ABSTRACT
The surrender of the emperor was broadcast throughout the nation at noon on 15 August 1945, giving a voice to the site of so much focussed attention. The Court language the emperor spoke was barely intelligible and required translation into everyday Japanese.1 In a way, his utterances about the war, and the degree of agency he possessed, continue to be interpreted and speculated about to this very day. The visualisation of the emperor had been successful but it was the fi rst time that most Japanese had heard him speak. In an article entitled ‘Japan Surrendered’, the Asahi shinbun correspondent Okada Seizô compared the situation with the opening scene of Charlie Chaplin’s fi lm City Lights: A Comedy Romance in Pantomime (1931), a silent fi lm with synchronised musical accompaniment. A large statue entitled ‘Peace and Prosperity’ is about to be unveiled before hundreds of members of the public.2 The mayor is the fi rst dignitary to speak. Instead of his voice, however, the audience hears the sounds of a kazoo. He comes across sounding like a demented person or a whimpering child. The voice of the next dignitary, a spokesperson for a women’s club, sounds similarly bad, only higher pitched.3 The scene served to make fun of fi gures of authority, and what they had to say, but can also be interpreted as referring to the poor sound quality of many of the early talking pictures that had just appeared.4
