740.00119 P. W./8–1245: Telegram

The Ambassador in China (Hurley) to the Secretary of State

1335. Under date of August 10, 1945, General Chu Teh, Commanding General of the Chinese Communist Forces, caused to be broadcast from his headquarters in Yenan the following order:

“Japan has surrendered unconditionally. The Allied Nations will meet to discuss the acceptance of her surrender on the basis of the Potsdam Proclamation.38 I hereby issue the following order to all the armed forces in the liberated areas:

(1)
Any anti-Japanese armed force in the liberated areas can, on the basis of the Potsdam Proclamation, deliver an ultimatum to the enemy troops or their headquarters in the nearby cities, towns or communication centers, ordering them to hand out their arms within a certain limit of time. After being thus disarmed, they will be treated according to the regulation governing the preferential treatment of war prisoners and their lives will be protected.
(2)
Any anti-Japanese armed force in the liberated areas can deliver an ultimatum to the nearby puppet troops and puppet organizations, ordering them to surrender before the enemy signs his surrender [Page 515] document, and to wait for further orders. If they do not surrender over a certain limit of time, they will be disarmed.
(3)
If the enemy or puppet forces refuse to surrender or to be disarmed, the anti-Japanese armed force in the liberated areas should determinedly annihilate them.
(4)
Our troops have the right to enter and occupy any city, town or communication center occupied by the enemy or the puppets, carry on military management there to maintain order, and appoint a commissioner to look after the administrative affairs of the locality. Those who oppose or obstruct such actions will be treated as traitors.”

Hurley
  1. Proclamation defining terms for Japanese surrender, issued at Potsdam July 26, Department of State Bulletin, July 29, 1945, p. 137, and Foreign Relations, The Conference of Berlin (The Potsdam Conference), 1945, vol. ii, p. 1474.