Emperor Hirohito's radio broadcast announcing Japan's acceptance of surrender terms occurred on August 15, 1945.
The broadcast read the Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War and announced that Japan had accepted the Potsdam Declaration. It aired at noon Japan Standard Time through NHK, Japan's national broadcaster. The recording had been made the previous day, after Hirohito and the cabinet agreed to end the war.
August 15 is commonly associated with V-J Day because it was the date many people first learned that Japan would surrender. The formal legal surrender came later, on September 2, when Japanese representatives signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender in Tokyo Bay. The broadcast itself lasted about four minutes and was difficult for many listeners to understand because it used formal Classical Japanese and had poor sound quality.
The speech was also historically notable because it was the first known occasion on which Japan's emperor spoke directly to the Japanese public by radio.