Hirohito was Japan’s emperor when the country announced its surrender in August 1945.
On August 15, Hirohito’s recorded speech was broadcast to the Japanese public. He announced that Japan had accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, although the speech used formal language and did not plainly say, in ordinary terms, “Japan surrenders.”
The broadcast was historically significant because it was the first time most Japanese people had heard the emperor’s voice. It followed the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Soviet declaration of war against Japan, and intense debate within Japan’s leadership.
Hirohito remained emperor after the war, while Japan was occupied and governed under Allied authority. He reigned until 1989, making him the longest-reigning emperor in modern Japanese history at that time.