1943 Cairo Declaration

The Cairo Declaration was issued on November 27, 1943 during the Cairo Conference in Egypt by President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the United States, Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the United Kingdom and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek of the Republic of China. It stated that the Allies sought Japan's unconditional surrender and that Japan would be stripped of the Pacific islands it had seized since 1914, with Manchuria, Formosa and the Pescadores restored to the Republic of China and Korea to become free and independent in due course. The declaration stated that the Allies covet no gain for themselves and have no thought of territorial expansion. It was broadcast as the Cairo Communique on December 1, 1943 and was later cited in the Potsdam Declaration and the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, though its binding legal force and the meaning of Korea's promised independence in due course remain disputed among historians.