Hirohito announced Japan’s acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration in the 1945 surrender broadcast.
Hirohito, posthumously known as Emperor Shōwa, was Japan’s emperor from 1926 until his death in 1989. On August 15, 1945, he addressed the Japanese people by radio and explained that Japan had accepted the Allied surrender terms.
The broadcast followed Japan’s decision to end the war after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Soviet declaration of war, and intense debate within the Japanese government. Hirohito’s intervention helped break a deadlock among senior leaders, although fighting continued in some areas after the announcement.
The emperor’s language was highly formal, and poor audio quality made the message difficult for many listeners to understand. Even so, the broadcast became the defining public announcement of Japan’s surrender before the formal signing on September 2.