Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender in the 1945 radio address linked to V-J Day.
His recorded reading of the Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War was broadcast at noon on August 15, 1945, Japan Standard Time. It told listeners that Japan had accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, although the formal surrender document was not signed until September 2.
The broadcast was historically unusual because it was the first known time ordinary Japanese people heard the voice of their emperor. Hirohito used formal Classical Japanese and did not plainly say that Japan had surrendered, so many listeners found the message difficult to understand. Poor recording quality added to the confusion.
The address followed the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Soviet Union’s entry into the war against Japan. In Japan, August 15 is commonly associated with the end of the war, while the United States often used August 14 because of the time difference.