Originally published on June 23, 2019.
From the standpoint that the Potsdam Declaration was not an unconditional surrender but a conditional one, this essay argues that postwar Japan began on the basis of treaty violations and distorted historical understanding.
It reexamines the foundations of the Occupation and the postwar view of history through such issues as the Tanaka Memorial, Comintern intrigue, the Cairo Declaration, the occupation of all of Japan, the Siberian internment, and the democratic tendencies that existed in prewar Japan.

2019-06-23
Boys who were about third-year students in the old middle schools at that time were sharp in their understanding of international affairs.
I do not think today’s third-year junior high school students could understand things in that way.

Chapter 1.
Postwar Japan Began with Violations of the Potsdam Declaration.
The Potsdam Declaration Was Conditional.
Japan’s postwar era began with its acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration.
On the day the Potsdam Declaration was accepted, I was in the old middle school tearing up the floorboards of the gymnasium in order to build a factory there.
That day, we were told that there would be an important broadcast, so we all went out into the corridor and listened.
From the indistinct words of His Majesty the Emperor coming over the radio, we immediately understood that Japan had accepted the Potsdam Declaration, that we had lost.
Boys who were about third-year students in the old middle schools at that time were sharp in their understanding of international affairs.
I do not think today’s third-year junior high school students could understand things in that way.
My elder sister worked at the town office, but apparently the radio was hard to hear there as well, and the people at the office could not understand the content, so they cried “Banzai,” saying, “Since His Majesty the Emperor has said something, let us all do our best.”
The Potsdam Declaration consists of thirteen articles.
In Article 5, it says, “Our terms are as follows,” and in English the word used for “conditions” is “terms.”
This shows that the Potsdam Declaration was not an unconditional surrender but a conditional surrender, a capitulation, and that the Occupation forces were not free to do as they pleased with Japan.
Capitulation means attaching conditions to a surrender, and it also refers to the document that records those conditions.
Article 5 is an offer to Japan, asking whether it would stop the war under the following conditions.
And Japan accepted that offer.
In such a case, ambiguous points in a treaty are, under international law, interpreted in favor of the side that accepted the offer.
When the Potsdam Declaration was being drafted in the United States, there was at first strong opinion that Japan should be forced into unconditional surrender just like Germany.
But Japan and Germany were different.
Hitler was dead, Germany had no government, and there was no counterpart with whom to negotiate.
Japan, however, still had a government that remained as a negotiating counterpart.
Moreover, the condition put forward by U.S. Secretary of War Stimson (Note 1) was that if Japan were forced into unconditional surrender, it might fight to the very end, and as had been shown at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, the United States might suffer enormous losses as well, so it should be “only the military that is made to surrender unconditionally.”
The proposal for conditional surrender came from the American military itself.
And that very condition became one of the conditions within the Potsdam Declaration.
Furthermore, Ambassador Grew and others, known for being knowledgeable about Japan, said that the war would end more easily if it were stated that the Imperial House would be preserved, but the forces seeking to delete such a clause were stronger.
What is important here is that some people mistakenly interpret Japan as having made an “unconditional surrender,” but that is not so.
Rather, the Potsdam Declaration was an offer to the Japanese government containing a single condition, namely that Japan’s army and navy be made to surrender unconditionally.
(Note 1) Henry Stimson (1867–1950).
While serving as U.S. Secretary of State, he announced the “Stimson Doctrine,” which condemned Japan’s military actions in Manchuria.
Reappointed Secretary of War in 1940, he promoted the forced internment of Japanese Americans and supervised the production and dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan.
The Conspiracy of the Comintern.
Then what were the conditions referred to in the Potsdam Declaration.
Let us look carefully at the important points.
Article 6 of the Potsdam Declaration contains the sentence that “the authority and influence of those who have deceived the people of Japan into embarking on world conquest must be eliminated for all time.”
In other words, the power and influence that deceived the Japanese people and caused them to entertain the ambition of world conquest must be removed forever.
But the idea of world conquest had never been Japan’s policy.
The reason it was said to have existed was the so-called “Tanaka Memo” from the time of the Giichi Tanaka Cabinet.
It is said that upon seeing it, President Roosevelt decided that Japan had to be destroyed.
However, in Japan, since no one even knew who had written the so-called Tanaka Memo, it was considered fraudulent.
Within the “Tanaka Memo” there is a scenario stating that Japan would conquer Manchuria, use it as a foothold to conquer China, and then conquer the world.
And it further describes a meeting as having been held, at which Yamagata Aritomo (Note 1) is said to have been present.
But since Giichi Tanaka became Prime Minister as a member of the Choshu faction, there is no way he could have been unaware that Yamagata Aritomo, the leading elder of that faction, had died in Taisho 11 (1922) and therefore could not have attended a meeting said to have taken place in Showa 2 (1927).
Therefore, it is obvious that the “Tanaka Memo” lacks credibility.
At the Tokyo Trial too, the Chinese prosecution submitted the “Tanaka Memo.”
However, it was not accepted as evidence.
According to recent research, this memo was created in Moscow by the Comintern (Note 2) and spread throughout the world.
At the time, Stalin, the Soviet leader, had a strong interest in the Manchurian-Mongolian border, so he likely wanted to draw the world’s attention there.
Because of the Comintern’s conspiracy, there were parts of the Potsdam Declaration in which the understanding of Japan was mistaken.
Article 7 says that “points in Japanese territory to be designated by the Allies shall be occupied to secure the achievement of the basic objectives we have here indicated.”
This means that, in order to eliminate Japan’s ability to wage war, several points within its territory would be occupied.
However, after the war, all of Japan was occupied.
That was a clear violation of the agreement.
Article 8 says that “the terms of the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out.”
The Cairo Declaration was concluded in Showa 18 (1943) by Roosevelt, Chiang Kai-shek, and Prime Minister Churchill.
In it, they say that the declaration is made in order to stop Japanese aggression, that they seek nothing for their own benefit, and that they have no thought whatsoever of territorial expansion.
And it states that all islands which Japan had seized or occupied since the beginning of the First World War in Taisho 3 (1914) would be taken away from Japan.
That means the South Sea Islands that had been given to Japan after the First World War as mandated territories, such as the Marshall, Caroline, Mariana, and Palau islands.
It also says that Manchuria, Taiwan, and the Pescadores, territories that Japan had taken from Qing China, would be returned to the Republic of China.
That means that according to the Cairo Declaration, the Northern Territories are not included among the territories to be returned.
Since the Potsdam Declaration goes out of its way to say that the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out, there is something very strange about this from Japan’s point of view.
Going back further, in August 1941, off Newfoundland Bank in the Atlantic, Roosevelt and Churchill met aboard the British battleship Prince of Wales and the American warship Augusta and announced the Atlantic Charter.
Within it, they said that territorial changes would not be recognized, and therefore it can be said that the Cairo Declaration itself violated the spirit of the Atlantic Charter.
Furthermore, Article 9 of the Potsdam Declaration says that the Japanese armed forces are to be completely disarmed and immediately return to their homes.
However, Russia did not return the 600,000 Japanese who were interned in Siberia.
Article 10 says that the Japanese people shall not be enslaved, but that those who abused prisoners shall be punished.
This accords with international agreements, but what is important in Article 10 is that it says, “All obstacles to the revival and strengthening of democratic tendencies among the Japanese people shall be removed” (emphasis by Watanabe).
Therefore, at the time of the Potsdam Declaration, it was properly understood that democratic tendencies had existed under the Meiji Constitution.
The left says that prewar Japan was a pitch-black militarism, but that is not so, and the Potsdam Declaration itself says so.
Article 13 says that “the Japanese Government shall at once proclaim the unconditional surrender of all Japanese armed forces.”
As stated above, this means that the Japanese government was to make the Japanese armed forces surrender unconditionally.
The Potsdam Declaration is an international treaty and a contract.
A contract binds both parties who conclude it.
Accordingly, while it binds Japan, it must also bind the other side.
And yet, the Allied side was not bound.
(Note 1) Yamagata Aritomo (1838–1922).
A soldier and statesman from Choshu Domain.
He distinguished himself as a member of Takasugi Shinsaku’s Kiheitai, and after the Meiji Restoration he inspected European military systems and played a major role in the founding of the Japanese Army and the establishment of conscription.
He was the first Chief of the General Staff, and later served as Army Minister, Home Minister, Prime Minister, and President of the Privy Council.
As a typical oligarchic politician, he led the Meiji government and dominated politics as one of the genro, but in Taisho 10 (1921) his authority collapsed after the incident in which he pressed Princess Nagako, who had been informally chosen as the bride of Crown Prince Hirohito, later Emperor Showa, to withdraw from the marriage on the grounds of color-blindness in her hereditary line.
(Note 2) Comintern.
Founded in Moscow in 1919 under the leadership of Lenin’s Russian Communist Party, later the Soviet Communist Party, by communist parties and socialist groups from various countries, it was the guiding organization of the international communist movement.
It aimed at world revolution, but was dissolved in 1943 following a shift in Soviet policy.
It was the Third International.