In past years, hara-kiri, ceremonial suicide, was part of traditional Japanese culture. Japanese in disgrace would commit hara-kiri to atone for sins that brought disgrace upon themselves or their families. Tradition called for a ceremonial knife or sword to be used to cut open the belly to show that one was pure inside.
Immediately after the Japanese surrender, a number of military and naval officers committed suicide for having lost the war. One notable exception was General Hideki Tojo, the former premier who had ordered the attack on Pearl Harbor and unleashed war throughout the Pacific.
Several days after the surrender ceremony on board the U.S.S. Missouri, American military police began rounding up suspected war criminals for questioning. That is when Tojo made his decision. On September ll, 1945, American soldiers pulled up in front of Tojo’s house. The former premier looked out his window and said, “I am Tojo.” Then he closed the window and disappeared inside the house. A shot was heard.
Hideki Tojo is one of World War II’s most influential figures because he made the deci-sion to initiate the war in the Pacific. Tojo was the chief symbol of Japanese militarism.
A Reputation as a Tough Officer
Tojo was born in 1884 in Tokyo, Japan. He graduated from the Military Staff College in 1915 and entered the army. He was a military observer in Switzerland and the Germany of the Weimar Republic.
By 1937, he had become a lieutenant general and chief of staff of the Japanese Army occupying China. Very quickly he acquired the reputation of being a tough officer, a firm believer in total war. Tojo was also credited with intelligence and perception, earning him the nickname “Razor Brain.” In 1938, he became vice minister of war in the Konoye cabinet. Later that year, he rose to director of military aviation.
Expanding Japanese Power
In the late 1930s, Japanese officials began exploring ideas for expanding Japanese influence in the Pacific. Tojo proposed taking on the Soviet Union, but the idea was rebuffed. When war broke out in Europe in 1939, the subject of expansion became more compelling. In 1940, Tojo backed Japanese participation in the Tripartite Pact with Hitler (Number l) and Mussolini (Number 50).
Upon the resignation of Premier Konoye’s government in October 1941, Tojo became the new premier. The Tojo cabinet became the war cabinet. It decided to launch surprise attacks against major American, British, and Dutch bases in the Pacific. The key target was Pearl Harbor, where the U.S. fleet lay at anchor. If that fleet could be put out of action, Japan would have a free hand throughout the Pacific.
To make Japanese occupation more acceptable to the people of each East Asian nation they conquered, the Japanese introduced the idea of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. It was an anti-colonial slogan, supposedly offering freedom to those suffering under European colonialism. That worked for a while, until the Japanese began to oppress the very people they were supposed to be liberating.
Months before Pearl Harbor, Yamamoto (Number 6) had predicted that during the first six months of war, Japan would have it easy. After that, it would be very difficult. In June 1942—six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor—the Japanese fleet was bloodied at Midway, where it lost four carriers, 250 planes, and several thousand men. From that point on, it was all downhill for the Japanese. Island-hopping by American forces brought them closer and closer to air bases from which they could bomb the Japanese home islands.
Disgrace in the End
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor and a series of early Japanese victories, Tojo enjoyed the confidence and support of the Japanese people. But when things started going badly, his popularity plummeted.
In July 1944, Tojo resigned as premier. The war still had 14 months to run, and Japan would face firebombings and atomic attacks. The official surrender would come in September 1945.
The day that the American military police drove up to Tojo’s house, the former premier knew his time had come. The Americans were rounding up war criminals. Tojo may have wondered if he had not led his country to a kind of national hara-kiri. It was time for his own. He drew out his pistol and pulled the trigger.
When the Americans rushed inside Tojo’s house, they found him bleeding from a self-inflicted bullet wound in his chest. There were traditional hara-kiri knives nearby, but Tojo had used a pistol. Apparently he felt he did not have time to perform the traditional ceremonial act.
Why did he not shoot himself in the head, to ensure death? Tojo would later explain that he did not want to disfigure his face; he wanted his countrymen to know that he had carried out the traditions of his people. He wanted his death to be recognized. (There was still controversy, at the time, over whether Hitler had faked his suicide and fled Berlin.)
Tojo’s suicide attempt failed. U.S. Army doctors patched him up and gave him some American blood plasma. Tojo would survive to face trial and execution for war crimes.
He was hanged in 1948.
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