On what date did Emperor Hirohito’s surrender announcement first reach the Japanese public?

Emperor Hirohito’s surrender announcement first reached the Japanese public on August 15, 1945.

The recorded message was broadcast at noon Japan Standard Time. In it, Hirohito announced that Japan had accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, although the speech used formal language and did not plainly use the everyday word “surrender” in the way many listeners expected.

The date is commonly associated with V-J Day in many countries, especially across the Commonwealth and in Japan. In the United States, celebrations and official references sometimes used August 14 because the news arrived during the previous day in U.S. time zones. The distinction explains why different sources can give different V-J Day dates.

The announcement was still separate from the legal and ceremonial completion of surrender. On September 2, Japanese officials signed the Instrument of Surrender aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, formally ending hostilities with the Allied powers.