Cold Open

It’s September 11th, 1945, just days after the end of World War Two.

A group of American GI’s make their way through a crowd of reporters and head for the front door of a nondescript house in suburban Tokyo. 

Inside, a 60-year-old man sits in a chair, loading a pistol. With his bald head, thick moustache and round, thick rimmed glasses, this man looks unimpressive. But he is far from ordinary. His name is General Hideki Tojo, and until recently, he was one of the most powerful figures in Japan. But the General’s reign of terror has come to an end. The war is over. Japan has surrendered. The Empire Tojo served for so long is in disgrace. 

Tojo glances down at the cold and heavy pistol in his hand. His shirt is open. On his chest, he can clearly see the charcoal outline his doctor drew around his heart. 

A target. 

From outside, Tojo hears one of the GIs bang on the door and shouting: ‘Surrender now!’ But Tojo, the descendant of a samurai warrior, has no intention of surrendering. He will claim the final honour of the samurai. Hara-kiri – the ritual act of suicide. 

Slowly, he removes his glasses, puts the gun to his chest and pulls the trigger.

As the shot rings out, the GIs kick in the front door. Footsteps thunder as the troops burst into the room, reporters hot on their heels.

The bulbs flash and pop across the General’s body slumped over in the armchair. His head lolls to one side. A crimson stain spreads rapidly across his chest. But Tojo is still alive.

Tojo’s final samurai act, like his military campaign in the Pacific, has failed. He will not escape his shame; nor will he escape justice. 

And soon, Tojo, a man responsible for the deaths of millions, will be tried before an international tribunal. And the Democratic World will finally pass judgment on his crimes on November 12th, 1948.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world. 

Today is November 12th: Hideki Tojo, Japan’s Dictator on Trial.

Act One: The Rise of a Dictator

It’s August 12, 1935 at the Japanese War Office in Tokyo, about thirteen years before Hideki Tojo’s trial. 

Major General Tetsuzan Nagata, a high ranking Army official, sits at his desk pouring over documents.

There’s a gentle knock at the door. One of Nagata’s underlings enters the room and closes the door behind him. The two officers immediately get down to the business at hand: the future of the empire.

Japan is ruled by an emperor who presides over a government body. But it is the Imperial Army who truly commands power; and the Army is divided into two factions. Nagata is the leader of the ruling faction, but there is another group in the Army vying for power. These radicals will stop at nothing to upend the status quo and root out men like Nagata, whom they believe are corrupt.

Suddenly, the General’s conversation with his underling is interrupted when a man in military dress bursts into his office. Without a word, he marches up to General Nagata, unsheathes his sword and thrusts it into Nagata’s chest.

The assassin, a member of the radical faction, doesn’t attempt to escape. He falls to his knees and puts his hands on his head. He will eventually be executed for his crime.

But for many members of the ruling faction, Nagata’s assassination is the last straw in an ongoing political conflict that threatens to destroy the empire. In the midst of this chaos, one man steps forward and vows to stamp out these radicals, and get vengeance for General Nagata, his longtime friend and ally. He is a hereditary samurai warrior, raised to live his life by a certain code. His name is Hideki Tojo. 

***

Tojo, a loyal member of the ruling faction, is a rising star in the Imperial Army. He’s known for being hard-working, persistent and cold-blooded; fitting qualities for the man they call “The Razor.” Now, in the wake of his best friend’s assassination, Tojo’s ruthlessness is about to be put to the test. 

When Tojo is promoted and given command of the Kempeitai, the much-feared military police, he’s tasked with putting an end to the division in the Army. And Tojo knows exactly where to start. 

Many of the leaders of the radical faction are officers in the Kwantung Army. It’s officially part of the Imperial Army, but its radical leaders frequently disobey orders and act with impunity. At the time of Tojo’s promotion, the Kwantung Army is stationed in North East China, as part of the decades long military conflict between China and Japan. 

So Tojo sets up his headquarters in the town of Mukden in Manchuria, a Japanese puppet state in China. Tojo compiles dossiers on disloyal officers. He stamps out rebellions, roots out the radical trouble makers and quickly brings the Kwantung Army to heel. The emperor takes note of Tojo’s successful suppression of the radicals. He promotes Tojo to Lieutenant General and places him in command of the Kwantung Army. But Tojo has even bigger ambitions. 

Late one night, Tojo works at his desk, squinting through his round glasses in the low lamp light. His wife Katsuko knows not to interrupt him when he’s working. She stays busy and keeps their children from disturbing him.

Tojo is penning an essay to the leaders of his country, arguing that Japan should become a totalitarian military state. He hopes to convince the generals, the ministers, and most of all, his beloved emperor - that totalitarianism is the only way to end the political strife, unite their people and defeat their many enemies. Chief among these, in Tojo’s mind, is China, a nation that has long been in conflict with Japan, and a nation with an abundance of natural resources. 

Tojo becomes obsessed with the idea of mobilizing the empire into a state of total war. He scribbles his military plans in color-coded notebooks. He keeps lists of his adversaries, passing them on to his secret police, the Kempeitai. With their heavy black leather boots, the Kempeitai look and behave a lot like the Nazi secret police, the Gestapo. And they’re not the only aspects of Nazism that Tojo admires. 

More than anything, Tojo agrees with the Nazi principle that territorial expansion is justified by racial superiority. In Tojo’s mind, countries populated by so-called ‘inferior races’ are fair game for invasion by imperial powerhouses like Germany and Japan. 

And soon, Tojo’s desire for total war will come to fruition. In the summer of 1937, the simmering conflict between China and Japan will escalate. And as Japan launches a full scale invasion of China, Hideki Tojo continues to climb the ranks of the Imperial Army, ultimately rising to the top: Minister of War.

Act Two: Democracy Bites Back

It’s July 1940, about eight years before Tojo’s trial. 

Hideki Tojo sits at his desk in his new office at the Ministry of War. In his hand, he holds a confidential document: a memo containing top secret information on Unit 731, a covert research and development unit of the Imperial Army.

Tojo knows Unit 731 conducts human experiments that will cause the deaths of as many as 12,000 innocent people. But Tojo believes in the program, and he hopes it will give Japan an edge in chemical and biological warfare. 

Tojo leans back in his chair, deep in thought. Japan is winning the war against China, but the cost has been tremendous, and the Japanese economy is in need of a boost. So Tojo sets his sights on a string of military targets in Southeast Asia: British India, French Indochina, the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies, New Guinea. Thanks to the German Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, these Allied outposts are vulnerable. 

Tojo creates a plan to attack these territories with the same ferocity used against China. There will be no mercy, not for civilians, not for prisoners of war, not even for the sick or wounded. Tojo believes that capture and domination of these territories will ignite Japan’s economy, but many worry  they will also attract the attention of Japan’s enemies.

In October 1941, the Japanese Prime Minister - Fumimaro Konoe - tries to convince the government that Japan must not provoke the West. But Tojo adamantly disagrees; and he has the confidence of the Cabinet, and the ear of the Emperor. In frustration, Prime Minister Konoe resigns. 

That same month, Emperor Hirohito makes Tojo the new Prime Minister; the most powerful figure in Japan, second only to the Emperor. With the reins of power firmly in his grasp, Tojo can now turn his dream of a totalitarian Japan into a reality. Soon, he puts a plan in motion to conquer the entirety of the Pacific Region.

Only one country stands in his way... 

The United States.

***

Throughout 1941, now Prime Minister Tojo makes a great show of wanting peace with the United States. But it’s a façade. Tojo hates America and everything it stands for. While World War II rages on the Western Front, in the East, Tojo plans a series of offensives in Southeast Asia. But Tojo is convinced that the US Pacific fleet will interfere with his plans. So he decides to launch a preventive strike. 

On December 7th, 1941, Japan bombards the American base at Pearl Harbor in a surprise attack, killing almost 2,500 Americans, and injuring another 1000 more.

Tojo is confident the repercussions will be minimal: America is too far away, too disengaged, and too weak to fight back. But Tojo has misjudged. 

The following day, Congress votes to authorize war with Japan. Thousands of Americans rush to sign up as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt gathers America’s full military might. 

Only six months later, in June of 1942, the Japanese fleet is set to ambush another US naval base. But this time, American cryptographers have deciphered the time and place. In a counter-ambush, the Americans sink one heavy cruiser and four Japanese fleet carriers; the very same carriers that assaulted Pearl Harbor and now they lie at the bottom of the ocean.

The Battle of Midway is Japan’s first naval defeat in 75 years. For Tojo, it’s a personal and political disaster. He promised his Emperor victory; and a samurai cannot explain defeat. The embarrassment at Midway is just the beginning. The British are on the cusp of liberating Burma from the Japanese. The Americans are recapturing the oilfields in Southeast Asia. Tojo’s troops are demoralized, and decimated. 

By June 1944, the US fleet sets its sights on the strategically important island of Saipan. Increasingly desperate, Tojo approves government propaganda that makes the Japanese civilians believe that surrender will mean murder, rape and torture at the hands of US Forces. They must fight, they are told, or take the honorable way out; the way of the samurai; suicide.

American forces make landfall on Saipan on June 15, 1944. The battle rages on for weeks. Until eventually, the Japanese forces are defeated. But on July 9th, the day the Americans declare victory, thousands of Japanese civilians jump off cliffs or drown themselves in the sea, trying to find a noble death and escape what they've been told will be horrific treatment at the hands of the Americans.

On July 18th, 1944, Tojo, marked by the shame of defeat, is forced to resign as Prime Minister. And then, on September 2nd 1945 – after atomic bombs are dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki - the War finally comes to an end. But Tojo’s story is just beginning. Because in the aftermath of World War II, the Allies will round up the men responsible for the deaths of millions, and bring them to justice. 

Act Three: Hara-Kiri 

It’s November 12th, 1948, in the former building of the Japanese Ministry of War in Tokyo. 

It’s been three years since the Japanese surrendered, officially bringing an end to World War II. It was a long and bloody conflict that took the lives of as many as 75 million people worldwide. 

But today, men and women from all corners of the globe gather peacefully nodding solemnly to each other as they make their way into a courtroom on the first floor. The air hums with anticipation. Since The War’s end, these four walls have borne witness to endless tales of atrocity and suffering. Today, they will bear witness to the administration of justice. 

Sitting in the dock, with the rest of the defendants, is sixty-three-year-old Hideki Tojo. He is silent and stone-faced. But underneath his drab clothes, and calm demeanor, the ugly mark on his chest - the scar of his botched suicide attempt - is a constant reminder of his shame... and failure.

***

Hideki Tojo was tried alongside dozens of “Class A” War Criminals by a tribunal of judges from eleven different countries. The chief prosecutor for the United States famously says that Tojo and the rest “should… be exposed [for] what they really are – plain, ordinary murderers.” 

And instead of celebrating total victory, or dying honorably in a samurai tradition, he was captured, tried and executed like a common criminal. Tojo's dream of a military state in Japan died with him after he was convicted of seven war crimes and sentenced to death on November 12th, 1948. 

Outro 

Next on History Daily. November 13th, 1985. The volcanic eruption of Nevado del Ruiz in Colombia spurs a deadly mudslide that kills 20,000 people in the nearby town of Armero.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Mollie Baack.

Sound design by Derek Behrens.

Music by Lindsay Graham.

This episode is written and researched by Joel Duddell and Vanessa de Haan.

Executive Producers are Steven Walters for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.