Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender in the 1945 Gyokuon-hoso broadcast.
Hirohito, posthumously known in Japan by the era name Shōwa, had been emperor since 1926. His broadcast on August 15, 1945, told the Japanese people that the government had accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration.
The announcement was historically extraordinary because the emperor had not previously addressed the nation by radio. Hirohito’s highly formal language avoided the plain phrase “surrender,” but listeners understood the message as the end of the war.
Hirohito remained emperor after the surrender and during the Allied occupation. Under the postwar constitutional system, his role became symbolic rather than the political and military authority associated with Imperial Japan. He should not be confused with Akihito, who became emperor in 1989 after Hirohito’s death.