173

Addison to Chifley

Cablegram D1408 LONDON, 10 August 1945, 11.48 p.m.

MOST IMMEDIATE SECRET

The Cabinet this afternoon considered to-day’s Japanese broadcast which is the only intimation we have so far received of Japan’s desire to surrender. The Cabinet felt that further consideration must be given to the precise meaning of the Japanese reservation regarding the position of the Emperor. [1] They accordingly decided to issue an announcement to the effect that we are in consultation with our Allies as to the position and that, in the meantime, all concerned should carry on.

The text will be telegraphed to you when finally settled. We are also telegraphing to the Governments of the United States, Russia and China asking for their views.

Grateful if you would telegraph at once any observations which you may wish to make.

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1 A broadcast by Tokyo radio at 1 a.m. 11 August (Eastern Australian Time) announced that a communication was being addressed to the U.S., U.K., Soviet and Chinese Govts through the Swedish and Swiss Govts. An interim text, translated in the Japanese Legation in Stockholm, was conveyed in cablegram D1412, dispatched 20 August (on file AA: A1066 P45/10/1/3, ii). This version read, in part, that the Japanese Govt accepted the Potsdam Proclamation (Document 163) ‘with the clear understanding that the terms of the joint proclamation … do not contain in any way request for change of sovereignty of His Majesty the Emperor’.

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[AA : A1066, P45/10/1/3, ii]