World War II Japanese Surrender: The Emperor's Speech--Response Stunned Nation


Figure 1.--The Emperor's announcement was broadcast to a stunned nation (August 14). The nation was stunned, but responses varied. Here we see a group listening to the Emperor. The fact that most Japanese did not have home radio sets in microcosim that after only the first 6 months of the War, the Japanese war plan began unravelling.

The Emperor's announcement legally took the form of a Rescript. This is an edict, an official order or proclamation issued by a person in authority. It is normally associated with a monarchial system like the Japanese Empire. Major policy decesions after the Meiji Restoration (1860s had come as Imperial Rescript, none had been delivered as a broadcast. The broadcast stunned a nation thathad been repearedly told that they were winning the war (August 14). Of course the battles colser anbd closer to Japan and the American bombing must have shown the populatin that the War had gine very badly. The Japanese people had never heard the Emperor's voice before. That alone priobably disorienrd and stunned much of the nation. The Emperor did not speak live to he nation like Churchill and Roosevelt with their resonn voices. He had previously recorded the message. One report indicates that the quality of the recording was poor. And this combined with the classical Japanese language used by the Emperor meant that many of his subjects did not fully understand what they were hearing. It is difficult for us today to understand the depth of veneration in which the Japanese people and military held the Emperor. Venerating him as a god seems so arcane to us today. But much of the Japanese people believed just--although the concept of divinity was different than that of the Western Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Islam, and Judaism). Even so the depth of this feeling was a major factor in the very real and continuing Japanese determination to resist to the end. Japanese soldiers simply refused to surrender. And many of those soldiers where there were Japananese civilians expecred the them to do the same (Saipan and Okinawa). The Emperor's Rescript ended that meaning that this tragedy would not occur on the Home Islands. Few civilians were fully aware at the time of the full dimensiions of the tragedy that might have unfolded or what the Emperor had prevented. Reports suggest that the public reaction to the Emperor's speech varied. Many Japanese reportedly listened and then went on with their daily lives. Quite a number of senior Army and Navy officers chose suicide, but not as many as one might expect given that theyb ordered so many young men to fight to the death even aftr battles had been lost and isolated garrisons were essentially ordered to starve to death rather han surrender. Former prime-minister Tojo shot himself, but botched the job. One historian reoorts that a small crowd gathered in front of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo and cried. The tears they shed "reflected a multitude of sentiments ... anguish, regret, bereavement and anger at having been deceived, sudden emptiness and loss of purpose". [Dower, p. 38-39.]

Sources

Dower, John (1999). Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II (W.W. Norton: 1999).






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Created: 8:45 AM 7/14/2018
Last updated: 8:45 AM 7/14/2018