Who was Japan's emperor when Japan surrendered in World War II?

Hirohito was Japan's emperor when Japan surrendered in World War II.

Hirohito, posthumously known in Japan as Emperor Shōwa, reigned from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. During the final months of the war, he became a central figure in the debate over whether Japan should accept the Allied terms of surrender.

On 15 August 1945, he addressed the Japanese public by radio and announced acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration. His intervention helped break a deadlock among senior Japanese leaders, though some military officers attempted to stop the broadcast through a coup that failed.

After the war, Hirohito remained on the throne. Under the Allied occupation, his political position changed substantially: Japan adopted a constitutional system in which the emperor became a symbol of the state rather than a sovereign with governing power. He was not prosecuted at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East.