NHK broadcast Emperor Hirohito's surrender address on 15 August 1945.
At noon Japan Standard Time, NHK transmitted the emperor's recorded message across Japan. The speech announced acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration, although its highly formal wording did not directly use the everyday phrase “Japan has surrendered.”
The recording had been secretly prepared at the Imperial Palace. Military officers opposed to surrender attempted to seize it during the Kyūjō incident, but palace officials hid the records and transported them to the broadcasting station. NHK engineers then preserved the transmission despite pressure from the rebels.
NHK, originally founded as the Tokyo Broadcasting Station in 1925, was Japan's national public broadcaster. Its role in carrying the emperor's address made the network central to one of the most significant broadcasts in modern Japanese history.