The Kyūjō incident was the failed Japanese coup attempt made to stop the 1945 surrender broadcast.
The coup took place in Tokyo during the night of August 14–15, 1945, just before Emperor Hirohito’s recorded announcement was scheduled to air. Army officers and Imperial Guard troops tried to prevent the surrender, place the emperor under house arrest, and destroy the recording of his speech.
The plotters failed to secure the support of Japan’s senior military leadership. They also failed to find and destroy the recording, which reached the national broadcaster and was transmitted at noon on August 15. The coup collapsed, and several leading participants later committed ritual suicide.
The incident is sometimes confused with the Matsue incident, another late-war uprising that occurred in Japan on August 24, 1945. The Kyūjō incident directly targeted the imperial surrender announcement and the government’s decision to end the war.