On August 6, the Americans dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Late in the evening of August 8, the Soviet Union, in accordance with Yalta agreements, but in violation of the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact, declared war on Japan, and soon after midnight on August 9, invaded the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. Later on August 9, the Americans dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki. The combined shock of these events caused Emperor Hirohito to intervene and order the Big Six to accept the terms for ending the war that the Allies had set down in the Potsdam Declaration. After several more days of behind-the-scenes negotiations and a failed coup d'état, Hirohito gave a recorded radio address to the nation on August 15. In the radio address, called the Gyokuon-ho-so- (Jewel Voice Broadcast), he read the Imperial Rescript on surrender, announcing to the Japanese populace the surrender of Japan.Read the full story
