Hirohito surrender broadcast

The 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. ... I swallow my own tears and give my sanction to the proposal to accept the Allied proclamation."

On the morning of 10 August, the Japanese Foreign Ministry transmitted a response to the Allies, offering to accept the terms with the understanding that it did not "comprise any demand which prejudices the prerogatives of His Majesty as a Sovereign Ruler", to which U.S. insisted that "the authority of the Emperor and the Japanese Government to rule the state shall be subject to the Supreme Commander of the Allied powers who will take such steps as he deems proper to effectuate the surrender terms." The Japanese offer of surrender and the Allied response were known only to high government officials. On the morning of 11 August, newspapers carried a statement in the name of General Korechika Anami and addressed to the army that "The only thing for us to do is fight doggedly to the end ... though it may mean chewing grass, eating dirt and sleeping in the field."

Marquis Kōichi Kido, Hirohito's closest advisor, later recorded in his diary that Allies leaflet dropping that carried the news of their diplomatic exchange had caused him to be "stricken with consternation" over the likely possibility of a military coup. At Kido's frantic urging, the emperor held another meeting, where he issued an imperial command that a rescript announcing the termination of the war be prepared as soon as possible. Hirohito knew that a publication of the rescript would not be enough to convince the military to surrender, thereby made the decision to directly address the nation by voice.

Recording

The speech was not broadcast directly, but replayed from a pre-taped phonograph recording. On August 14, 1945, the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) dispatched sound technicians to the Tokyo Imperial Palace to record the broadcast. The NHK staff waited while cabinet members argued over the rescript’s wording. Around 8 p.m., a messy, heavily revised draft was finally handed to copyists, but even as they carefully transcribed it, more edits came in. Forced to make last-minute fixes, they awkwardly pasted small correction slips onto the document. Microphones were then 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.

Broadcast

Many elements of the Imperial Japanese Army refused to accept that Hirohito was going to end the war, believing it dishonourable. As many as 1,000 officers and army soldiers raided the Imperial Palace on the evening of August 14, 1945 to destroy the recording. The rebels were confused by the layout of the palace and unable to find the recordings, which had been placed in a safe in a small office used by a member of the empress's retinue and later hidden in a pile of documents. The two phonographs were labelled original and copy and successfully smuggled out of the palace, the original in a lacquer box and the copy in a lunch bag. In the early hours of 15 August, rebellious soldiers led by Major Kenji Hatanaka attempted to halt the broadcast at the NHK station, but was ordered to desist by the Eastern District Army. They had seized the building, detained the NHK staff and attempted to broadcast a message urging continued resistance. An officer even threatened announcer Morio Tateno at gunpoint in an attempt to take over the morning broadcast, but Tateno refused. The engineers were then forced to disable all radio transmission. With the coup suppressed, NHK engineers, holding out in the palace for the entire night safely transported recordings of the emperor's rescript to the station.

On the evening of August 14, 1945, all NHK stations announced that the Emperor would address the nation at noon on 15 August. At 7:21 a.m., Tateno formally announced that the rescript would be broadcast at noon, instructing the public to prepare to listen. Many people wore formal clothes for the occasion. Mimeographed copies of the emperor's text were relayed to newspapers, with a publication embargo until after the emperor's broadcast. At precisely noon on 15 August, an NHK announcer instructed the nation to stand for an announcement "of the highest importance." The national anthem, , was played, followed by the Emperor's speech. Reportedly, this was the first time that common Japanese had heard the voice of any Japanese Emperor and the first radio address by the Emperor.

To ease the anticipated confusion, after the conclusion of the speech, a radio announcer clarified that the Emperor's message had meant that Japan was surrendering. According to French journalist Robert Guillain, who then lived in Tokyo, upon the announcement's conclusion, most Japanese retreated to their homes or places of business for several hours to quietly absorb and contemplate the significance of the announcement. A digitally remastered version of the broadcast was released in June 2015.

Content

Though the word "surrender" () was not explicitly used, Emperor Hirohito instructed Prime Minister Kantarō Suzuki and his cabinet to communicate to the Allies that the "Empire accepts the provisions of their joint declaration", which amounted to an acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration. He justified Japan's decision to go to war as an act of "self-preservation and the stabilization of East Asia" and referenced the setbacks and defeats of recent years, saying "the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage". He mentioned the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that had occurred days earlier, calling the atomic bomb a "new and most cruel bomb". The Emperor ended with a call on the Japanese people "to be devoted to construction for the future".

The broadcast was translated into English and broadcast internationally by radio presenter Tadaichi Hirakawa at the same time. In the U.S., the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recorded the broadcast, and its entire text appeared in The New York Times.

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Hirohito surrender broadcast

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