740.00119 P.W./8–1045: Telegram
The Minister in Sweden (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 10—11:45 a.m.]
2742. For the President and the Secretary of State. The British Minister40a has just called to inform me that he and the Soviet Minister40b had been requested this morning to see Foreign Minister Unden with great urgency. Mr. Unden communicated to them a request from [Page 625] the Japanese Govt that the British and Soviet Ministers in Stockholm be informed of the Japanese Govt’s acceptance of the declaration made at Potsdam regarding Japanese surrender. It was stipulated that Japanese Govt understood that declaration to mean that the sovereignty of the Emperor of Japan would not be touched. Subject to the Japanese Govt’s understanding of this point, the unconditional surrender terms at Potsdam are accepted.
Foreign Minister Unden informed the British Minister that Japanese Minister41 in transmitting the foregoing had stated that the Japanese Minister at Bern42 had instructions to request the Swiss Govt to transmit the same offer of unconditional surrender to the US and China through their respective Ministers at Bern, and that he understood that this action was being taken simultaneously with the action at Stockholm.
The British and Soviet Ministers asked Mr. Unden’s permission to inform me and the Chinese Minister unofficially of the foregoing, to which the Foreign Minister agreed. The Soviet Minister is informing the Chinese.
Mr. Unden requested the British and Soviet Ministers to regard this communication as of the highest order of secrecy.