What 1945 Allied declaration demanded Japan’s surrender and defined the terms it had to accept?

The Potsdam Declaration demanded Japan’s surrender and defined the terms it had to accept in 1945. The United States, the United Kingdom, and China issued it on 26 July 1945 during the final months of World War II.

The declaration warned Japan of “prompt and utter destruction” if it refused to surrender. Its conditions included the elimination of militarism, the occupation of specified Japanese territory, the disarmament of Japanese forces, and the limitation of Japanese sovereignty to the home islands and other islands chosen by the Allies.

Japan did not immediately accept the declaration. After the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Soviet Union’s entry into the war against Japan, the Japanese government accepted its terms in August. Emperor Hirohito announced that decision to the Japanese public on 15 August.

The declaration is not the same as the Japanese Instrument of Surrender. The Potsdam Declaration set out the Allied demands; the surrender instrument, signed on 2 September aboard USS Missouri, formally recorded Japan’s capitulation.