ABSTRACT
On the morning of September 2, 1945, aboard the USS Missouri, Japan accepted the terms of unconditional surrender that were laid down by the Potsdam Declaration of July 26, 1945. This document insisted on terms that gave the Japanese virtually no negotiating space. Indeed, the Allied powers pledged that “we will not deviate from [these terms]. There are no alternatives. We shall brook no delay.” The Allies insisted that “There must be eliminated for all time the authority and influence of those who have deceived and misled the people of Japan into embarking on world conquest,” but promised that “we 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….” 1 Following the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Emperor Hirohito saw the futility of further resistance and, on August 15, announced to his subjects the need to “endure the unendurable” and accept the Allied terms. 2
