Message to H. Truman (Correspondence Vol. 2, No. 365)

Your message of August 18 to hand.
I understand your message to imply refusal to accede to the Soviet Union's request that the northern half of Hokkaido be included in the area of surrender of Japanese armed forces to Soviet troops. I must say that I and my colleagues had not anticipated that such would be your reply.
2. As regards your demand for a permanent air base on one of the Kurile Islands, which, in keeping with the three-Power decision taken in the Crimea, are to pass into the possession of the Soviet Union, I consider it my duty to say the following. First, I must point out that no such measure was envisaged by the tripartite decision either in the Crimea or at Berlin, nor does it in any way follow from the decisions adopted there. Second, demands of this kind are usually laid either before a vanquished country or before an allied country that is unable to defend a particular part of its territory and expresses, therefore, readiness to grant its ally an appropriate base. I do not think the Soviet Union can be classed in either category. Third, since your message furnishes no reasons for the demand that a permanent base be granted, I must tell you in all frankness that neither I nor my colleagues understand the circumstances in which this claim on the Soviet Union could have been

conceived.
August 22, 1945