the remaining units of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army were evacuated. The Japanese occupied the city the next day. Rome was declared open on 14 August 1943 by the Italian government following the cessation of Allied bombing. Subsequently, Allied forces entered Rome in June 1944 and retreating German forces also declared Florence and Chieti on 24 March 1944 "open cities". Athens was declared an open city by the Germans on 11 October 1944. Hamburg was declared open on 3 May 1945 by the Germans and was immediately occupied by the British Army. Post-World War II Japan In 1977, a far-left group in Japan—called the "National Open City Declaration Movement Network"—began organizing activists to make cities preemptively declare themselves "defenseless" under the Geneva Convention, so that in the event of war, they would be legally forced to welcome any invasion. This was rejected by nearly all of Japan's political parties and the ruling government as inherently absurd, since Japan was not in a war, and in the event of war such a decision would have to be approved by the national government. However, the Social Democratic Party—which was the junior party of the ruling coalition from 1994 to 1996—supported it. Nevertheless, four wards of Tokyo and Kagoshima City, Japan's southernmost port, among many other cities considered legislation to be declared "open cities". See also Laws of war Rome, Open City (Roma città aperta), an Italian film (1945) about Rome's days as an open city. Closed city Footnotes City Law of war