What’s scary to contemplate is what if Tojo and Company knocked off the Emperor before he made his broadcast?
What is scary to contemplate is that the war in Japan was ACTUALLY ended by a tape recorder. At the time of the broadcast, the emperor's palace was surrounded and he wasn't going anywhere. What the conspirators didn't know was that there had been great concern that the emperor couldn't get through the speech without choking up. So they recorded it the night before. The message played that day was actually a recording!
What did come out of this was that the conspirators, who were also the most hard line and wanted to continue the war no matter what, were completely embarrassed over their failure and most committed ritual suicide. That was the main reason the resistance fell apart and we did not have a long insurgency, as in Iraq.
The Last Mission: The Secret History of World War II’s Final Battle
http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Mission-Secret-History/dp/0767907795