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Topic: Unconditional surrender

It was on August 10th, 1945, after American forces had released atomic bombs over the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Soviet Union had invaded Manchuria, that Japanese leaders decided to agree to the unconditional surrender that had been demanded by the Allies in the Potsdam Declaration.

An unconditional surrender is, as it sounds, a surrender without any conditions attached (except for those provided by international law). Normally, an unconditional surrender is agreed to only when the losing side considers itself incapable of continuing hostilities.

Although wars have been ending for as long as there have been people around to start them, the adjectives used to qualify unqualified surrenders didn't appear until relatively recently. Unreserved first appeared in the early 16th century with the meanings "not limited or partial; unqualified." Categorical, with the meanings "absolute, unqualified," dates to the latter part of the 16th century. The sense of absolute meaning "having no restriction, exception, or qualification" dates to the early 17th century, and unconditional, meaning "absolute, unqualified," appeared a few decades after that. Finally, late in the 18th century, unqualified developed its sense meaning "complete; not modified or restricted by reservations."

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