The recorded surrender broadcast by Emperor Hirohito in August 1945 was called Gyokuon-hōsō in Japanese.
Gyokuon-hōsō means “Jewel Voice Broadcast,” although the term became especially common outside Japan later. It refers to Hirohito’s recorded reading of the Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War, transmitted by NHK at noon on August 15, 1945.
The recording was made at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo and lasted approximately four minutes and 36 seconds. It used formal Classical Japanese, and the audio quality was poor, so many listeners struggled to understand the emperor’s words. A clarification immediately afterward explained that Japan had accepted the Allied surrender terms.
The broadcast was historically significant because it brought the emperor’s voice directly to the population for the first time. It is often confused with the formal surrender ceremony, but the broadcast was a public announcement; the legal capitulation was signed aboard USS Missouri on September 2.