page_title: Hideki Tojo
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Hideki Tojo / World War II
caption_attribution_description: 中文: 1938年，汪精卫以国民党中央副总裁身份另立国民政府，声称以“曲线救国”为纲领。图为1942年12月，汪精卫（右三）前往东京参加“大东亚战争一周年纪念会”时会见日本首相东条英机（左三）。
context_page_description: Hideki Tojo was a Japanese politician and general of the Imperial Japanese Army who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Imperial Rule Assistance Association for most of World War II. Tojo began his career in the Army in 1905 and steadily rose through the ranks to become a general by 1934. In March 1937, he was promoted to Chief of Staff of the Kwantung Army whereby he led military operations against the Chinese in Inner Mongolia and the Chahar-Suiyan provinces. On 22 July 1940, he was appointed Minister of War in Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe’s cabinet. On the eve of conflict with the West, he was an outspoken advocate for preemptively attacking the United States and its allies. After being named Prime Minister in October 1941, he oversaw Japan’s decision to go to war and its ensuing conquest of much of Asia and the Pacific. During his years in power, he expanded his control over Japan’s ministries and military to the point of dominating national policy comparably to that of the genrō. He also presided over numerous war crimes including the systematic massacre and starvation of civilians and prisoners of war.
context_section_description: On December 7, 1941, Tojo went on Japanese radio to announce that Japan was now at war with the United States, the British Empire and the Netherlands, reading out an Imperial Rescript that ended with the playing of the popular martial song Umi Yukaba (Across the Sea), which set to music a popular war poem from the classic collection Manyōshū, featuring the lyrics "Across the sea, corpses soaking in the water, Across the mountains corpses heaped up in the grass, We shall die by the side of our lord, We shall never look back". Tojo continued to hold the position of Army Minister during his term as Prime Minister from October 17, 1941, to July 22, 1944. He also served concurrently as Home Minister from 1941 to 1942, Foreign Minister in September 1942, Education Minister in 1943, and Minister of Commerce and Industry in 1943.
  As Education Minister, he continued militaristic and nationalist indoctrination in the national education system, and reaffirmed totalitarian policies in government. As Home Minister, he ordered various eugenics measures (including the sterilization of the "mentally unfit").
  In the early years of the war, Tojo had popular support as Japanese forces moved from one victory to another. In March 1942, Tojo in his capacity as Army Minister gave permission for the Japanese Army in Taiwan to ship 50 "comfort women" from Taiwan to Borneo without ID papers (his approval was necessary as the Army's rules forbade people without ID traveling to the new conquests). The Japanese historian Yoshiaki Yoshimi noted this document proves that Tojo was aware of and approved of the "comfort women" corps. On April 18, 1942, the Americans staged the Doolittle Raid, bombing Tokyo. Some of the American planes were shot down and their pilots taken prisoner. The Army General Staff led by Field Marshal Hajime Sugiyama insisted on executing the eight American fliers, but were opposed by Tojo, who feared that the Americans would retaliate against Japanese POWs if the Doolittle fliers were executed. The dispute was resolved by the Emperor who commuted the death sentences of five fliers while allowing the other three to die, for reasons that remain unclear as the documents relating to the Emperor's intervention were burned in 1945.
  As the Japanese went from victory to victory, Tojo and the rest of the Japanese elite were gripped by what the Japanese called "victory disease" as the entire elite was caught up in a state of hubris, believing Japan was invincible and the war was as good as won. By May 1942, Tojo approved a set of "non-negotiable" demands to be presented once the Allies sued for peace that allowed Japan to keep everything it already conquered while assuming possession of considerably more.  Under such demands, Japan would assume control of the following territories:
  the British Crown colonies of India and Honduras well as the British dominions of Australia, Australian New Guinea, Ceylon, New Zealand, British Columbia and the Yukon Territory
  the American states of Washington, Alaska and Hawaii
  most of Latin America including Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti and the rest of the West Indies.
  Additionally, Tojo wanted all of China to be under the rule of the puppet Wang Jingwei, planned to buy Macau and East Timor from Portugal and to create new puppet kingdoms in Burma, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Malaya. As the Burmese had proved to be enthusiastic collaborators in the "New Order in Asia", the new Burmese kingdom would be allowed to annex much of north-east India as a reward. The Navy for its part demanded that Japan take New Caledonia, Fiji, and Samoa.
  While Tojo was prime minister, the main forum for military decision-making was the Imperial General Headquarters presided over by the Emperor. It consisted of the Army and Navy ministers; the Army and Navy chiefs of staff; and chiefs of the military affairs bureaus in both services. The Imperial GHQ was not a joint chiefs of staff as existed in the United States and United Kingdom, but rather two separate 
caption: Wang Jingwei of the Japanese-sponsored puppet government in Nanjing meeting with Tojo in 1942.
exif: {}