Which Japanese emperor announced Japan’s surrender in the 1945 radio broadcast to his people?

Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender in the 1945 radio broadcast to his people.

Hirohito’s address was broadcast on August 15, 1945, shortly after noon in Japan. It communicated that the Japanese government had accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, which demanded Japan’s surrender and outlined conditions for the postwar settlement.

The broadcast was historically unusual because many Japanese people had never heard the emperor’s voice. The speech used formal classical Japanese, making it difficult for some listeners to understand immediately. Its careful wording referred to the war’s changing circumstances and the destructive power of a new type of weapon without directly using the everyday phrase “surrender” in the modern sense.

Although the announcement ended Japan’s resistance as a national policy, fighting did not stop everywhere at once. Formal surrender documents were signed aboard USS Missouri on September 2, and isolated fighting and Japanese holdouts continued in some places afterward.