The Potsdam Conference: July 20th 1945 – Peace In Italy

Late in the morning, Generals Dwight Eisenhower and Omar Bradley made their way to the ‘Little White House’ to meet with President Truman. They spoke about strategy in the Pacific and the use of the atomic bomb, on which the generals were brought up to speed about its successful test four days earlier.

Even though Truman did not specifically ask the generals for their opinions, Eisenhower said he opposed the use of the bomb, thinking that Japan was already defeated.

And Eisenhower’s thoughts on Japan’s defeat were correct.

At this point, the United States and its allies had been island hopping throughout the Pacific for years, seizing most of Japan’s strategic positions, and essentially pushing them back to their mainland. Furthermore, for a country with no natural resources, Japan was heavily dependent on imported wartime essentials like important raw materials – especially oil. Therefore, the United States systematically targeted and destroyed important shipping routes that resulted in a total collapse of their economy, the sinking of most of their fleets, and essentially a complete destruction of its navy. So not only did Eisenhower know that Japan was already defeated, but the Japanese knew it themselves.

However, knowing that Japan was defeated – on both sides – was not the issue at the end of the day.

The issue was getting Japan to surrender unconditionally.

This was the policy agreed upon at the Cairo Conference of 1943 when Roosevelt and Churchill met with China’s leader, Chiang Kai-shek, in Egypt to discuss and outline the allied position against Japan in the Pacific.

By signing the ‘Cairo Declaration’ on 27 November 1943, these three leaders – all at war with the Japanese – agreed that their governments would continue deploying military forces to the Pacific until Japan’s unconditional surrender.

“The Three Great Allies are fighting this war to restrain and punish the aggression of Japan. They covet no gain for themselves and have no thought of territorial expansion. It is their purpose that Japan shall be stripped of all the islands in the Pacific which she has seized or occupied since the beginning of the first World War in 1914, and that all the territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese, such as Manchuria, Formosa, and The Pescadores, shall be restored to the Republic of China. Japan will also be expelled from all other territories which she has taken by violence and greed. The aforesaid three great powers, mindful of the enslavement of the people of Korea, are determined that in due course Korea shall become free and independent. With these objects in view the three Allies, in harmony with those of the United Nations at war with Japan, will continue to persevere in the serious and prolonged operations necessary to procure the unconditional surrender of Japan.”