At precisely noon that day, an NHK announcer instructed the nation to stand for an announcement 'of the highest importance.' The national anthem, Kimigayo, was played, followed by the Emperor's speech. Many people wore formal clothes for the occasion. On the morning of August 15, 1945, all NHK stations announced that the Emperor would address the nation at noon. Major Kenji Hatanaka attempted to halt the broadcast at the NHK station, but was ordered to desist by the Eastern District Army. The two phonographs were labelled original and copy and successfully smuggled out of the palace, the original in a lacquer box and the copy in a lunch bag.

The rebels were confused by the layout of the palace and unable to find the recordings, which had been hidden in a pile of documents. As many as 1,000 officers and army soldiers raided the Imperial Palace on the evening of 14 August 1945 to destroy the recording. Many elements of the Imperial Japanese Army refused to accept that Hirohito was going to end the war, believing it dishonourable. Nevertheless, the second version was deemed the official one, with the first serving as a backup. On the second attempt, his voice was considered too high pitched, with occasional characters being skipped. During the first recording he spoke too softly, and upon the advice of the technicians, offered to rerecord it. Microphones were set up in an office bunker under the Imperial Household Ministry, and Emperor Hirohito proceeded in between 11:25 p.m. On August 14, 1945, the NHK dispatched sound technicians to the Imperial Palace to record the broadcast. The speech was not broadcast directly, but replayed from a phonograph recording. Both the poor audio quality of the radio broadcast and the formal courtly language worsened the confusion.

This confused many listeners not familiar with the declaration about whether Japan had actually surrendered. 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. It was delivered in formal Classical Japanese, with much pronunciation unfamiliar to ordinary Japanese. The speech is the first known instance of a Japanese emperor speaking to the common people (albeit via a phonograph record). 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. 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. The Hirohito surrender broadcast ( Japanese: 玉音放送, Hepburn: Gyokuon-hōsō, 'broadcast in the emperor's voice') was a radio broadcast of surrender given by Hirohito, the emperor of Japan, on 15 August 1945.

Ww2 bomb messages