ABSTRACT
Outside of an elite inner circle of influential civilian and military figures, a handful of engineers from the NHK national radio network,1 and Emperor Hirohito himself, few Japanese greeted the morning of 15 August 1945 knowing that this was going to be the last day of a war that had killed some three million of their countrymen and laid waste to vast expanses of their country’s urban centers. As the morning wore on, however, there were unmistakable indications that the day was going to turn out to be very different from the daily routine to which the Japanese populace had become accustomed over long years of living in a time of total war. Civilian and military media organs began informing the nation that there would be an important announcement by the Emperor on NHK radio at 12 noon, and that all of the Emperor’s subjects were expected to be within earshot of a radio at the appointed time. The announcements ratcheted up anxious tension among the public, giving rise to rumours that the Emperor was going to be informing the nation that an Allied invasion of the Home Islands was imminent.2
