CAIRO DECLARATION

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 23, 27 July 1945, Page 8

CAIRO DECLARATION

TO BE APPLIED

JAPAN AFTER DEFEAT

(By telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) Rec. 1 p.m. LONDON, July 26. The joint proclamation issued by Britain, the United States, and China to Japan to cease resistance or see its homeland utterly destroyed, stated that Mr. Churchill, President Truman, and President Chiang Kai-shek had jointly agreed on the following proclamation:—

"We, the President, of the United States, the President of the National Government of the Republic of China, and the Prime Minister of Britain, representing hundreds of 'millions of our countrymen, have conferred and agreed that Japan shall be given an opportunity to end the Avar. "Prodigious land, sea, and air forces of the United States, the British Empire, and China, many times reinforced by the armies and air fleets from the west, are poised to strike the final blows upon Japan. This military power is sustained and inspired by the determination of all the Allied nations to prosecute the war against Japan until she ceases to exist.

EXAMPLE OF GERMANY.

"The result of the futile, senseless German resistance to the might of the aroused free peoples of the world stands forth in awful clarity as an example to the people of Japan. The might that now > converges on Japan is immeasurably greater than that which, when applied to the resisting Nazis, necessarily laid waste s the lands, industry, and method of life of the whole German people. "The full application of our militarypower, backed by our resolve, will mean the inevitable, and complete'destruction of the Japanese armed forces, and just as inevitably the utter devastation of the Japanese homeland. The time has come1 for Japan to decide whether she will continue to be controlled .by those self-willed, militaristic advisers whose intelligent calculations have brought the empire of Japan to the threshold of annihilation or whether she will follow the path of reason."

NO ALTERNATIVES.

"We will. not deviate from our terms and there are no alternatives. We will brook no delay. There must be eliminated for. all time the authority and influence of those who deceived and misled the people of Japan into embarking on world conquest, for we insist tnat a new order of peace, security, and justice will be impossible until irresponsible militarism is driven from the world, until such a new order is established, and until there is convincing proof that Japan's war-making power is destroyed. "Points in Japanese territory to be designated by the Allies shall be occupied to secure the achievement of the basic objectives which we are here, setting forth. The terms of the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out and Japanese sovereignty shall be limited to the islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku, and such minor island as we determine. The Japanese military forces, after being completely disarmed, shall be permitted to return to their homes with an opportunity to lead peaceful and productive lives.

DESTRUCTION NOT PLANNED.

"We do not intend that the Japanese will be"enslaved as a race or destroyed as a nation, but stern justice shall be meted out to all war criminals, including those who have visited' cruelties upon our prisoners. "The Japanese Government shall remove all obstacles to the revival and strengthening of democratic tendencies among the Japanese " peoples. Freedom of speech, religion, and thought, as well as respect- for fundamental human rights shall be established. "The Japanese shall be permitted to maintain such industries as will sustain their economy and permit the exaction of just reparations • in kind, but not those industries which would enable Japan to re.-arm;- ■ ■ "To this end, access to, as distinguished from control of raw materials shallbe permitted and eventual Japanese participation in world tfade relations shall be permitted."