Toshio Tamogami General is a retired Japanese Air Self - Defense Force career military officer . He served as the Chief of Staff of Japan ' s Air Self - Defense Force from March 2007 to November 2008 . Career and retirement . Tamogami was dismissed with a 60 million yen allowance due to an essay he published on October 31 , 2008 , arguing that " it is a false accusation to say ( Japan ) was an aggressor nation " during World War II and that it was rather drawn into the war by Chiang Kai - shek and Franklin D . Roosevelt , who had allegedly been manipulated by the Comintern . The essay also argues that the war brought prosperity to occupied China , Taiwan and Korea , that " it is often those who never directly saw the Japanese military who are spreading rumors about the army ' s act of brutality " , that the Greater East Asia War is viewed in a positive way by many Asian countries and criticizes the war crimes trials which followed the war . Following the essay ' s publication , Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada removed Tamogami from the post and ordered him to retire , since its viewpoint contradicted the government position and was likely to anger Japan ' s regional neighbors . Tamogami , on November 3 , 2008 confirmed that the essay accurately expressed his views on the war and Japan ' s role in it . He had already written a similar essay in May 2007 for an ASDF internal publication . On 13 November , prime minister Tarō Asō said Tamogami decision ' s to write this essay was " extremely inappropriate " and the government was wrong in having overlooked Tamogami ' s views for many years . The essay which led to Tamogami ' s dismissal had been solicited for a writing contest organized and sponsored by his friend , prominent businessman and nationalist Toshio Motoya , under the theme " True Interpretation of Modern History . " Motoya and the other judges , including Shoichi Watabe , an honorary professor at Sophia University , awarded Tamogami the competition ' s ¥3 million first prize . The piece later appeared in a book published by Motoya , " The Shocking Truth About Modern History , " which also featured other essays entered in the competition . Other outspoken remarks . Tamogami had long been a controversial figure , gaining attention in the press for a number of outspoken remarks . On the occasion of an unsuccessful civil case brought against the government for sending troops to Iraq , he remarked that he felt some of the activities of the Japan Air Self - Defense Force were against Japan ' s peace constitution , causing the litigants to claim a moral victory . On 14 July 2004 , when questioned further about this supposed ' unconstitutionality ' of the Air Self - Defense Force , he said his opinion should not distress its members since ( quoting the catch phrase of Yoshio Kojima , a popular comedian ) " what does that matter ? " At a semi - political meeting on the 15 September 2004 , he said that he felt that it would probably be necessary for Japan to develop nuclear arms in order to be seen as an independent nation by China , and that promising never to develop nuclear arms is " foolish . " After the furor created by his essay and dismissal , he was asked by a British journalist on 1 December 2008 whether he would have used nuclear arms against America in 1945 ; he responded he " might have considered using nuclear weapons against the United States had he been a general for a nuclear - capable Japan in 1945 , especially if it was a case of nuking in response to the threat of American nuclear weapons . " Tamogami claims that other members of the Japanese government and military share his views . Involvement with Japanese nationalist groups . Since retiring from the Air Self - Defense Force , General Tamogami has become involved with the Japanese nationalist groups , heading Ganbare Nippon since its founding in February 2010 . He had organized a rally to protest the Senkaku Islands incident where a Chinese fishing trawler collided with two Japanese Coast Guard patrol boats . At the anti - China rally , he said : " Senkaku Islands is Japan ' s traditional territory , if we don ' t protect it , China will make action to take it . " In August 2012 , he helped lead a group of Japanese activists to the Senkaku Islands to protest a landing on the islands days earlier by Chinese activists . Humour . Tamogami is known for making jokes , particularly about his own diminutive stature . When criticized for his outspoken remarks he countered that " he did not lack loftiness ( ) of speech , only of height ( ) , " and when commenting on defense spending cuts , he said of his own appointment " The slimming down of the self defense forces has begun , with the appointment of a more compact Chief of Staff . " When criticized for accepting severance pay after the scandal caused by his essay , he quipped " Well , at last my wife and children are giving me hot food again . "