On which date did Emperor Hirohito’s recorded surrender message air across Japan?

Emperor Hirohito’s recorded surrender message aired across Japan on August 15, 1945.

The message was broadcast at noon Japan Standard Time by NHK, Japan’s national broadcaster. It announced that the government had accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration and would end the war. The date is commonly called V-J Day in Japan and several Allied countries, although the United States observed V-J Day on August 14 because of the time difference and the timing of the announcement.

Hirohito’s speech was recorded the previous night at the Imperial Palace. It was replayed rather than transmitted live, and many listeners found the emperor’s formal Classical Japanese difficult to follow.

The broadcast preceded the formal surrender ceremony by eighteen days. On September 2, Japanese representatives signed the Instrument of Surrender aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, converting the announced decision into a formal documented surrender.