash and violent blast". Later that day, they received U.S. President Harry S. Truman, Truman's broadcast announcing the first use of an
atomic bomb, and promising:
The Japanese Army and Navy had their own Japanese nuclear weapons program, independent atomic-bomb programs and therefore the Japanese understood enough to know how very difficult building it would be. Therefore, many Japanese and in particular the military members of the government refused to believe the United States had built an atomic bomb, and the Japanese military ordered their own independent tests to determine the cause of Hiroshima's destruction. Admiral
Soemu Toyoda
was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II.
Biography Early career
Toyoda was born in what is now part Kitsuki city, Ōita Prefecture. He graduated from the 33rd class of the Imperial Japanese Navy Academy in 1905, ranked 26 ...
, the Chief of the Naval General Staff, argued that even if the United States had made one, they could not have many more. American strategists, having anticipated a reaction like Toyoda's, planned to drop a second bomb shortly after the first, to convince the Japanese that the U.S. had a large supply.
9 August: Soviet invasion and Nagasaki
![Nagasakibomb](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Nagasakibomb.jpg)
At 04:00 on 9 August word reached Tokyo that the Soviet Union had broken the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact, Neutrality Pact, declared Soviet–Japanese War, war on Japan,
[Soviet Declaration of War on Japan](_blank)
8 August 1945. ( Avalon Project at Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
) subscribed to the Potsdam Declaration and Soviet invasion of Manchuria, launched an invasion of Manchuria.
These "twin shocks"—the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and the Soviet entry—had immediate profound effects on Prime Minister Kantarō Suzuki and Foreign Minister Shigenori Tōgō, who concurred that the government must end the war at once. However, the senior leadership of the Imperial Japanese Army, Japanese Army took the news in stride, grossly underestimating the scale of the attack. With the support of Minister of War Korechika Anami, Anami, they started preparing to impose martial law on the nation, to stop anyone attempting to make peace.
Hirohito told Kōichi Kido, Kido to "quickly control the situation" because "the Soviet Union has declared war and today began hostilities against us."
The Supreme Council met at 10:30. Suzuki, who had just come from a meeting with the Emperor, said it was impossible to continue the war. Tōgō said that they could accept the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, but they needed a guarantee of the Emperor's position. Navy Minister Yonai said that they had to make some diplomatic proposal—they could no longer afford to wait for better circumstances.
In the middle of the meeting, shortly after 11:00, news arrived that
Nagasaki
is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan.
It became the sole Nanban trade, port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hi ...
, on the west coast of Kyūshū, had been hit by a second atomic bomb (called "Fat Man" by the United States). By the time the meeting ended, the Big Six had split 3–3. Suzuki, Tōgō, and Admiral Yonai favored Tōgō's one additional condition to Potsdam, while General Anami, General Yoshijiro Umezu, Umezu, and Admiral Toyoda insisted on three further terms that modified Potsdam: that Japan handle their own disarmament, that Japan deal with any Japanese war criminals, and that there be no occupation of Japan.
Following the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Truman issued another statement:
Discussions of surrender
![Korechika Anami](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Korechika_Anami.jpg)
The full Japanese cabinet met at 14:30 on 9 August, and spent most of the day debating surrender. As the Big Six had done, the cabinet split, with neither Tōgō's position nor Anami's attracting a majority. Anami told the other cabinet ministers that under torture a captured American P-51 Mustang fighter pilot, Marcus McDilda, had told his interrogators that the United States possessed a stockpile of 100 atom bombs and that Tokyo and Kyoto would be destroyed "in the next few days".
In reality the United States would not have had a third bomb ready for use until around 19 August, and a fourth in September. However the Japanese leadership had no way to know the size of the United States' stockpile, and feared the United States might have the capacity not just to devastate individual cities, but to wipe out the Japanese people as a race and nation. Indeed, Anami expressed a desire for this outcome rather than surrender, asking if it would "not be wondrous for this whole nation to be destroyed like a beautiful flower".
The cabinet meeting adjourned at 17:30 with no consensus. A second meeting lasting from 18:00 to 22:00 also ended with no consensus. Following this second meeting, Suzuki and Tōgō met the Emperor, and Suzuki proposed an impromptu Gozen Kaigi, Imperial conference, which started just before midnight on the night of 9–10 August. Suzuki presented Anami's four-condition proposal as the consensus position of the Supreme Council. The other members of the Supreme Council spoke, as did Hiranuma Kiichirō, Kiichirō Hiranuma, the President of the Privy Council, who outlined Japan's inability to defend itself and also described the country's domestic problems, such as the shortage of food. The cabinet debated, but again no consensus emerged. At around 02:00 (10 August), Suzuki finally addressed Emperor Hirohito, asking him to decide between the two positions. The participants later recollected that the Emperor stated:
According to General Sumihisa Ikeda and Admiral Zenshirō Hoshina, Privy Council President Hiranuma then turned to the Emperor and asked him: "Your majesty, you also bear responsibility () for this defeat. What apology are you going to make to the heroic spirits of the imperial founder of your house and your other imperial ancestors?"
Once the Emperor had left, Suzuki pushed the cabinet to accept the Emperor's will, which it did. Early that morning (10 August), the Foreign Ministry sent telegrams to the Allies (by way of Max Grässli at the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Foreign Affairs ) announcing that Japan would accept the Potsdam Declaration, but would not accept any peace conditions that would "prejudice the prerogatives" of the Emperor. That effectively meant no change in Japan's form of government—that the Emperor of Japan would remain a position of real power.
12 August
The Allied response to Japan's qualified acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration was written by
James F. Byrnes
James Francis Byrnes ( ; May 2, 1882 – April 9, 1972) was an American judge and politician from South Carolina. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in U.S. Congress and on the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as in the executive branch, ...
and approved by the British, Chinese, and Soviet governments, although the Soviets agreed only reluctantly. The Allies sent their response (via the Swiss Foreign Affairs Department) on 12 August. On the status of the Emperor it said:
President Truman issued instructions that no further atomic weapons were to be dropped on Japan without presidential orders,
["Truman said he had given orders to stop atomic bombing. He said the thought of wiping out another 100,000 was too horrible. He didn't like the idea of killing, as he said, 'all those kids.'" Diary of Commerce Secretary Henry Wallace, 10 August 194]
National Security Archives.
Retrieved 5 December 2017.
"It is not to be released over Japan without express authority from the President." – Reply written on memo from General Groves, head of the Manhattan Project, to General Marshall, USA chief of staff regarding the preparations for a third atomic strike. 10 August 194
National Security Archives.
Retrieved 5 December 2017. but allowed military operations (including the B-29 firebombings) to continue until official word of Japanese surrender was received. However, news correspondents incorrectly interpreted a comment by General Carl Spaatz, commander of the United States Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific, U.S. Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific, that the B-29s were not flying on 11 August (because of bad weather) as a statement that a ceasefire was in effect. To avoid giving the Japanese the impression that the Allies had abandoned peace efforts and resumed bombing, Truman then ordered a halt to all further bombings.
The Japanese cabinet considered the Allied response, and Suzuki argued that they must reject it and insist on an explicit guarantee for the imperial system. Anami returned to his position that there be no occupation of Japan. Afterward, Tōgō told Suzuki that there was no hope of getting better terms, and Kido conveyed the Emperor's will that Japan surrender. In a meeting with the Emperor, Yonai spoke of his concerns about growing civil unrest:
That day, Hirohito informed the imperial family of his decision to surrender. One of his uncles, Prince Asaka Yasuhiko, Prince Asaka, then asked whether the war would be continued if the ''kokutai'' (imperial sovereignty) could not be preserved. The Emperor simply replied "of course."
13–14 August
At the suggestion of American psychological operations experts, B-29s spent 13 August dropping leaflets over Japan, describing the Japanese offer of surrender and the Allied response.
[.] The leaflets, some of which fell upon the Imperial Palace as the Emperor and his advisors met, had a profound effect on the Japanese decision-making process. It had become clear that a complete and total acceptance of Allied terms, even if it meant the dissolution of the Japanese government as it then existed, was the only possible way to secure peace.
The Big Six and the cabinet debated their reply to the Allied response late into the night, but remained deadlocked. Meanwhile, the Allies grew doubtful, waiting for the Japanese to respond. The Japanese had been instructed that they could transmit an unqualified acceptance plaintext, in the clear, but instead they sent out coded messages on matters unrelated to the surrender parlay. The Allies took this coded response as non-acceptance of the terms.
![B29 leaflet](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/B29_leaflet.jpg)
Via Ultra intercepts, the Allies also detected increased diplomatic and military traffic, which was taken as evidence that the Japanese were preparing an "all-out banzai charge, banzai attack."
President Truman ordered a resumption of attacks against Japan at maximum intensity "so as to impress Japanese officials that we mean business and are serious in getting them to accept our peace proposals without delay."
In the largest and longest bombing raid of the
Pacific War, more than 400 B-29s attacked Japan during daylight on 14 August, and more than 300 that night. A total of 1,014 aircraft were used with no losses. B-29s from the 315 Bombardment Wing flew to destroy the Nippon Oil Company refinery at Akita, Akita#Showa, Tsuchizaki on the northern tip of Honshū. This was the last operational refinery in the Japanese Home Islands, and it produced 67% of their oil. The attacks continued right through the announcement of the Japanese surrender, and indeed for some time afterwards.
Truman had ordered a halt to atomic bombings on 10 August, upon receiving news that Demon core, another bomb would be ready for use against Japan in about a week. He told his cabinet that he could not stand the thought of killing "all those kids."
By 14 August, however, Truman remarked "sadly" to the British ambassador that "he now had no alternative but to order an atomic bomb dropped on Tokyo," as some of his military staff had been advocating.
As 14 August dawned, Suzuki, Kido, and the Emperor realized the day would end with either an acceptance of the American terms or a military coup.
[.] The Emperor met with the most senior Army and Navy officers. While several spoke in favor of fighting on, Field Marshal Shunroku Hata did not. As commander of the Second General Army (Japan), Second General Army, the headquarters of which had been in Hiroshima, Hata commanded all the troops defending southern Japan—the troops preparing to fight the "decisive battle". Hata said he had no confidence in defeating the invasion and did not dispute the Emperor's decision. The Emperor asked his military leaders to cooperate with him in ending the war.
At a conference with the cabinet and other councilors, Anami, Toyoda, and Umezu again made their case for continuing to fight, after which the Emperor said:
The cabinet immediately convened and unanimously ratified the Emperor's wishes. They also decided to destroy vast amounts of material pertaining to war crimes and the war responsibility of the nation's highest leaders. Immediately after the conference, the Foreign Ministry transmitted orders to its embassies in Switzerland and Sweden to accept the Allied terms of surrender. These orders were picked up and received in Washington at 02:49, 14 August.
Difficulty with senior commanders on the distant war fronts was anticipated. Three princes of the Imperial Family who held military commissions were dispatched on 14 August to deliver the news personally. Prince Tsuneyoshi Takeda went to Korea and Manchuria, Prince Yasuhiko Asaka to the China Expeditionary Army and China Fleet, and Prince Kan'in Haruhito to Shanghai, South China, Indochina and Singapore.
The text of the Imperial Rescript on surrender was finalized by 19:00 August 14, transcribed by the official court calligrapher, and brought to the cabinet for their signatures. Around 23:00, the Emperor, with help from an NHK recording crew, made a gramophone record of himself reading it.
[.] The record was given to court chamberlain Yoshihiro Tokugawa, who hid it in a locker in the office of Empress Kōjun's secretary.
[.]
Attempted coup d'état (12–15 August)
![Major Kenji Hatanaka](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Major_Kenji_Hatanaka.jpg)
Late on the night of 12 August 1945, Major Kenji Hatanaka, along with Lieutenant Colonels Masataka Ida, Masahiko Takeshita (Anami's brother-in-law), and Inaba Masao, and Colonel Okikatsu Arao, the Chief of the Military Affairs Section, spoke to Ministry of War of Japan, War Minister
Korechika Anami
was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II who was War Minister during the surrender of Japan.
Early life and career
Anami was born in Taketa city in Ōita Prefecture, where his father was a senior bureaucrat in the Home M ...
(the army minister and "most powerful figure in Japan besides the Emperor himself"), and asked him to do whatever he could to prevent acceptance of the
Potsdam Declaration
The Potsdam Declaration, or the Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender, was a statement that called for the surrender of all Japanese armed forces during World War II. On July 26, 1945, United States President Harry S. Truman, Uni ...
. General Anami refused to say whether he would help the young officers in treason. As much as they needed his support, Hatanaka and the other rebels decided they had no choice but to continue planning and to attempt a coup d'état on their own. Hatanaka spent much of 13 August and the morning of 14 August gathering allies, seeking support from the higher-ups in the Ministry, and perfecting his plot.
Shortly after the conference on the night of 13–14 August at which the surrender finally was decided, a group of senior army officers including Anami gathered in a nearby room. All those present were concerned about the possibility of a coup d'état to prevent the surrender—some of those present may have even been considering launching one. After a silence, General Torashirō Kawabe proposed that all senior officers present sign an agreement to carry out the Emperor's order of surrender—"The Army will act in accordance with the Imperial Decision to the last." It was signed by all the high-ranking officers present, including Korechika Anami, Anami, Hajime Sugiyama,
Yoshijirō Umezu
(January 4, 1882 – January 8, 1949) was a Japanese general in World War II and Chief of the Army General Staff during the final years of the conflict. He was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Biography Early life a ...
, Kenji Doihara, Torashirō Kawabe, Masakazu Kawabe, and Tadaichi Wakamatsu. "This written accord by the most senior officers in the Army ... acted as a formidable firebreak against any attempt to incite a coup d'état in Tokyo."
![Tanaka Shizuichi](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Tanaka_Shizuichi.jpg)
Around 21:30 on 14 August, Hatanaka's rebels set their plan into motion. The Second Regiment of the First Imperial Guards had entered the palace grounds, doubling the strength of the battalion already stationed there, presumably to provide extra protection against Hatanaka's rebellion. But Hatanaka, along with Lt. Col. Jirō Shiizaki, convinced the commander of the 2nd Regiment of the First Imperial Guards, Colonel Toyojirō Haga, of their cause, by telling him (falsely) that Generals Anami and Umezu, and the commanders of the Eastern District Army and Imperial Guards Divisions were all in on the plan. Hatanaka also went to the office of Shizuichi Tanaka, commander of the Eastern region of the army, to try to persuade him to join the coup. Tanaka refused, and ordered Hatanaka to go home. Hatanaka ignored the order.
Originally, Hatanaka hoped that simply occupying the palace and showing the beginnings of a rebellion would inspire the rest of the Army to rise up against the move to surrender. This notion guided him through much of the last days and hours and gave him the blind optimism to move ahead with the plan, despite having little support from his superiors. Having set all the pieces into position, Hatanaka and his co-conspirators decided that the Guard would take over the palace at 02:00. The hours until then were spent in continued attempts to convince their superiors in the Army to join the coup. At about the same time, General Anami committed ''seppuku,'' leaving a message that, "I—with my death—humbly apologize to the Emperor for the great crime." Whether the crime involved losing the war, or the coup, remains unclear.
At some time after 01:00, Hatanaka and his men surrounded the palace. Hatanaka, Shiizaki, Ida, and Captain Shigetarō Uehara (of the Air Force Academy) went to the office of Lt. General Takeshi Mori (commander), Takeshi Mori to ask him to join the coup. Mori was in a meeting with his brother-in-law, Michinori Shiraishi. The cooperation of Mori, as commander of the 1st Imperial Guards Division, was crucial. When Mori refused to side with Hatanaka, Hatanaka killed him, fearing Mori would order the Guards to stop the rebellion. Uehara killed Shiraishi. These were the only two murders of the night. Hatanaka then used General Mori's official stamp to authorize Imperial Guards Division Strategic Order No. 584, a false set of orders created by his co-conspirators, which would greatly increase the strength of the forces occupying the Kokyo, Imperial Palace and Imperial Household Ministry, and "protecting" the Emperor.
The palace police were disarmed and all the entrances blocked.
Over the course of the night, Hatanaka's rebels captured and detained eighteen people, including Ministry staff and NHK workers sent to record the surrender speech.
The rebels, led by Hatanaka, spent the next several hours fruitlessly searching for Imperial House Minister Sōtarō Ishiwata, Lord of the Privy Seal
Kōichi Kido
Marquis (July 18, 1889 – April 6, 1977) was a Japanese statesman who served as Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal of Japan from 1940 to 1945, and was the closest advisor to Emperor Hirohito throughout World War II. He was convicted of war crimes ...
, and the recordings of the surrender speech. The two men were hiding in the "bank vault", a large chamber underneath the Imperial Palace. The search was made more difficult by a blackout (wartime), blackout in response to Allied bombings, and by the archaic organization and layout of the Imperial House Ministry. Many of the names of the rooms were unrecognizable to the rebels. The rebels did find the chamberlain Yoshihiro Tokugawa. Although Hatanaka threatened to Disembowelment, disembowel him with a samurai sword, Tokugawa lied and told them he did not know where the recordings or men were.
[.]
At about the same time, another group of Hatanaka's rebels led by Captain Takeo Sasaki went to Prime Minister Suzuki's office, intent on killing him. When they found it empty, they machine-gunned the office and set the building on fire, then left for his home. Hisatsune Sakomizu, the chief secretary to Suzuki's Cabinet, had warned Suzuki, and he escaped minutes before the would-be assassins arrived. After setting fire to Suzuki's home, they went to the estate of Kiichirō Hiranuma to assassinate him. Hiranuma escaped through a side gate and the rebels burned his house as well. Suzuki spent the rest of August under police protection, spending each night in a different bed.
[.]
Around 03:00, Hatanaka was informed by Lieutenant Colonel Masataka Ida that the Eastern District Army was on its way to the palace to stop him, and that he should give up. Finally, seeing his plan collapsing around him, Hatanaka pleaded with Tatsuhiko Takashima, Chief of Staff of the Eastern District Army, to be given at least ten minutes on the air on NHK radio, to explain to the people of Japan what he was trying to accomplish and why. He was refused. Colonel Haga, commander of the 2nd Regiment of the First Imperial Guards, discovered that the Army did not support this rebellion, and he ordered Hatanaka to leave the palace grounds.
Just before 05:00, as his rebels continued their search, Major Hatanaka went to the NHK studios, and, brandishing a pistol, tried desperately to get some airtime to explain his actions. A little over an hour later, after receiving a telephone call from the Eastern District Army, Hatanaka finally gave up. He gathered his officers and walked out of the NHK studio.
At dawn, Tanaka learned that the palace had been invaded. He went there and confronted the rebellious officers, berating them for acting contrary to the spirit of the Japanese army. He convinced them to return to their barracks.
By 08:00, the rebellion was entirely dismantled, having succeeded in holding the palace grounds for much of the night but failing to find the recordings.
Hatanaka, on a motorcycle, and Shiizaki, on horseback, rode through the streets, tossing leaflets that explained their motives and their actions. Within an hour before the Emperor's broadcast, sometime around 11:00, 15 August, Hatanaka placed his pistol to his forehead, and shot himself. Shiizaki stabbed himself with a dagger, and then shot himself. In Hatanaka's pocket was his death poem: "I have nothing to regret now that the dark clouds have disappeared from the reign of the Emperor."
Surrender
Emperor Hirohito gave different reasons to the public and the military for the surrender: When addressing the public, he said, "the enemy has begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb, the power of which to do damage is, indeed, incalculable ... . Should we continue to fight, not only would it result in an ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation, but also it would lead to the total extinction of human civilization."
When addressing the military, he did not mention the "new and most cruel bomb" but rather said that "the Soviet Union has entered the war against us, [and] to continue the war ... would [endanger] the very foundation of the Empire's existence."
15 August 1945, surrender speech to the Japanese public
'
At 12:00 noon Japan Standard Time on 15 August, Gyokuon-hōsō, the Emperor's recorded speech to the nation, reading the Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War, was broadcast:
The low quality of the recording, combined with the Classical Japanese language used by the Emperor in the Rescript, made the recording very difficult to understand for most listeners.
In addition, the Emperor did not explicitly mention surrender in his speech. To prevent confusion the recording was immediately followed by a clarification that Japan was indeed unconditionally surrendering to the Allies.
Public reaction to the Emperor's speech varied—many Japanese simply listened to it, then went on with their lives as best they could, while some Army and Navy officers chose suicide over surrender. A small crowd gathered in front of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo and cried, but as author John Dower notes, the tears they shed "reflected a multitude of sentiments ... anguish, regret, bereavement and anger at having been deceived, sudden emptiness and loss of purpose".
On 17 August, Suzuki was replaced as prime minister by the Emperor's uncle,
Prince Higashikuni, perhaps to forestall any further coup or assassination attempts.
Japan's forces were still fighting against the Soviets as well as the Chinese, and managing their cease-fire and surrender was difficult. The last air combat by Japanese fighters against American reconnaissance bombers took place on 18 August. The Soviet Union continued to fight until early September, Invasion of the Kuril Islands, taking the Kuril Islands.
17 August 1945, surrender speech to the Japanese military
Two days after Emperor Hirohito's surrender speech to civilians was broadcast, he delivered a shorter speech "To the officers and men of the imperial forces". He said, "Three years and eight months have elapsed since we declared war on the United States and Britain. During this time our beloved men of the army and navy, sacrificing their lives, have fought valiantly ..., and of this we are deeply grateful. Now that the Soviet Union has entered the war against us, to continue the war under the present internal and external conditions would be only to increase needlessly the ravages of war finally to the point of endangering the very foundation of the Empire's existence. With that in mind and although the fighting spirit of the Imperial Army and Navy is as high as ever, with a view to maintaining and protecting our noble national policy we are about to make peace with the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union and Chungking. ... We trust that you officers and men of the Imperial forces will comply with our intention and will ... bear the unbearable and leave an everlasting foundation of the nation."
Occupation and the surrender ceremony
![American military personnel gather in Paris to celebrate the Japanese surrender](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/American_military_personnel_gather_in_Paris_to_celebrate_the_Japanese_surrender.jpg)
News of the Japanese acceptance of the surrender terms was Robert Trout#Trout announces end of WWII, announced to the American public via radio at 7 p.m. on 14 August, sparking massive celebrations. Allied civilians and servicemen everywhere rejoiced at the news of the end of the war. A photograph, ''V-J Day in Times Square'', of an American sailor kissing a woman in New York, and a news film of the ''Dancing Man'' in Sydney have come to epitomize the immediate celebrations. 14 and 15 August are commemorated as Victory over Japan Day in many Allied countries.
![Allied battleships in Sagami Bay 28 Aug 1945](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Allied_battleships_in_Sagami_Bay_28_Aug_1945.jpg)
Japan's sudden surrender after the unexpected use of atomic weapons surprised most governments outside the US and UK.
The Soviet Union had some intentions of occupying Hokkaidō.
[.] Unlike the Soviet occupation zone, Soviet occupations of eastern Germany and Division of Korea#Soviet occupation of North Korea, northern Korea, however, these plans were frustrated by the opposition of Harry S. Truman, President Truman.
In the aftermath of Japan's declaration of surrender, US Consolidated B-32 Dominator, B-32 Dominator bombers based in Okinawa began flying reconnaissance missions over Japan in order to monitor Japanese compliance with the cease-fire, gather information to better enable the establishment of the occupation, and test the fidelity of the Japanese, as it was feared that the Japanese were planning to attack occupation forces. During the first such B-32 reconnaissance mission, the bomber was tracked by Japanese radars but completed its mission without interference. On 18 August, a group of four B-32s overflying Tokyo were attacked by Japanese naval fighter aircraft from Naval Air Facility Atsugi and Yokosuka Naval Airfield. The Japanese pilots were acting without authorization from the Japanese government. They were either opposed to the cease-fire or believed that Japanese airspace should remain inviolate until a formal surrender document was signed. They caused only minor damage and were held at bay by the B-32 gunners. The incident surprised US commanders, and prompted them to send additional reconnaissance flights to ascertain whether it was an isolated attack by die-hards acting independently or if Japan intended to continue fighting. The following day, two B-32s on a reconnaissance mission over Tokyo were attacked by Japanese fighter aircraft out of Yokosuka Naval Airfield, with the pilots again acting on their own initiative, damaging one bomber. One of the bomber's crewmen was killed and two others wounded. It was the last aerial engagement of the war. The following day, as per the terms of the cease-fire agreement, the propellers were removed from all Japanese aircraft and further Allied reconnaissance flights over Japan went unchallenged.
Japanese officials left for Manila on 19 August to meet Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers Douglas MacArthur, and to be briefed on his plans for the occupation. On 28 August 150 US personnel flew to Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture, and the
occupation of Japan began. They were followed by , whose accompanying vessels landed the 4th Marine Regiment (United States), 4th Marines on the southern coast of Kanagawa. The 11th Airborne Division (United States), 11th Airborne Division was airlifted from Okinawa to Naval Air Facility Atsugi, Atsugi Airdrome, from
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...
. Other Allied personnel followed.
MacArthur arrived in Tokyo on 30 August, and immediately decreed several laws: No Allied personnel were to assault Japanese people. No Allied personnel were to eat the scarce Japanese food. Flying the ''Flag of Japan, Hinomaru'' or "Rising Sun Flag, Rising Sun" flag was severely restricted.
![Japanese-surrender-mac-arthur-speaking-ac02716](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Japanese-surrender-mac-arthur-speaking-ac02716.jpg)
The formal surrender occurred on 2 September 1945, around 9 a.m., Tokyo time, when representatives from the
Empire of Japan
The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of Japan, 1947 constitu ...
signed the
Japanese Instrument of Surrender
The Japanese Instrument of Surrender was the written agreement that formalized the surrender of the Empire of Japan, marking the end of hostilities in World War II. It was signed by representatives from the Empire of Japan and from the Allied n ...
in Tokyo Bay aboard USS ''Missouri''. The dignitaries or representatives from around the world were carefully scheduled to board USS ''Missouri''. Japanese Foreign Minister Shigemitsu signed for the Japanese government, while :File:JapaneseSurrender.jpg, Gen. Umezu signed for the Japanese armed forces.
The surrender ceremony was carefully planned on board USS ''Missouri'' detailing the seating positions of all Army, Navy, and Allied Representatives. The ceremony was Color motion picture film, filmed in color by George F. Kosco, but the footage was released publicly only in 2010.
Each signatory sat before an ordinary mess deck table covered with green felt and signed two unconditional Instruments of Surrender—a leather-bound version for the Allied forces and a canvas-backed version for the Japanese. Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signed on behalf of the Japanese government followed by the uniformed General Yoshijiro Umezu, Chief of the Imperial General Staff. MacArthur signed on behalf of the Allied nations, followed by Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz as U.S. Representative. Representatives of eight other Allied nations, led by Republic of China (1912–1949), Chinese representative General Xu Yongchang, followed Nimitz. Other notable signatories include Admiral Bruce Fraser, 1st Baron Fraser of North Cape, Bruce Fraser for the United Kingdom, and Général d'armée Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque for France.
On ''Missouri'' that day was the same American flag that had been flown in 1853 on by Commodore Matthew C. Perry on the first of his two expeditions to Japan. Perry's expeditions had resulted in the Convention of Kanagawa, which forced the Japanese to open the country to American trade.
After the formal surrender on 2 September aboard ''Missouri'', investigations into Japanese war crimes began quickly. Many members of the imperial family, such as his brothers Prince Chichibu, Prince Takamatsu and Prince Mikasa, and his uncle Prince Higashikuni, pressured the Emperor to abdicate so that one of the Princes could serve as regent until Crown Prince Akihito came of age. However, at a meeting with the Emperor later in September, General MacArthur assured him he needed his help to govern Japan and so Hirohito was never tried. Legal procedures for the International Military Tribunal for the Far East were issued on 19 January 1946, without any member of the imperial family being prosecuted.
In addition to 14 and 15 August, 2 September 1945, is also known as V-J Day.
["1945: Japan signs unconditional surrender"](_blank)
On This Day: 2 September, BBC. President Truman declared 2 September to be V-J Day, but noted that "It is not yet the day for the formal proclamation of the end of the war nor of the cessation of hostilities." In Japan, 15 August is often called (), which literally means the 'memorial day for the end of the war', but the government's name for the day (which is not a national holiday) is (, 'day for mourning of war dead and praying for peace').
Further surrenders and resistance
A nearly simultaneous surrender ceremony was held on 2 September aboard at Truk Atoll, where Vice Admiral George D. Murray accepted the surrender of the Caroline Islands from senior Japanese military and civilian officials.
Following the signing of the instrument of surrender, many further surrender ceremonies took place across Japan's remaining holdings in the Pacific. Japanese forces in Southeast Asia surrendered on 2 September 1945, in Penang, 10 September in Crown Colony of Labuan, Labuan, 11 September in the Kingdom of Sarawak and 12 September in Singapore in the Straits Settlements, Singapore.
The Kuomintang took over the administration of Taiwan (island), Taiwan on 25 October. It was not until 1947 that all prisoners held by America and Britain were repatriation, repatriated. As late as April 1949, China still held more than 60,000 Japanese prisoners. Some, such as Shozo Tominaga, were not repatriated until the late 1950s.
The logistical demands of the surrender were formidable. After Japan's capitulation, more than 5,400,000 Japanese soldiers and 1,800,000 Japanese sailors were taken prisoner by the Allies. The damage done to Japan's infrastructure, combined with a severe famine in 1946, further complicated the Allied efforts to feed the Japanese POWs and civilians.
The state of war between most of the Allies and Japan officially ended when the
Treaty of San Francisco
The , also called the , re-established peaceful relations between Japan and the Allied Powers on behalf of the United Nations by ending the legal state of war and providing for redress for hostile actions up to and including World War II. It w ...
took effect on 28 April 1952. The same day this treaty took effect, Japan formally made peace with the Republic of China with the signing of the Treaty of Taipei. Japan and the Soviet Union formally made peace four years later, when they signed the
Soviet–Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956
The Soviet Union did not sign the Treaty of Peace with Japan in 1951. On October 19, 1956, Japan and the Soviet Union signed a Joint Declaration providing for the end of the state of war and for the restoration of diplomatic relations between ...
.
Japanese holdouts, especially on small Pacific Islands, refused to surrender at all (believing the declaration to be propaganda or considering surrender against their code). Some may never have heard of it. Teruo Nakamura, the last known holdout, emerged from his hidden retreat in what was now Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, independent Indonesia in December 1974, while two other Japanese soldiers, who had joined Communism, Communist guerrillas at the end of the war, fought in southern Thailand until 1991.
See also
* Aftermath of World War II
* Hypothetical Axis victory in World War II
* Japanese American service in World War II
* Japanese dissidence during the early Shōwa period
* Japanese post-war economic miracle
* Post–World War II economic expansion
* Surrender of Germany
References
Footnotes
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External links
Japanese Instruments of Surrender*
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Minutes of private talkbetween British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...
and Marshal
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
at the
Potsdam Conference
The Potsdam Conference (german: Potsdamer Konferenz) was held at Potsdam in the Soviet occupation zone from July 17 to August 2, 1945, to allow the three leading Allies to plan the postwar peace, while avoiding the mistakes of the Paris P ...
on 17 July 1945
* – Article ID 2501
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Surrender of Japan,
Occupied Japan
Japan in World War II
1945 in Japan
August 1945 events in Asia
September 1945 events in Asia
Japan–United States relations
Japan–Soviet Union relations
Surrenders, Japan
1945 in military history