NHK transmitted Hirohito’s 1945 surrender message to Japan.
NHK, Japan’s national public broadcaster, aired the emperor’s recorded Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War at noon on August 15, 1945. This was the first time many ordinary Japanese people had heard the emperor’s voice.
The broadcast did not use a live studio appearance. Hirohito recorded the speech on a phonograph record at the Imperial Palace, and the recording was delivered to NHK for transmission. An attempted military coup tried to prevent the recording from being broadcast, but the plot failed.
Listeners found the message difficult to understand because Hirohito spoke in formal Classical Japanese and the recording quality was poor. Even so, the broadcast became one of the defining communications of the end of World War II in Asia.