The Height of Impertinence

So far as any discernible, immediate effect on Japan last week was concerned, the Potsdam offer of surrender terms (TIME, Aug. 6) was a flop. The Suzuki Cabinet had specifically rejected the terms. Admiral Kichisaburo Nomura, the dry old man who was talking peace in Washington on Pearl Harbor day, called the terms "the height of impertinence." The controlled Japanese press and radio played them up as though they were good for home morale. An "extremely indignant" civilian letter-writer to a Japanese newspaper denounced the Potsdam declaration for "scheming to alienate the military and civilians." Said he: "The war's responsibility rests upon the shoulders of the nation's 100,000,000 subjects."

But the offer was not necessarily a failure. Its authors had not expected an instant success; it was a slow-burning fire. And it had been timed to precede the shock of the new atomic bomb, a weapon which would hit Japan and the Japanese as no land or people had ever before been hit (see WORLD BATTLEFRONTS). Soon the survivors might be more receptive.

How Long? An important question was how long the Potsdam offer would remain open. President Truman, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and former Prime Minister Churchill had said: "We shall brook no delay." Did this mean that the terms, if not accepted by a definite date, would be replaced by harsher ones? An informed guess: they hold good until invasion forces actually move against what is left of Japan.

Specific plans for the control of Germany, announced in the later Potsdam communique (see above) would obviously interest the Japanese. In a broadcast from Moscow, A.P.'s Eddy Gilmore noted that Japanese there had become "slightly nervous."

All or None? Two specialized reactions in the U.S. highlighted the uncertainties of psychological warfare. An authority on such warfare against the psychotic Japs felt that the idea of Potsdam was good, but that the retention of "unconditional surrender," even when confined to troops in the field, had made the terms worthless. For his money, the Potsdam offer should have gone whole hog in discarding "unconditional surrender."

A high combat officer, equally wise in the ways of war and of Japs, said:

"It is my opinion that the Japs will not accept the terms. Personally, I hope they do not. Although we have certainly destroyed their fleet and are in a fair way to destroy their industry, none of the major ground forces have yet been defeated. If the Kwantung Army [in Manchuria] comes out of this without being defeated and the Japanese homeland itself is not invaded, I feel that we will be heading for trouble in another 40 years or so."

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