Potsdam Conference (1945)

We explain what the Potsdam Conference was and how important it was at the end of World War II. In addition, its resolutions on Germany and the ultimatum to Japan.

What was the Potsdam conference?

Potsdam’s conference was a meeting held in a suburb of Berlin by the leaders of the three main allied powers of the Second World War (1939-1945) after the defeat of Nazi Germany. They participated The United Kingdom Prime Minister (Winston Churchill and, then, Clement Attlee), the president of the United States (Harry S. Truman) and the leader of the Soviet Union (Iosif Stalin), in addition to his foreign ministers.

The conference took place between July 17 and August 2, 1945. The main objectives were decide how to administer Germany and Austria under ally and Define the new borders of Poland. It was decided to continue what was agreed at the Yalta conference on the distribution of Germany and Austria into four occupancy zones and the cities of Berlin and Vienna were also decided to divide.

In addition, war repairs were established and it was decided to implement a policy of demilitarization and denazification of Germanywhich included the prosecution of war criminals.

The western border of Poland was fixed on the ODer-Neisse line, which meant the loss of territory by Germany. Also An ultimatum was sent to Japan in which unconditional surrender was required With the threat that, otherwise, its territory would be devastated. The Japanese rejection of the Ultimatum decided to launch two atomic bombs by the United States About the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

See also: End of World War II

The historical context

World War II was a military conflict that faced the allies (headed by the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union and China) with the axis powers (Nazi Germany, fascist Italy and the Empire of Japan).

In the last months of war It became increasingly evident that the axis powers would be defeated. In this context, The representatives of the allies celebrated a series of meetings or conferences to decide the latest military actions and agree on some principles on the organization of the postwar world and, in particular, on the way in which Germany would be administered.

The agreements reached by the “three great” (As the first leaders of the Soviet Union, the United States and the United Kingdom were called) in conferences such as Tehran (1943) and Yalta (1945) They were retaken and completed in the last great allied conference: the Potsdam Conference.

This was held between July and August 1945, that is, Shortly after the surrender of Germany (which took place in May 1945) but before the surrender of Japan (which occurred in September 1945).

After obtaining the victory over Nazi Germany, the “three great” (Iosif Stalin, Harry S. Truman and Winston Churchill, the latter replaced during the conference by Clement Attlee) They gathered in Potsdama suburb of Berlin, Between July 17 and August 2, 1945to decide the fate of the defeated country.

Despite the common victory over Germany, which took place on May 7 and 8 with the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht (German armed forces), The atmosphere at the Potsdam conference had changed with respect to Tehran or Yalta. The cordial relations of the previous meetings were gradually replaced by a climate of suspicion and the defense of the particular interests of each nation.

Some of its protagonists also changed. While Stalin remained as a Soviet leader in all these conferences, Truman replaced Franklin D. Roosevelt, the US president who had participated in the previous conferences, who had died a few months earlier. On the other hand, Clement Attlee, the British Labor leader, replaced Churchill during the conference, who had been defeated in the 1945 general elections.

CLEMENT ATTLEE (1883-1967) He was a British politician of the Labor Party who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom between 1945 and 1951. Like other leaders of his time, he guided the state organization under the principles of the welfare state with the aim of improving the quality of life of its citizens and guaranteeing their access to elementary rights (housing, work, health and education). Regarding international policy, he directed the process of British decolonization in India, Burma, Ceylon, Palestine and Transjordan. He promoted a containment policy in the origins of the Cold War and consolidated the alliance between the United States and the United Kingdom. In addition, he supported the Truman doctrine, the Marshall Plan, the creation of NATO against the Soviet block and sent British troops to the Korean War (1950-1953) to attend the Pro-Western Government of South Korea.

See also: World War II alliances

Potsdam Conference Resolutions

At the Potsdam conference, the leaders of the Great Alliance (the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union) agreed:

• Establish a supreme authorized authority in Germany whose real power resolved in a Supreme Control Council formed by the military commanders of the Four occupancy zones: American in the southwest, British in the northwest, French in the west and Soviet in the east. It was a mere administrative division of Germany and, at that time, none of the leaders gathered thought of a political division such as the one consolidated at the beginning of the cold war.
• Divide Austria into four occupancy zonesand do the same with its capital (Vienna) and with the capital of Germany (Berlin).
• Implement the so -called four “D” plan: Desnazification, Demilitarization, Discoverning (Abolition of the Great “Cartels” or German Economic Groups) and democratization. This plan should be the basis of Germany’s reconstruction:
  • Denazification. All Nazi organizations had to be dissolved, the purified administration of Nazism supporters and war criminals punished in a court that would have as its headquarters Nuremberg, the capital of the great Nazi congresses (massive events of celebration of Nazism).
  • Demilitarization and discardlization. All military and paramilitary organizations should be dissolved and the arms industry should be disjointed, as well as the large industrial conglomerates.
  • Democratization. It was necessary to become the legality of political parties and unions, celebrate local elections and restore civil liberties.
• Prepare a definitive peace treaty with Germany and its satellite countriestask of which the Foreign Ministers had to be in charge of the main allied countries. The treaties with Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Finland were signed in 1947 and the treaty with Austria was signed in 1955. However, however, The official treaty between the allies and Germany was signed only in 1990, due to the outbreak of the cold war and the Germany partition in two states.
• Define the Eastern border of Germany with Poland. Although there was no agreement on the border layout between the two countries, the Soviet Union imposed a policy of consummated facts through the Annexation to Poland of important German territories and got the order-neisse line to be fixed as the final border. This change of borders was accompanied by the Expulsion of more than ten million Germans from oriental territories and wide displacements, often dramatic, population throughout Eastern Europe. The border was officially accepted in the treaties signed during the German reunification process in 1990.
• Sue the payment of war repairs to Germany. Regarding this matter, it was agreed after harsh discussions that repairs would be extracted for each power in its area of ​​occupation, although the Soviet Union was allowed to obtain 10 to 15 % of the industrial equipment of Western areas in exchange for agricultural products and other resources from its own occupation zone.

Despite the solemn proclamation that the great powers assumed collective responsibility in establishing a fair and concerted peace, and despite unanimous adhesion to the principles of the Atlantic Charter (1941), the reality was that At the Potsdam conference the ideological differences and national ambitions that led in the short term at the end of the Great Alliance and at the beginning of the Cold War emerged.

Ultimatum to Japan approved at the Potsdam Conference

July 26, 1945

In the context of the Potsdam Conference, the United Kingdom leaders (Winston Churchill) and the United States (Harry S. Truman) signed together with the president of the Government of China (Chiang Kai-Shek) a statement on July 26, 1945. In it they demanded the surrender of the Empire of Japan under a series of terms.

This statement worked as an ultimatum to the Japanese government in which it was proclaimed that, if it did not accept to surrender, it would suffer total devastation. The Soviet government did not sign the proclamation because it had not yet declared war to Japan.

Japanese refusal to surrender to the Ultimatum provisions motivated the US government to launch two atomic bombs About Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (August 9, 1945). The Soviet Union declared war on Japan on August 8. Finally, Japanese surrender was signed on September 2, 1945.

Proclamation of the United States, China and the United Kingdom Heads

“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, on behalf of the hundreds of millions of our compatriots, we have conferenced and agreed that Japan must give an opportunity to end this war.

2. The prodigious terrestrial, naval and aerial forces of the United States, the British Empire and China, several times reinforced by their armies and air fleets arrived from the west, are prepared to advise the final blows to Japan. This military power is sustained and inspired by the determination of all allied nations to continue the war against Japan until it ceases to resist.

3. The result of the useless and foolish German resistance to the power of the free peoples of the raised world is presented with terrible clarity as an example for the people of Japan. The power that currently converges against Japan is immeasurably greater than the one, when it was applied to the Nazis that resisted, necessarily devastated the lands, industry and way of life of the entire German people. The full use of our military power, backed by our determination, will mean the inevitable and complete destruction of the Japanese armed forces and also the inevitable total devastation of the Japanese homeland.

4. The time for Japan arrived to decide whether it will continue controlled by those stubborn military counselors whose unintelligent calculations led to the Empire of Japan to the edge of the annihilation, or if you will choose the path of reason.

5. Here are our conditions. We will not deviate from them. There are no alternatives. We will not tolerate any delay.

6. The authority and influence of those who cheated and confused the people of Japan should be eliminated forever to embark on the conquest of the world, since we insist that a new order of peace, security and justice will not be possible until irresponsible militarism is not expelled from the world.

7. Until that new order is established and is convincingly proven that the Japan’s war potential is destroyed, the points of the Japanese territory that are designated by the allies will be occupied to ensure that the basic objectives that we are stating here are achieved.

8. The terms of Cairo’s statement and Japanese sovereignty will be limited to the Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku and the smallest islands that we determine.

9. The Japanese armed forces, after being completely unarmed, will have allowed to return to their homes with the opportunity to lead a peaceful and productive life.

10. We do not intend that the Japanese be enslaved as a race or destroyed as a nation, but severe justice will be imposed to all war criminals, including those who inflicted cruelty to our prisoners. The Japanese government will remove all obstacles that can prevent the rebirth and strengthening of democratic tendencies among the Japanese people. Freedom of expression, religion and thought will be established, as well as respect for fundamental human rights.

11. Japan will be authorized to conserve the industries that serve to sustain their economy and allow the exaction of fair repairs in kind, but not those industries that leave it ability to rearm for war. To this end, access to raw materials will be allowed, but not their control. The eventual Japanese participation in international commercial relations will be allowed.

12. The occupation forces of the allies will be withdrawn from Japan as soon as these objectives have been met and has been established, in accordance with the freely expressed will of the Japanese people, a responsible government and peaceful intentions.

13. We call to the government of Japan to proclaim now the unconditional surrender of all Japanese armed forces and provide appropriate and adequate guarantees of their good faith in such action. The alternative for Japan is the prompt and total destruction.“

Potsdam, July 26, 1945

Harry S. Truman
Winston S. Churchill
Approval of President Chiang Kai-Shek by radio.

Continue with:

References

• Britannica, Encyclopaedia (2023). Potsdam Conference. Britannica Encyclopedia. https://www.britannica.com/
• Britannica, Encyclopaedia (2022). Potsdam Declaration. Britannica Encyclopedia. https://www.britannica.com/
• Plokhy, SM (2011). Yalta. The Price of Peace. Penguin Books.
• Stone, N. (2013). Brief history of World War II. Ariel.