Emperor Hirohito broke the Supreme War Council deadlock by deciding that Japan would accept the Allied surrender terms in August 1945. His intervention came after the council split evenly between continuing the war and accepting the Potsdam conditions.
At the imperial conference on August 9–10, Hirohito supported acceptance provided the imperial institution could be preserved. When ministers remained divided, his unprecedented personal decision settled the issue. He later recorded the surrender broadcast, which was transmitted on August 15.
Japan’s constitutional system formally placed political authority with the cabinet, so the emperor’s intervention was extraordinary. Military officers attempted a coup, the Kyūjō incident, to prevent the recording from airing, but the plot failed. Hirohito’s role is therefore central to both the legal decision to surrender and the public announcement that followed.