Who delivered Japan’s surrender announcement in the 1945 Jewel Voice Broadcast?

Emperor Hirohito delivered Japan’s surrender announcement in the 1945 Jewel Voice Broadcast.

Hirohito recorded the address at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on August 14, and it was broadcast at noon on August 15. In it, he told the Japanese people that Japan had accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration and ordered the nation to end the war.

The speech came after intense debate within Japan’s wartime leadership. Some military officers opposed surrender and later attempted a coup to prevent the recording from being broadcast. The attempt failed, and the recording reached the public as planned.

The broadcast was historically significant because it was the first time most Japanese citizens had heard the emperor’s voice. Its formal language avoided a simple conversational statement of defeat, so many listeners did not immediately understand that Japan had surrendered.