Marking 80 years since the end of World War II, the National Archives of Japan, near the Palaceside Building, is presenting a limited special display of the original Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War—the document that announced Japan’s acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration—as part of its ongoing exhibition “The End of the War: The Close of Conflict and the Beginning of the Postwar Era.” The display runs through the 21st of this month. Emperor Showa’s reading of the rescript was broadcast to the nation by radio on August 15, 1945, as the “Jewel Voice Broadcast.”
“We have resolved to endure the unendurable and suffer what is unsufferable, in order to open a path to lasting peace for all generations.” The Imperial Rescript that announced the end of the war in that broadcast was decided at a cabinet meeting on the 14th, the day before. Draft revisions continued through several recesses. Traces of those revisions on the draft and on the promulgated original are now on view as “passages that were amended.” The displayed sections will rotate: from the 15th through the 18th of this month, the portion bearing Emperor Showa’s name (the imperial signature) and seal (the imperial seal); from the 19th through the 21st, the countersignatures of cabinet ministers.
The special exhibition also includes the Imperial Rescript on the Declaration of War, which informed the public of the declaration of war against the United States and Britain, as well as official documents related to the atomic bombings. The exhibition runs through September 15. Admission is free.