Commitments Japan made when it accepted the provisions of the Cairo and Potsdam declarations must be fulfilled

On Dec 1, 1943, China, the United States and Britain jointly issued the Cairo Declaration, which explicitly states "that Japan shall be stripped of all the islands in the Pacific which she has seized or occupied since the beginning of the First World War in 1914, and that all the territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese, such as Manchuria, Formosa, and The Pescadores, shall be restored to the Republic of China". Manchuria, Formosa and The Pescadores stand respectively for present-day China's Northeast, Taiwan and the Penghu Islands.

The declaration also demanded Japan be expelled from all other territories it had taken by violence and greed.

The landmark document not only shows the Allied powers' common will and unity to stop and punish Japanese aggression, it also serves as the foundation of the territorial arrangement and regional peace order in the Asia-Pacific region after World War II. Therefore, commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Cairo Declaration has profound and far-reaching significance today.

On July 26, 1945, the Potsdam Declaration, issued by China, the US and Britain, reaffirmed that: "The terms of the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out and Japanese sovereignty shall be limited to the islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku and such minor islands as we determine." In September 1945, Japan accepted the Potsdam Declaration in explicit terms with the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, "acting by command of and in behalf of the Emperor of Japan, the Japanese Government and the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters, hereby accept the provisions set forth in the declaration issued by the heads of the Governments of the United States, China and Great Britain on 26 July 1945, at Potsdam", and pledged to faithfully fulfill the obligations set out in the two documents.

The Cairo Declaration, together with the Potsdam Declaration are the fundamental sources of a series of international laws. The authority of the Cairo Declaration is conclusive and any moves to defy it will destabilize the foundation and legitimacy of today's international order.

However, some strident Japanese right-wing forces and nationalists are taking pains to question the existence and legal validity of the Cairo Declaration and are attempting to use the invalid San Francisco Peace Treaty to offset or replace the Cairo Declaration.

Japan's attempts to cast doubts on the legal implications of the Potsdam Declaration are groundless. From the point of view of the source of law, the Potsdam Declaration was the successor of the Cairo Declaration, as it explicitly stated that the terms of the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out.