Hiro Hito´s Surrender Speech: After the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,

the Japanese Emperor speech to surrender was broadcasted by radio in August the 15th,
1945. This speech aims both to extol the bravery of the fighters and address the
impossibility of Japan´s continuation in the War, due to the damage provoked by the
bombs.
Chief Joseph Surrender Speech: Chief Joseph's speech came at the end of a long and
costly struggle for the tribe. First, they had defended their lands from the encroachment
of white settlers, and then, once that failed, they had defended themselves from military
attack as they tried to make their way to safety in Canada. This is a more dramatic
surrender, based upon the suffering of the people fighting on Chief Joseph´s side. There
is no chance to win and therefore they must surrender.

These speeches are fundamentally similar in their content: the people that these leaders
are representing are tired of fighting and decide to surrender to the enemy. Nevertheless,
they are very different in their form and use of language. On one hand, Chief Joseph
confesses his own exhaustion and offers a list of the hardships that have befallen his
people while attempting to escape the U.S. army. They had travelled for a long distance,
hoping to find refuge with another Sioux chief, who brought his people to Canada to
escape U.S. aggression. Chief Joseph gave the speech in early October, so winter had
come, and the Nez Perce tribe were suffering from freezing weather, lack of food, and
exhaustion from the prolonged travel and fighting. This influenced his speech, very
emotive, moved by the suffering of his people. He is brief, clear about the reasons of his
surrender and appeals to emotions in a desperate try to avoid suffering for his people.
He describes his heart as "sick and sad" and admits that he cannot fight any longer, and
that he will never fight again. The speech clearly expresses how terrible a loss it is for
him to be unable to fulfill his duty completely and preserve his lands and his people,
despite every conceivable effort on his part. On the other hand, Emperor Hirohito was
considered by the Japanese to be a living God, therefore he addresses his people as
subjects. And maybe the first time most of his people heard him speak, it was to
surrender. His speech is much more an appeal to honour and loyalty than to repentance
and humiliation. He assumes the incapacity of Japan to continue fighting. He uses more
dramatic rhetoric, appealing to Japanese traditional culture and he prefer to avoid the
word surrender. He claims Japan´s right to defend itself from the attacks but accepts
with resignation the “conditions of the Joint Declaration” of the Allies, meaning that he
gives up the fighting, concerned about the potential damage that continuing in the war
could do to his people. He also quotes the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the
US army and portrays it as a potential danger in the future not only for Japan but to
humanity. He provides hope for the wounded and the families as well as he appeals to
the idea of “community” as a way of promoting the post-war development policies and
to keep the honour that marked Japan´s participation in WWII.