Hello,

folks, Dan Snow here.

I am throwing a party to celebrate 10 years of Dan Snow's history hit.

I'd love for you to be there.

Join me for a very special live recording of the podcast in London,

in England on the 12th of September to celebrate the 10 years.

You can find out more about it and get tickets with the link in the show notes.

Look forward to seeing you there.

On the morning of August the 15th, 1945, 80 years ago, a voice crackled for the first time over the Japanese airwaves.

Families gathered round the wireless had never heard this voice before.

Only a sliver of imperial subjects had done.

But it was one that belonged to someone that every single one of them knew. It was the voice of Emperor Hirohito. He was announcing something unthinkable, the surrender of Japan. After years

of brutal warfare in Asia and the Pacific, the Second World War there, was finally drawing to a close.

You're listening to Dan Snow's history. In this episode, I'll ask, how did it all come to this?

What made the Japanese Empire, with its fierce military code, its powerful armies remaining across much of Southeast and East Asia. It's deeply

entrenched, oft-repeated determination never to surrender. What made it lay down its arms?

I'm going to delve into the complex story of Japan's surrender. There's the atomic destruction

of the cities of Roshima and Nagasaki. There's the atomic destruction of the cities of Osama and Nagasaki.

There's the Soviet invasion of the Japanese Empire in Asia, in Manchuria, and the prospect of invasion of the home islands themselves.

In this case, defeat had many fathers.

I'm also going to ask in this episode what would happen if Japan hadn't surrendered.

We're going to explore the plans that the Allies had in place for a full-scale invasion and what that might have meant for Japan and the world.

...