NHK transmitted Hirohito’s surrender announcement to Japan in August 1945.
The broadcast aired at noon on August 15, 1945, through Japan’s national broadcaster, then known as the Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai. The announcement was recorded the previous night at the Imperial Palace and sent to NHK for transmission. It became known as Gyokuon-hōsō, or the Jewel Voice Broadcast.
For many Japanese listeners, the broadcast was historically startling because it was the first public radio transmission of the emperor’s voice. Hirohito used formal language and did not plainly say the everyday word “surrender” in the recording. Instead, he announced acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration and instructed the Japanese people to endure the unendurable.
NHK is often confused with wartime English-language references to Radio Tokyo. Radio Tokyo was an Allied nickname for Japanese international broadcasts, while NHK was the domestic broadcasting organization that transmitted the emperor’s announcement to Japan. The formal surrender signing took place seventeen days later.