Hirohito gave the 1945 radio broadcast announcing Japan’s acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration.
Known as the Gyokuon-hōsō, or Jewel Voice Broadcast, the message was recorded at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo and broadcast on 15 August 1945. It marked the first time many Japanese people had heard their emperor’s voice. Hirohito spoke in formal classical Japanese and did not use a straightforward phrase such as “Japan surrenders,” so some listeners found the announcement difficult to understand.
The broadcast followed Hirohito’s decision to accept the Allied terms after Japan’s government debated surrender. The Potsdam Declaration had demanded Japan’s unconditional surrender, and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, together with the Soviet declaration of war, intensified the crisis.
The broadcast was not the formal surrender ceremony. Japan signed the Instrument of Surrender aboard USS Missouri on 2 September 1945, with representatives of Japan and the Allied powers present.