Hirohito surrender broadcast
Sign in to saveAlso known as Gyokuon-hōsō, Jewel Voice Broadcast, Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War
radio broadcast in which Emperor Hirohito announced the Japanese surrender in World War II
Key facts
- Other names
- Gyokuon-hōsō 玉音放送 ( Shinjitai ) 玉音󠄁放送󠄁 ( Kyujitai )
- Running time
- 4 minutes, 36 seconds
- Country of origin
- Empire of Japan
- Language
- Classical Japanese
- Home station
- NHK
- Narrated by
- Hirohito
- Recording studio
- Imperial Palace , Tokyo
- Original release
- August 15, 1945 ( 1945-08-15 ) , 12:00 p.m. –, 12:04 p.m.
via Wikipedia infobox
~18 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The Hirohito surrender broadcast (Japanese: 玉音放送, Hepburn: Gyokuon-hōsō; lit. 'Broadcast of Jade (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.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Hirohito surrender broadcast” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.