What is the standard name for Emperor Hirohito’s recorded 1945 radio announcement of Japan’s surrender?

Emperor Hirohito’s recorded 1945 radio announcement of Japan’s surrender is known as the Jewel Voice Broadcast.

The broadcast, formally an Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War, was transmitted on 15 August 1945. It announced that Japan had accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration. It was the first time many Japanese civilians had heard the emperor’s voice, making the event historically and symbolically extraordinary.

The recording used formal classical Japanese rather than everyday speech, so many listeners did not immediately understand that it announced surrender. The emperor referred indirectly to the use of a new and cruel bomb and to the changing international situation, without using the plain word “surrender” in the modern conversational sense.

The broadcast should not be confused with the formal signing ceremony on 2 September. The radio address announced the decision to surrender; the later ceremony legally documented it. The Japanese term Gyokuon-hōsō translates approximately as “Jewel Voice Broadcast.”