Chiang Kai-shek joined Harry Truman and Winston Churchill in issuing the Potsdam Declaration.
The declaration was released on July 26, 1945, and set out the Allied terms for Japan’s surrender. Chiang was chairman of the National Government of the Republic of China, one of the Allied powers fighting Japan in the Second Sino-Japanese War and the wider Pacific conflict.
Although Chiang did not attend the Potsdam Conference in person, he agreed to the declaration by telegram from Chongqing. His name appeared with those of Truman, the U.S. president, and Churchill, the British prime minister at the time the document was authorized. Churchill was soon replaced as prime minister by Clement Attlee during the conference period.
The declaration warned Japan of “prompt and utter destruction” if it refused to surrender. Japan eventually accepted its terms in August 1945. The declaration therefore formed the political framework for the surrender announcement and the later signing ceremony aboard USS Missouri.