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Concept
Hirohito surrender broadcast
Summary
The Hirohito surrender broadcast was a radio broadcast of surrender given by Hirohito, the emperor of Japan, on 15 August 1945.
It announced to the Japanese people that the Japanese government had accepted the Potsdam Declaration demanding the unconditional surrender of the Japanese military at the end of World War II. Following the Hiroshima bombing on August 6, the Soviet declaration of war and the Nagasaki bombing on August 9, the Emperor's speech was broadcast at noon Japan Standard Time on 15 August 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" 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.
The speech was not broadcast directly, but replayed from a phonograph recording. On August 14, 1945, the NHK dispatched sound technicians to the Imperial Palace to record the broadcast. Microphones were set up in an office bunker under the Imperial Household Ministry, and Emperor Hirohito proceeded in between 11:25p.m. and 11:30p.m. During the first recording he spoke too softly, and upon the advice of the technicians, offered to rerecord it. On the second attempt, his voice was considered too high pitched, with occasional characters being skipped. Nevertheless, the second version was deemed the official one, with the first serving as a backup.
Kyūjō incident
Many elements of the Imperial Japanese Army refused to accept that Hirohito was going to end the war, believing it dishonourable.
Official source
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