Who delivered Japan’s surrender announcement in the August 15, 1945 radio broadcast?

Emperor Hirohito delivered Japan’s surrender announcement in the August 15, 1945 radio broadcast. His recorded speech told the Japanese people that the government had accepted the Potsdam Declaration.

The broadcast was transmitted at noon Japan Standard Time through NHK. It was the first known occasion on which the Japanese emperor’s voice was heard publicly by ordinary Japanese people, making the announcement historically extraordinary as well as politically decisive.

Hirohito spoke in highly formal classical Japanese, and many listeners struggled to understand the recording’s courtly language and poor sound quality. The speech did not use a simple phrase such as “Japan surrenders”; instead, it described the decision to accept the Allied declaration and end the war.