Aftermath
Further information: Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Eastern Bloc, and Cold WarTruman had mentioned an unspecified "powerful new weapon" to Stalin during the conference. Towards the end of the conference, Japan was given an ultimatum to surrender (in the name of the United States, Great Britain and China) or meet "prompt and utter destruction", which did not mention the new bomb. After prime minister KantarÅ Suzuki's reply to maintain silence (mokusatsu, which was misinterpreted as a declaration that the Empire of Japan should ignore the ultimatum), atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively.
In addition to annexing several occupied countries as (or into) Soviet Socialist Republics, other countries were converted into Soviet Satellite states within the Eastern Bloc, such as the People's Republic of Poland, the People's Republic of Bulgaria, the People's Republic of Hungary, the Czechoslovak Republic, the People's Republic of Romania, the People's Republic of Albania, and later East Germany from the Soviet zone of German occupation.
Read more about this topic: Potsdam Conference
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“The aftermath of joy is not usually more joy.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)