Also known as the "Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War" and the "Jewel Voice Broadcast," this petite but powerful speech is probably the first time ever that a Japanese Emperor addressed the common people of his empire.

Crazy, right? And even more crazy is that the cone of silence was broken for the express purpose of conceding victory to the Allies and ending World War II.

And what's even more crazy than that is that, even though this is a concession speech, there is absolutely no mention of the words "surrender," "defeat," "concede," or any other terms we typically associate with addresses like this one.

And it was delivered in an uncommon Japanese dialect across an iffy broadcast signal, a few days after General Anami had pretty much vowed that Japan would never surrender; this further added to the confusion around the whole thing.

Basically, this entire speech and everything related to its delivery was kind of a cluster. It was kind of the opposite of FDR's own Pacific War kick-off speech, which was uber-clear and served to unify the country.

But this speech did end that Pacific War, it turned the traditional role of the Emperor on its head, and it totally changed the way Japan went about its business.

So for all those reasons and more, this brief little homily is definitely worth a read.