TERMINAL

TERMINAL, codename for the Allied conference held in Potsdam, Germany, from 17 July to 2 August 1945. It was the third, last, and longest conference in which all the principal leaders of the Grand Alliance took part. But Truman had replaced Roosevelt, after the latter's death in April, and Churchill, defeated in the general election results announced on 26 July, was replaced midway through the conference by his deputy, Attlee, who returned to Potsdam as prime minister on 28 July with Bevin, his foreign secretary.

The principal topics were the surrender terms for Japan, the boundaries and peace terms for Europe, which the Council of Foreign Ministers was formed to draw up, and Poland's future frontiers (see Oder–Neisse Line) and government. The last occupied many of the discussions, with representatives of the provisional government (see Lublin Committee) taking part in some of them; but the conference will, perhaps, be best remembered for the Potsdam Declaration which stated the surrender terms for Japan.

Via the Japanese ambassador in Moscow, Emperor Hirohito had already expressed his wish to end the war, but Stalin intimated to his western partners that Japan would not accept unconditional surrender, a fact the Americans already knew through MAGIC intelligence. On 26 July the Potsdam Declaration was issued after it had been approved by China, which was a signatory. It called on the Japanese government to proclaim the unconditional surrender of its armed forces and stipulated that ‘The authority and influence of those who have deceived and misled the people of Japan into embarking on world conquest’ had to be eliminated; that Japan would be occupied until this had been achieved; that the Cairo Declaration, issued at the Cairo Conference in November 1943 (see SEXTANT), would be adhered to; and that Japanese sovereignty would be confined to its four main islands. All Japanese forces would be disarmed and permitted to return to their homes. It was not intended to enslave Japan, but justice would be meted out to war criminals (see Far East war crimes trials), ‘the Japanese government shall remove all obstacles to the revival and strengthening of democratic tendencies’, and freedom of speech, religion, and thought, and respect for fundamental human rights, would be established. See also diplomacy.