the surrender of japan was the important war conference that demanded the unconditional surrender of japan.
which important war conference demanded the unconditional surrender of japan?
surrender of japan
on 9 may 1945 (moscow time), germany surrendered, meaning that if the soviets were to honour the yalta agreement, they would need to enter war with japan by 9 august 1945. the situation continued to deteriorate for the japanese, and they were now the only axis power left in the war. they were keen to remain at peace with the soviets and extend the neutrality pact, and they were also keen to achieve an end to the war. since yalta they had repeatedly approached, or tried to approach, the soviets in order to extend the neutrality pact, and to enlist the soviets in negotiating peace with the allies. the soviets did nothing to discourage these japanese hopes, and drew the process out as long as possible (whilst continuing to prepare their invasion forces.) one of the roles of the cabinet of admiral baron suzuki, which took office in april 1945, was to try to secure any peace terms short of unconditional surrender. in late june, they approached the soviets (the neutrality pact was still in place), inviting them to negotiate peace with the allies in support of japan, providing them with specific proposals and in return they offered the soviets very attractive territorial concessions. stalin expressed interest, and the japanese awaited the soviet response. the soviets continued to avoid providing a response. the potsdam conference was held from 16 july to 2 august 1945. on 24 july the soviet union recalled all embassy staff and families from japan. on 26 july the conference produced the potsdam declaration whereby churchill, harry s. truman and chiang kai-shek (the soviet union was not officially at war with japan) demanded the unconditional surrender of japan. the japanese continued to wait for the soviet response, and avoided responding to the declaration.
soviet–japanese war
on june 21 the finnish government asked for soviet peace terms. the response arrived on the next day and it demanded finnish capitulation before any conditions could be presented. this created confusion in the finnish government, where ryti and tanner were willing to repeat the inquiry about the conditions, while others opposed the capitulation. during the meeting marshal mannerheim was called, and he stated that the soviet demand constituted an unconditional surrender. when paasikivi's negotiation trip to moscow in march 1944, which was initiated by the soviet ambassador in stockholm, but turned out to be a soviet dictation of terms, was remembered, the government decided to interpret the soviet response as a demand for unconditional surrender. it seemed that after finnish unwillingness to accept the soviet proposals in april 1944, owing to excessive reparation demands, finland was to be offered only unconditional surrender. this was in line with churchill's statement that as an axis belligerent, finland's surrender must be unconditional. the soviet authorities denied this interpretation in an article published in pravda on july 2, 1944, furthermore, it is also known that at june 26 stalin even told american ambassador harriman that us diplomats could try to clarify to the finns that he did not intend to take over the country. an unsigned draft document called "the terms for finnish unconditional surrender" was found in october 1993 in the russian foreign ministry archive, which led some historians to conclude that unconditional surrender was indeed the soviet goal. according to baryshnikov this and similar drafts for the other countries the ussr was at war with existed since 1943, and they were replaced by new ones in the summer of 1944.
vyborg–petrozavodsk offensive