New Prime Minister of Britain elected; Potsdam Declaration issued; POWs die from medical experimentation in Rabaul

World War 2 70th Anniversary - Exhibit and resources from Government Documents and Maps Department, UHM

July 26, 2015-August 1, 2015
Location: Government Documents

At the Potsdam Conference, only two out of the original three Allied leaders of the Yalta Conference are the same. But they are able to reach agreements on significant points, including the aims and method of occupation of Germany and Austria; war reparations; reversion of German annexed lands; and expulsion of the German population outside German borders. The Potsdam Declaration is a judiciously worded ultimatum on behalf of the governments of the U.S., Great Britain, and the Republic of China, delivered to Japan by radio and dropped leaflets. Its message: unconditional surrender of military forces or face destruction. Russia is not at war with Japan at this time. To what degree the silence to this ultimatum by the Japanese government represented arrogance, a cultural ambiguity, or an effort to buy time perhaps will never be known, but the consequences will be disastrous. See the Potsdam Declaration here in The Axis in Defeat, published by the State Department in 1945.

On the same day as the Potsdam Declaration, the cruiser USS Indianapolis delivers the radioactive core of the atomic bomb to Tinian Island. Four days later on her way to Leyte in the Philippines the cruiser is torpedoed by a Japanese submarine and sinks. She had been traveling under radio silence, and most of the hundreds of sailors do not survive in the shark-infested waters of the Pacific. While Commander Charles Butler McVay III survives, he is court martialed for losing his ship during wartime. (He would be exonerated 55 years later.) At Tinian, arguably one of the busiest airport complexes in the world in 1944~1945, B-29 bombers are flying missions non-stop on targets in and around Japan and Korea. See the North Field airfield with its four runways taken in this May 1945 aerial photograph from our MAGIS collection.

Newsmap. Monday, 6 August, 1945: week of 24 July to 31 July, V-E Day + 13 weeks, 190th week of U. S. participation in the war. "In a few months we expect to run out of targets in Japan"--Maj. Gen. C. E. LeMay quote is displayed along with text and map describing targets in Japan. Includes photograph of Kobe : under B-29 attack, 4 June 45. Verso: Special devices. "Dedicated to the safe and rapid training of pilots and aircrewmen." Photographs: Recognition; Navigation; Maintenance; Bombing and torpedoing; Operational flight training; Terrain recognition; Anti-aircraft; Fixed gunnery; Free gunnery.

View this map in print in the Map Collection reading room, ground floor of UHM Hamilton Library, the week of 26 July 2015
View this map online through the University of North Texas Digital Library (http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc861/)

Notes: Newsmaps were color posters issued by the U.S. Army and the Government Printing Office (GPO) on Mondays during the World War II. They combine maps, images, and news from the previous week’s war effort.