On 23 December 1948, former prime minister of Japan, Hideki Tojo, was executed for war crimes.
Born in Tokyo on 30 December 1884, Hideki Tojo, the son of a general, was brought up in a military environment that held little regard for politicians or civilians. An admirer of Adolf Hitler, Tojo advocated closer ties between Japan and Germany and Italy, and in September 1940, the three Axis powers signed the Tripartite Pact.
Appointed Japan’s Minister for War in July 1940, Tojo was keen to accelerate the coming of war against the US. He viewed the US as a weak nation, populated by degenerate and lazy civilians. Tojo was appointed Japan’s prime minister in October 1941 and within two months had ordered the attack on Pearl Harbor, thus turning the war into a global conflict.
As well as prime minister and minister for war, Hideki Tojo was also appointed home and foreign minister. From February 1944 he was also made Commander-in-Chief of the General Staff. Thus, he ruled almost as a dictator, answerable only to Emperor Hirohito.
But as the war turned against Japan, Tojo faced mounting pressure from his government and military hierarchy. Eventually, on 18 July 1944, after a string of losses, the Emperor obliged Tojo to resign.
Following the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August 1945, Tojo was amongst those who maintained Japan should still not surrender.
‘Sorry it is taking me so long to die’
In September 1945, following Japan’s surrender, Tojo tried to resist capture by the Americans by committing suicide – shooting himself in the heart. With US military police pounding at his door, his doctor used a piece of charcoal to draw a circle on Tojo’s chest, pinpointing the exact location where Tojo should aim. However, Tojo somehow missed, shooting himself in the stomach. ‘I am very sorry it is taking me so long to die’, he mumbled as he was arrested, ‘I await for the righteous judgment of history. I wished to commit suicide but sometimes that fails.’ Nationalists were appalled that Tojo, having advocated suicide to his countrymen, had failed to take his own life. His use of a gun was considered cowardly – it should have been a samurai sword.
Having survived his suicide attempt, Tojo was placed in prison. While incarcerated, an American dentist set him up with a new set of dentures. Unbeknownst to Tojo, the dentist had secretly drilled his teeth with the words ‘Remember Pearl Harbor’, written in Morse Code. At least, that’s how the story goes.
Having been nursed back to health, Tojo was tried as a war criminal and found guilty. He went out of his way to take responsibility, deflecting all blame from the emperor. At his trial, he declared, ‘It is natural that I should bear entire responsibility for the war in general, and, needless to say, I am prepared to do so.’
Along with six other ‘Class A’ war criminals, Hideki Tojo, a week shy of his 64th birthday, was executed by hanging on 23 December 1948.
In August 2015, on the seventieth anniversary of Japan’s defeat, a Chinese ice cream manufacturer celebrated the occasion by selling ice creams depicting Tojo’s face.
Rupert Colley.
Read more about the war in The Clever Teens Guide to World War Two available as an ebook and 80-page paperback from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Waterstone’s, Apple Books and other stores.
