Hirohito announced Japan’s acceptance of the Allied surrender terms by radio in 1945.
The broadcast was transmitted at noon Japan Standard Time on 15 August 1945. Hirohito read a recorded imperial rescript explaining that Japan had accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration and would end the war.
For many Japanese listeners, it was the first time they had ever heard the emperor’s voice. The speech used formal classical Japanese and did not plainly use the everyday word “surrender,” so some listeners found its meaning difficult to understand.
The announcement followed the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Soviet declaration of war against Japan, and intense political debate inside the Japanese government. It was not the same as the later signing of the written surrender instrument aboard USS Missouri.