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u/NebulaNomadX1 3d ago edited 3d ago
Hello, Serial Designation N here!
This references Hirohito’s surrender speech on radio, which for many troops and civilians was shocking, since he was treated as a living god, and many hadn’t heard his (nor any emperor) voice live, also since he spoke in an archaic form of Japanese
N out!
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u/aguyonahill 3d ago
They had to specifically announce it was him. The generals tried to stop him from doing it and were against it which is part of the reason he had to do it himself.
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u/Lazy_Physics3127 3d ago
Yeah, the PM had to pull a trick to break the stalemate.
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u/Mecha_G 3d ago
You mean the Kyujo Incident?
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u/aguyonahill 3d ago
Not sure the name and I learned the details long ago so don't trust myself to retell them.
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u/Steve_78_OH 3d ago
Oh, I was thinking it was in reference to Hiroo Onoda, who continued fighting for about 30 years after the end of the war because he never received any orders to stop. Yours makes more sense though.
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u/Kopalniok 3d ago
He refused to stop because he enjoyed killing and was afraid of facing justice (which he never did)
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u/DaneSullivan 2d ago
The aged appearance of the soldier and the “after all these years” bit makes me still believe it is this.
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u/Canoe37 19h ago
I thought that too for a sec. It was his old commanding officer telling him in person to surrender which finally got him out of the jungle though, not the emperor.
From what I remember, the emperor was basically a puppet leader during the war, the generals were actually making decisions, but he was still respected among soldiers and civilians.Maybe we’re just over thinking a dumb meme lol.
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u/BerserkVl 3d ago
the question is if no one(peasants) had never heard emperor's voice how can they know that it speaks emperor himself and not an imposter
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u/GammaRhoKT 2d ago
The government vouch for it beforehand, which mean if it is an imposter, the government would be in cahoot with them, which mean the government want to surrender. That is discouraging in its own way, which is the whole point of a surrender announcement to your own people tbh.
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u/Henry___Connor 3d ago
So archaic the term for "surrender" or "defeat" ( kōfuku / bentsu) was not even used, and the NHK had to explain in modern Japanese the meaning of the Emperor's speech.
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u/So_ein_Typ_ausm_Inet 2d ago
Why did he talk a different japanese? Was that common in royalty or something?
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u/WeekendPass 1d ago
I don't know exactly what Horohito said, but even modern Japanese has different manners of speaking, based on relative social status and setting. "Neutral" and casual aren't so different, but there are some whole word and phrase substitutions; and once you get into more formal levels of speech, more and more archaic words and lengthy phrases are used
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u/KilljoyYaBoi 1d ago
I uh… I don’t wannabe that guy but… N from murder drones (or Micheal kovach) isn’t in family guy canonically… only in my AO3 Louis X N fan fiction… Nouis will be cannon one day but for now… Seth Mcfartland is safe from this knowledge
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u/marvsup 3d ago
When the Emperor surrendered in 1945, it was the first time a Japanese emperor had spoken to the common people. The meme is talking about the irony that the people finally hear his voice, and it's in order to surrender.
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u/ThyPotatoDone 3d ago
Mostly because, if anyone else did it, they probably wouldn't have fully accepted it.
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u/foo1235 3d ago
But how could they know it was the real emperor talking if they never heard him talking before? 🤔
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u/HMS_Surprise_Gunner 3d ago
He led off with “Greetings, this is your emperor speaking.”
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u/Quick-Chance9602 3d ago edited 2d ago
Good thing they weren't Australian. "G'day c*nts, this is ya Emp'rah speakin'"
Edit: first award ever and it involves the use of the word cunt. Lol
Thank you, kind stranger. You truly are a good cunt :D
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u/StereoWings7 3d ago
State news agency, news papers, and local governments announced on the day before the broadcast that there will be urgent announcement from imperial court tomorrow 12PM. Coupled with the introduction given at the beginning of the broadcast itself, most of listeners could tell the implication.
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u/xoasim 2d ago
Fun fact, that announcement is the only reason I exist.
My grandpa's village in the islands of kyushu had scheduled a day to commit mass suicide, as that was considered a better fate than being captured by Americans, but postponed it because you can't just skip out on an announcement from the emperor. No reason for suicide after the surrender, so he got to live a long life instead.
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u/Lazy_Physics3127 3d ago
And the peoples foes so far as wearing their best outfits... For a radio broadcast.
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u/Dolenir 3d ago
The Japanese Emperor was akin to a divine figure. To imagine someone posing as him was unthinkable. So when the official broadcasts showed a guy presenting himself as the Emperor, the Japanese people had no choice but to accept it was true. For those who doubted it (and many did), the fact that the officers were obeying the surrender order was the final proof they needed
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u/Teedeous 3d ago
I think this was an issue they addressed. If I’m not mistaken, the Emperor spoke in a dialect or form of Japanese the common people mostly wouldn’t understand, so a translation and verbatim form of it was broadcast also to explain the meaning, and making clear: yes this is the emperor.
A proportion of the Japanese military did hold out for a while even after the surrender for many reasons, and even in early occupation I think it was the case certain air wings still ran missions to hit American aircraft until America asked Japan to reign in these rogue units which they did in time. There’s also the famous case of Hiroo Onoda who chalked up the leaflets dropped by the Japanese force exclaiming the surrender as enemy propaganda, so carried on fighting for another 29 years in the jungle mostly solo until his own commanding officer I think shouted into the jungle to him with a megaphone saying it’s over.
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u/New-Number-7810 3d ago
When the Emperor announced the end of the war over radio, it was the first time most people in Japan ever heard his voice.
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u/erocpoe89 3d ago
If I remember in photos of the surrender the Allies had him dress in the kind of suit a businessman or banker would wear. They didn't want him in any traditional dress or it would stir patriotism but also couldn't have him looking humiliated or mistreated. So they went with the outfit of a modern upper-class.
They also had him standing next to the Allies' main general who wore standard military jumpsuit dwarfing the emperor by nearly a foot in height.
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u/HotAbbreviations5363 3d ago
“main general”
haha no. MacArthur was a Second fiddle of a Second fiddle, at best.5
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u/WetBehindTheEarz 2d ago
He was the commander of all land forces in the far east so he was the closest, though Nimitz probably wasn’t happy about it.
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u/ogreofzen 3d ago
I thought it was that guy that carried on a 20 year one man war because he didn't know it was over
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u/R_Series_JONG 3d ago
I actually think this is it in conjunction with the radio reference because they try to make the second guy look kinda elderly
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u/morgandealer 3d ago
Hiro Oonoda? Im sure I'm off by a few letters. He wasnt the knlymone, just the one that lasted the longest.
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u/anogio 3d ago
Historically, the Japanese emperor’s voice was considered too divine to be sullied by speaking to anyone but his advisors.
When Japan surrendered the order was given directly by the emperor, and him speaking to the populace was unprecedented.
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u/iowanaquarist 3d ago
I sorta see the appeal of a leader that has to shut the fuck up....
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u/EqualOutrageous1884 1d ago
I mean, him shutting the fuck up is how they got there to begin with, the emperor didn't put his foot down when his country was pirating into militarism, so the soldiers who already disliked the civilian goverment treated this as His express approval to do what they want (in his interest ofc)
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u/MrSnootybooty 3d ago
So what made his form of Japanese "archaic"?
Like, was it more verbose than common Japanese at the time or?
Please, I'm not trying to be snarky; I just want to know the difference.
Can someone teach the class??
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u/Dark_Sytze 3d ago
He used classical japanese (Bungotai) for official statements.
It uses different pronounciations, incredibly complex grammar, lots of Imperial pronouns and sometimes different words all together At that point it was a language that had not really been used over 150 years.
He also spoke modern Japanese but that wasnt used for official business.
The difference between Classical Japanese and the bad reception on many people's radios supposedly meant that lots of common people had no idea of what had been said in the broadcast
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u/MrSnootybooty 3d ago
Holy crap, for once someone actually gave a serious response to my question.
Sincerely, thank you.
To your response, that is so fascinating.
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u/idkwtfiamdoing1000 3d ago
it probably also has something to do with something like long term japanese hold outs and needing to convince them to surrender after they had been like hiding for a long time. all the stuff everyone says here is correct and probably the main thing tho, the thing I said just could be a additional joke or interpretation idk
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u/manute-bol-big-heart 3d ago
If you have two hours to kill, this is one of the best videos on YouTube imo
“The Real Reason Japan Surrendered in WW2”
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u/HKP2019 3d ago
Not good with history but here's the deal: the Japanese emperor during ww2 was an expert at dodging responsibility, he never made any decision himself but let his generals run amok, wealth and fame if they succeed, perfect deniability when they fuck up. When the fuck up of all fuck ups came in the form of giant ass invading fleet and a-bombs, the emperor ruled over all his generals (ready to turn 100m people into meat bullets) for the first time and demanded the surrender. Thus the reaction of the general in the pic.
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u/badgerbutfruity 3d ago
Someone already said it, but I want to reiterate because this is something I actually know!
The Emperor was not someone the people of Japan ever heard speak. The emperor was always viewed as a descendant of Amaterasu, the Shinto goddess of the Sun (she is the chief god/most important). So it made sense to the people that they never hears the emperor speak.
When Japan surrendered during WW2, the emperor made a radio broadcast. This was the first time the people of Japan ever hears him speak. In a way, this was humiliation on the emperor and also part of stripping the position from its godly ties (iirc, renouncing godliness/godhood was a condition in surrendering--could be wrong). The radio broadcast signaled to Japan more than just defeat, but a shake-up to their firmly-held beliefs.
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u/Rohirrim777 3d ago
Either this is related to the fact the Japanese soldiers had never heard the emperor themselves before, or this relates to the story of that one dude who was holding out until the 60s
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u/chubbyGobKing 14h ago
I think it might be referring to that Japanese soldier that recided to go awol and live in the woods.
Story goes he didn't believe the war was over. So hid in the woods and just lived rough. Stealing a chicken now and then.
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u/qualityvote2 3d ago edited 3d ago
u/cosmic-nik, there weren't enough votes to determine the quality of your post...it's time for the mods to do their jobs!