Foreign Relations of the United States, Conference at Quebec, 1944

J.C.S. Files

Note by the Secretaries of the Combined Chiefs of Staff

top secret
C.C.S. 417/9

[Quebec,] 11 September 1944.

Over-All Objective in the War Against Japan

The Combined Chiefs of Staff, by informal action, have accepted the following restatement of the over-all objective in the war against Japan (in substitution for that contained in paragraph 3 of C.C.S. 417/2), subject to the agreements recorded in C.C.S. 417/5 as to the assurances requested by the British Chiefs of Staff in C.C.S. 417/4:¹

“To force the unconditional surrender of Japan by:

(1) Lowering Japanese ability and will to resist by establishing sea and air blockades, conducting intensive air bombardment, and destroying Japanese air and naval strength.

(2) Invading and seizing objectives in the industrial heart of Japan.”

A. J. McFarland
A. T. Cornwall-Jones

Combined Secretariat

1. Concerning the three papers cited in this paragraph, see ante, p. 265, fn. 2.