Hirohito surrender broadcast

The Hirohito surrender broadcast (Japanese: 玉音放送, Hepburn: Gyokuon-hōsō; lit. 'Broadcast of the Emperor's Voice') was a radio broadcast of surrender given by Hirohito, the emperor of Japan, on August 15, 1945.

It announced to the Japanese people that the Japanese government had accepted the Potsdam Declaration, which demanded the unconditional surrender of the Japanese military at the end of World War II. Following the Hiroshima bombing on August 6, and the Soviet declaration of war and Nagasaki bombing on August 9, the Emperor's speech was broadcast at noon Japan Standard Time on August 15, 1945, and referred to the atomic bombs as a reason for the surrender.

The speech is the first known instance of a Japanese emperor speaking to the common people (albeit via a phonograph record). It was delivered in formal Classical Japanese, with much pronunciation unfamiliar to ordinary Japanese. The speech made no direct reference to a surrender of Japan, instead stating that the government had been instructed to accept the "joint declaration" (the Potsdam Declaration) of the United States, the United Kingdom, China, and the Soviet Union. This confused many listeners not familiar with the declaration about whether Japan had actually surrendered. Both the poor audio quality of the radio broadcast and the formal courtly language worsened the confusion.

Background

Following the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the declaration of war by the Soviet Union on Japan, Emperor Hirohito met with the Supreme War Council in the early morning of 10 August 1945. Prime Minister Kantarō Suzuki asked Hirohito for an imperial command to break the deadlock for an unconditional surrender. Hirohito then stated softly that he did not believe that his nation could continue to fight a war and concluded that "the time has come when we must bear the unbearable.