What was the name of the Japanese emperor whose radio broadcast announced surrender in 1945?

Emperor Hirohito was the Japanese emperor whose radio broadcast announced surrender in 1945.

Hirohito, posthumously known as Emperor Shōwa, delivered the Gyokuon-hōsō on 15 August 1945. In the broadcast, he told the Japanese people that Japan had accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration. His formal and archaic language was difficult for many listeners to understand, so officials and newspapers explained that he had announced the end of the war.

The broadcast was historically significant because ordinary Japanese people had never before heard their emperor speak directly on radio. It followed a decisive imperial conference in which Hirohito broke a deadlock among Japan’s senior leaders and supported surrender.

Hirohito remained emperor after the war, while Japan was occupied and its political system changed. He is sometimes confused with his son Akihito, who became emperor in 1989, or with earlier emperors such as Taishō and Meiji. Hirohito reigned from 1926 until his death in 1989.