August 14, 1945

Surrender of Japan

Japan gives final acceptance of the Potsdam terms

Hirohito recorded the surrender message at about 11 p.m. — only hours before armed officers searched the darkened palace trying to find and destroy it.

14 August 1945: the deadlock breaks

At an Imperial Conference in Tokyo at 10:30 a.m. on 14 August 1945, Emperor Hirohito resolved the deadlock between Japan's cabinet and military in favor of accepting the Allied response to Japan's surrender offer and ending the war on the Potsdam terms. War Minister Korechika Anami, who had opposed the terms, joined the cabinet's unanimous ratification after the emperor's decision.

Japan's final acceptance went to the Allies through Switzerland: the emperor had issued a rescript accepting the Potsdam Declaration and would command Japanese forces to cease operations and surrender their arms.

A recording hidden from a coup

The Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War was issued that day, and at approximately 11 p.m. Tokyo time Hirohito recorded it on gramophone discs for broadcast at noon the next day. Overnight, army officers led in part by Major Kenji Hatanaka attempted a coup to stop the broadcast, searching the palace for the recordings.

Palace officials hid the copies and, threatened with death, refused to disclose where. The discs survived the night; the broadcast went out on 15 August — the first time most Japanese subjects had ever heard the emperor's voice, in court language many struggled to understand.

The war's long last step

At 7 p.m. in Washington, President Truman told reporters he considered Japan's message a full and unqualified acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration and announced that Allied forces had been ordered to suspend offensive action — while saying V-J Day itself must await the formal signing.

Acceptance did not halt all fighting at once: Japan's imperial cease-fire order to its armed forces followed on 16 August, and scattered combat continued. The Instrument of Surrender was signed aboard USS Missouri on 2 September 1945.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 6 sources 3 audit passes

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet, rewritten from that sheet, then audited against it by a different model. How the pipeline works →

What the sources leave uncertain

August 14 is correct for the decision, rescript, recording and Truman’s announcement. In Japan, the public broadcast occurred at noon on August 15, which is why Japanese and many Allied commemorations use August 15.
The recording was not carried safely out of the palace on August 14. It was hidden during the overnight coup and delivered for broadcast on the morning of August 15.
Acceptance did not instantaneously halt all fighting. An imperial cease-fire order to the armed forces followed on August 16, and scattered combat continued.