Voice of America radio broadcast first to announce Japan's 1945 surrender, historians find

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Voice of America radio broadcast first to announce Japan's 1945 surrender, historians find

Published: 19 Sep. 2024, 16:28 Updated: 20 Sep. 2024, 13:12

LEE SOO-JUNG
lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr

Screen captured image of the KBS report that includes Voice of America's radio broadcast on Aug. 15, 1945. It aired message that Japanese Emperor Hirohito would broadcast an imperial rescript shortly.[SCREEN CAPTURE]

Historians have found that a broadcast from U.S.-based Voice of America (VOA) was the first to inform the Korean public of Japan’s surrender to the Allies at the end of World War II, according to People Power Party Rep. Bae Hyun-jin on Wednesday.

Koreans had previously assumed that Hirohito's radio speech at noon on Aug. 15, 1945, was the first broadcast informing the public of Japan's surrender, but the VOA announcement was found to have aired four hours before Hirohito publicly delivered his official surrender statement, according to public broadcaster KBS.

This makes it the first broadcast to deliver the news of the Korean public's imminent liberation.

The original VOA broadcast was sent over shortwave radio and delivered in Korean, English and Chinese.

In its English broadcast, VOA announced Hirohito’s statement by saying the emperor would read an “imperial rescript at noon Wednesday, Japan time, less than four hours from now."

In its Korean-language broadcast, the VOA told the “people of Joseon” that Japan “has fully accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration and has surrendered unconditionally,” referring to Korea by the name used by the last native royal dynasty. The Korean-language broadcast also included the first and second verses of what later became the South Korean national anthem.

The 270-minute-long VOA broadcast was recorded on a reel-to-reel tape. It was previously stored at the U.S. Office of War Information and was recently transferred to the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.

Bae, who sits on the National Assembly’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, said she analyzed the tape with historians and researchers from the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History, who authenticated the recording.

She also said the broadcast “gave new meaning to Japan’s surrender by using the Korean language.”

Hirohito’s declaration followed the terms of the “unconditional surrender” demanded by the Allies in the Potsdam Declaration, which was signed by U.S. President Harry Truman, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Republic of China, only a few weeks prior.

A screen capture of the KBS report on Wednesday. The subtitles read that the U.S. Office of War Information broadcast about Japanese surrender four hours earlier than Japan did so.[SCREEN CAPTURE]

The VOA’s 1945 broadcast in the Korean language was recorded by Hwang Seong-su, who later served as deputy speaker in the third National Assembly of Korea from 1954 to 1958.

During World War II, Hwang wrote anti-Japanese propaganda messages while working at the U.S. Office of War Information during his studies in the United States, according to KBS.

According to local media, the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History plans to transfer the recording to Seoul in cooperation with its U.S. counterparts with the aim of registering it as a national record.

BY LEE SOO-JUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]