JAPAN SURRENDERS UNCONDITIONALLY TO THE ALLIES.

Terms of Japan Unconditional Surrender to the Allies.

1.     We, acting by command of and on behalf of the Emperor of Japan, the Japanese Government, and Japanese Imperial General Headquarters, hereby accept the provisions in the declaration issued by the heads of the Governments of the United States, China, and Great Britain on July 26, 1945, at Potsdam and subsequently adhered to by the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics.

2.     We hereby proclaim the unconditional surrender to the Allied Powers of the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters and of all Japanese armed forces and all armed forces under Japanese control, wherever situated.

3.     We hereby command all Japanese forces, wherever situated, and Japanese people to cease hostilities forthwith, to preserve and save from damage all ships, aircraft, and military and civil property, and to comply with all requirements which may be imposed by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers or by agencies of the Japanese Government at his direction.

4.     We hereby command the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters to issue at once orders to the commanders of all Japanese forces and all forces under Japanese control, wherever situated, to surrender unconditionally themselves and all forces under their control.

5.     We hereby command all civil, military, and naval officials to obey and enforce all proclamations, orders and directives deemed by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers to be proper to effectuate this surrender and issued by him or under his authority, and we direct all such officials to remain at their posts and to continue to perform their non combatant duties unless specifically relieved by him or under his authority.

6.     We hereby undertake for the Emperor, the Japanese Government, and their successors to carry out the provisions of the Potsdam declaration in good faith, and to issue whatever orders and take whatever action may be required by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, or by any other designated representatives of the Allied Powers, for the purpose of giving effect to that declaration.

7.     We hereby command the Japanese Imperial Government and the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters at once to liberate all Allied prisoners of war and civilian internees now under Japanese control and to provide for their protection, care, maintenance, and immediate transportation to places as directed.

8.     The authority of the Emperor and the Japanese Government to rule the State shall be subject to the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, who will take such steps as he deems proper to effectuate these terms of surrender.

The Potsdam “Declaration” of July 26^th 1945.

1.     We the President of the United States, the President of the National Government of the Republic of China, and the Prime Minister of Great Britain, representing the hundreds of millions of our countrymen, have conferred, and agree that Japan shall be given an opportunity to end the war.

2.     The prodigious land, sea, and air forces of the United States, the British Empire, and China, many times reinforced by their armies and air fleets from the west, are poised to strike the final blows upon Japan. This military power is sustained and inspired by the determination of all the Allied nations to prosecute the war against Japan until she ceases to resist.

3.     The result of the futile and senseless German resistance to the might of the aroused free peoples of the world stands forth in awful clarity as an example to the people of Japan. The might that now converges on Japan is immeasurably greater than that which when applied to the resisting Nazis necessarily laid waste to the lands, the industry and the method of life of the whole German people. The full application of our military power, backed by our resolve, will mean the inevitable and complete destruction of the Japanese armed forces, and just as inevitably the utter devastation of the Japanese homeland.

4.     The time has come for Japan to decide whether she will continue to be controlled by those self willed militaristic advisers whose unintelligent calculations have brought the Empire of Japan to the threshold of annihilation, or whether she will follow the path of reason.

5.     The following are our terms. We will not deviate from them. There are no alternatives. We shall brook no delay.

6.     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, for we insist that a new order of peace, security and justice will be impossible until irresponsible militarism is driven from the world.

7.     Until such a new order is established and until there is convincing proof that Japan’s war making power is destroyed, points in Japanese territory designated by the Allies shall be occupied to secure the achievements of the basic objectives we are here setting forth.

8.     The terms of the Cairo declaration shall be carried out and Japanese sovereignty shall be limited to the islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoko and such minor islands as we determine.

9.     The Japanese military forces after being completely disarmed shall be permitted to return to their homes with the opportunity of leading peaceful and productive lives.

10. We do not intend that the Japanese shall be enslaved as a race nor destroyed as a nation, but stern justice will be meted out to all war criminals, including those who have visited cruelties upon our prisoners. 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 the thought as well as respect for fundamental human rights shall be established.

11. Japan shall be permitted to maintain such industries as will sustain her economy and allow the exaction of just reparations in kind, but not those industries which will enable her to re arm 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.

12. 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.

13. We call upon the Government of Japan to proclaim now the unconditional surrender of all the Japanese armed forces and to provide proper and adequate assurances of their good faith in such action. The alternative for Japan is complete and utter destruction.

The Effects of the Atomic Bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Hiroshima stretches over flat ground in all directions for roughly two miles from the centre. The main commercial and residential area of Nagasaki lies on a small plain near the head of a long bay. From here the valley of the river Urakami runs north for three or four miles, and a smaller valley branches north east for less than two miles, both valleys are narrow and are separated and flanked by abrupt hills rising in places to 1,000 feet. The smaller valley is crowded with dwellings without plan. The Urakami valley contained large steel, engineering and armament works, together with smaller factories and a host of home workshops with an attendant jostle of workers dwellings.

Hiroshima had been virtually undamaged by air attack before the atomic bomb fell. The bomb exploded near its centre and thence spread its destruction with great uniformity. Directly or indirectly, it initiated innumerable fires among the wooden houses and workshops, which burned unchecked for days and gutted the Old Town and the industrial zone enclosing it. The more modern industrial buildings on the edge of the town, however, at 1½ miles and more from the centre escaped with only minor damage.

In Hagasaki the centre of damage was in the industrial area in the Urakami valley. The harbour and the commercial area, nearly two miles distant, escaped with only minor damage, and so did the housing in the smaller valley, screened by the intervening ridge of hills.

Both in Hiroshima and in Nagasaki, the scale of the disaster brought city life and industry virtually to a standstill. Even the most destructive conventional attacks had no comparable effect in paralysing communal organization. In great areas of destruction, rising here and there like islands, reinforced concrete buildings remained showing few signs of external damage. Reinforced concrete buildings of normal construction were usually safe from partial collapse beyond 600 yards from the centre of damage, and from structural damage beyond ½ mile. Reinforced concrete buildings of very heavy construction in Hiroshima, within 200 yards of the centre of damage, remained structurally undamaged.

Light single storey concrete buildings, such as are employed for factories and warehouses, failed at about a mile from the centre of damage in both cities. The most striking feature of damage to steel framed single storey factory sheds was their mass distortion, in the direction away from the explosion.

Of the machines housed in these sheds, only five per cent had suffered serious damage from the atomic bomb.  This low figure is to be ascribed to the absence of fire. Nearly two thirds of all machines in the Urakami valley had been housed in smaller workshops and sheds of timber. These shops were burnt down almost without exception to a distance in excess of 1 ¼ miles from the centre of damage, fifty per cent of the machines in them was destroyed or irreparably damaged.

Japanese houses are constructed on a frame of 4 in. or 6 in. square timbers. The roofs are a source of weakness, their covering of pantiles bedded in mud on ½ in. boarding being disproportionately heavy. The walls are of bamboo covered with 3in. of mud, which is sometimes protected by ¼ in. boarding, much of the wall space is occupied by paper covered screens. Complete collapse of these buildings from blast extended to 1 ¼ miles from the centre of damage in Hiroshima, and to an average of 1 ½ miles in Nagasaki. Fire completed the destruction almost to the same distance.

People who were directly under the explosion in the open had their exposed skin burnt so severely that it was immediately charred dark brown or black, these people died within minutes or at the most hours. Very severe burns were occasionally reported at nearly 1 ½ miles from the centre of damage, mild burns at distances of 2 ½ miles and more.

Fire was not contained to wooden Japanese houses, but raged fiercely in many concrete buildings, in some machine shops, and in other buildings not normally subject to fire. It is certain that fire spread did occur in both cities, but more striking is the vast numbers of separate points of fire.

The most important radio active action at Hiroshima and Nagasaki appears to have been that from penetrating radiation, for convenience called gamma rays. The gamma rays pass though the skin without affecting it. They do not attack the cells in the blood stream, but the primitive cells in the bone marrow, from which most of the different types of cells in the blood are formed. Therefore serious effects begin to appear only as the fully formed cells already in the blood die off gradually and naturally, and are not replaced. Deaths probably began in about a week after the explosion, reached a peak in about three weeks, and had for the most part ceased after six or eight weeks.

It is estimated that people in the open have a fifty per cent chance of surviving the effects of gamma rays at ¾ mile from the centre of the damage. The gamma rays are capable of penetrating considerable thickness of building and other material.

The effects of gamma rays on human reproduction necessarily form a long term study, but at distances up to 1 ¼ miles from the centre of damage, premature women who survived had either miscarriages or premature infants who died very soon. Two months after the explosion miscarriages, abortions, and premature births throughout Hiroshima were nearly five times as frequent as in normal times, and formed more than one quarter of all deliveries. Sperm counts made in Hiroshima show that a high proportion of men exposed to gamma rays; up to perhaps ¾ miles from the centre of damage have reduced power of reproduction.

Official casualty figures for Hiroshima are 78,150 dead, as well as 13,983 missing. Those killed by air attack during the whole war throughout Great Britain, including London, numbered 60,000.

The standard figure for an atomic bomb in British conditions would be approximately 50,000 dead.