Hirohito surrender broadcast
The Hirohito surrender broadcast, also known as the Jewel Voice Broadcast (Japanese: 玉音放送, romanized: Gyokuon-hōsō, lit. 'Broadcast of the Emperor's Voice'), was a radio broadcast of surrender given by Hirohito, the emperor of Japan, on 15 August 1945.
Other names
- Gyokuon-hōsō
- 玉音放送
4 minutes, 36 seconds
August 15, 1945
12:00 p.m. –
12:04 p.m.
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.
Recording[edit]
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 11:25 p.m. and 11:30 p.m.[1] 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.[2]
Content[edit]
Though the word "surrender" was not explicitly stated, Emperor Shōwa instructed Prime Minister Kantarō Suzuki and his administration to communicate to the Allies that the "Empire accepts the provisions of their joint declaration", which amounted to an acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration.[3] 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.[9] In the U.S., the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recorded the broadcast, and its entire text appeared in The New York Times.[10]