What was the name of Emperor Hirohito’s 1945 surrender radio address?

Emperor Hirohito’s 1945 surrender radio address is known as the Jewel Voice Broadcast.

The Japanese name, Gyokuon-hōsō, refers to the emperor’s voice and is often translated into English as “Jewel Voice Broadcast.” Hirohito’s recorded message was transmitted by NHK at noon on August 15, 1945. It read the Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War and announced acceptance of the Allied terms.

The broadcast was historically unusual because it was the first known occasion on which ordinary Japanese people heard their emperor speak. Hirohito used formal Classical Japanese, and the recording’s audio quality was poor, so many listeners did not immediately understand that Japan had surrendered.

The speech was recorded on August 14 and survived an attempted military coup by officers who wanted to prevent its transmission. The broadcast announced the surrender publicly, while the legal surrender ceremony took place later aboard USS Missouri.