Hideki Tojo -The Face of Japanese Militarism in WWII

today's video is brought to you by nordvpn more on them in a bit Allied propaganda posters during World War II frequently featured the characters of the three axis leaders the German one with the mustache the big jawed Italian and the stern bespect called Japanese General the association was intended to portray the latter as the Japanese equivalent of the other two totalitarian leaders in reality prime minister war minister and army Chief of Staff Hideki Tojo was never an absolute ruler even though he concentrated considerable political and military power into his hands he was never a dictatoric into the fuhr or the duche his authority was always subordinate to Emperor hirohitos and it was frequently undermined by political opponents nonetheless his responsibility in initiating the second sino-japanese war an extending World War II to the Pacific Theater is unquestionable as head of both the Japanese government and the Japanese military he would ultimately be accountable for the brutal treatment of civilians and prisoners of War but before we get to the end of tojo's story let us explore his rise to the top thank you Hideki Tojo was born on December 30 1884 in the oate prefecture Honshu Japan he was the third Son Of hiddenori An Imperial Army officer and jitose tokenago daughter of a Buddhist priest hideki's two older brothers died at a young age making him the eldest son the family as such he grew up rather spoiled by his parents but he endured strict discipline at school by his own emission he was never a particularly gifted student but he compensated for his lack of talents with sheer determination this attitude to schoolwork provided him with an excellent memory for detail and almost manic Obsession for procedure and discipline which would serve him well in later life after finishing school Hideki joined the military Academy graduating in 1905 as a second lieutenant in the Cavalry the russia-japanese war had just concluded with the victory for Japan Hideki who was commissioned too late to join in the fight his father hiddenori had served with the rank of General but was repatriated with the case of beriberia severe deficiency of vitamin B1 this disease was indicative of the poor diet of Japanese soldiers and a reflection of the poor Logistics of Tokyo's military an obsession with securing resources would impact tojo's later decisions in 1909 Hideki married his fiancee Ito katsu a rather Progressive move on his part Ito was a college student unusual for Japanese women at the time and the marriage had not been arranged by their parents the couple was apparently a happy one and they eventually had seven children young officer Tojo furthered his military education by attending the Army staff College graduating in 1915. three years later Toto sir briefly in Siberia without seeing any combat this operation always part of the anti-bolshevik Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War an experience that developed tojo's anti-communist positions in fact he identified Russia and later the Soviet Union as Japan's main antagonist in East Asia after his Tour of Duty in Siberia Tojo traveled to Germany as a military attache in 1919. while there he was strongly impressed by the concept of Total War espoused by General Eric ludendorff to oversimplify this approach involved converting industrial and agricultural sectors to full-scale military production in times of war on his long way back to Japan Tojo crossed the United States by train in 1992. the Fanboy of industrial production he should have been impressed by the potential of the US in this department and yet tojo's impression of America was of a rich yet decadent country ill-suited for a total war effort and his dislike of the U.S was heightened in May 1924 when the American Congress passed the Johnson Reed act which severely restricted immigration from Asian countries in the following years Tojo dedicated all of his time to administrative work within the Army barely seeing his children his pen always truly mightier than his sword it seems and in 1928 he received a promotion to Colonel and an appointment as bureau chief of the army it was in this position that he received the nickname kamasori or the razor a nod to his ruthless bureaucratic efficiency while in this capacity the Razer networked with young officers and in May 1929 they created a study group called the one evening Society its members sought to modernize the Japanese military according to the German model of Total War they antagonized the descendants of ultra-conservative noble families who traditionally had disproportionate influence over the Army staff these traditionalist groups in the early 1930s merged into the Imperial Way faction or kodoha they promoted worship of the Emperor Hirohito despised the involvement of economy and Industry and warfare emphasized fighting Spirit above all and advocated for the Army to overthrow the civilian government Tojo and his one evening friends instead supported the opposing control faction or to see her they were also staunchly loyal to the emperor yet they argued that the military had to cooperate with civilian institutions as well as the economic and Industrial Elites an inevitable confrontation began Brewing Colonel Tojo continued his steady rise within the Army ranks heading the military investigation department within the ministry of war in 1933. the following year he received a promotion to Major General and an appointment as commandant of the military academy in March of 1934 the other diligent and Studio Dojo authored an essay in which he fused the Notions of fighting Spirit Away the concept of Total War in this piece he argued that the Japanese had Superior willpower compared to their potential enemies especially the Soviet Union the United States Britain and France this Superior willpower should have been applied to all aspects of society the economic political and Military sectors had to work in cooperation to secure future victories the only way to ensure such coordination was through a monolithic near totalitarian state so far Tojo had written a lot about war without ever fighting in one he soon though would have a taste of a more operational command when in September of 1935 it was appointed head of the campaign tie in manchuco you see the Japanese empire had occupied areas of Manchuria northeastern China since the russia-japanese war during the 1920s a government-backed corporation developed the South Manchuria Railway in the region on September the 18th 1931 a tract of the Railway was blown up ostensibly by Chinese troops but the incident was a false flag attack designed to justify a Japanese Occupation of Manchuria on March 1 1932 the occupied area became the puppet state of manchukwo manchukwo always governed o with an iron fist by the kwatung Army a large Detachment of the Imperial Japanese Army which over time became almost independent from Tokyo the Imperial Army included a unit called campetai present also in manchuco sometimes described as the Japanese gestapo the campetai was a military police under tojo's Direction the mantuquo campetai became the efficient arm of a police state which he would put to good use in February 1936. on the 2nd of that month the Rivalry between the Imperial where in the control factions within the Army came to a head when a group of Imperial Way young officers tried to overthrow the government the minister of War General Iraqi feared that the Mutiny could extend the quantum Ali and ordered its Chief of Staff General edagi to take preemptive measures aditigaki set his razor to work Tojo was opposed to the Imperial way but on a personal level he was friends with one of the coup's leaders Colonel Nagata that he confessed privately to his wife that he was moved by the tragedy of the rebels whose Act was doomed to fail nonetheless Toto obeyed the superior's orders and unleashed the campaitai identifying and arresting any officer suspected of being in cahoots with the coup the February Mutiny was utterly crushed both in Japan and manchukwo and tojo's Swift action had impressed his superiors back in Tokyo in January 1937 he received a further promotion to a lieutenant general and in March he replaced his old boss sit to garki as Chief of Staff of the quantum Army General Tojo had designs of his own now that he led a large Force bordering the feared and hated Soviet Union in June 1937 the Soviets had occupied the kanchatsu island on the river Amur marking the border with manchukwo Tojo immediately ordered one division to retake control of the disputed Island this was a hostile act against a bordering foreign power and completely unsanctioned by the government by the way in fact the Army general staff not only didn't approve they overruled tojo's orders but the Razer was not done with clamoring for war with a cooler head he reasoned that a war with the Soviet Union would have been unsustainable with a hostile China south of manchukwo on June 9 1937 Tojo dispatched to telegram to the war Ministry erasing the alarm about the build-up of forces under Chinese nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek he advised urgent action to be taken before the Chinese became too strong less than a month later on July the 7th sino-japanese tensions erupted at Nicole Chao or Marco Polo Bridge in this incident Japanese and Chinese units engaged in separate military exercises and ended up firing at each other this single firefight quickly spiraled into a full invasion of mainland China the second sino-japanese war had thus begun General Tojo had a chance to test his battle skills at last in August of 1937 he commanded an expeditionary force of 150 000 Japanese Mongolian Manchurian troops into the chaha province of inner Mongolia operation jihar was a large enveloping movement designed to outflank Chinese troops in peaking modern-day Beijing Dojo deployed three mechanized brigades but dispersed his tanks in an infantry support role one of his subordinates General Sakai argued that armor was more effective in Mast concentrated attacks he was right but Tojo could not accept critics and had Sakai sacked in any case Chinese troops in the area had no tanks whatsoever and Tojo was able to achieve Victory after all on August 27th his forces conquered the city of calgar modern day Zhang Jia Cole with the inner Mongolia region under Japanese control and a victory under his belt Tojo planned his next ambitious move staging a border incident with the Soviets to spark a war with Stalin let's be honest about passwords look either you or someone you know is using that same password for Netflix bank account Instagram and half a dozen a dozen two dozen maybe other things yes it happens and it's even got a name it's called credential stuffing and it's the number one way that account hacking takes place these days One login gets leaked onto the dark web and suddenly everything is compromised yes there are a lot of Bad actors out 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deal at a huge discount plus four free months on top of that as a bonus or just follow the link in the description box below and now today's video foreign [Music] did take place in July and August 1938 at lake kalasan and a pretty serious one of that 1 300 troops died on both sides and a furious Hirohito intervened to stop the madness but Tojo was not around at that time in May 1938 his old boss General itagaki had become minister of war in the cabinet of prime minister Kano and titagaki needed a trusted Vice minister so was good old Razer interested in the position and of course he was but this time Dojo was not content with pushing pencils on behalf of his boss and he sought more visibility in November he addressed a conference of industrialists with a rousing nationalistic speech his rhetoric attacked the Chinese the British the Americans and especially the Soviets he predicted that they would soon be at war with Japan Tojo warned his audience to prioritize War preparations over civilian production in the near future the speech made it to the papers at home and abroad leading to a drop in the Tokyo Stock Exchange the Japanese Parliament questioned the war and prime ministers about this faux pas prime minister was embarrassed by the Halt barkle and ensured that Tokyo Could Do no harm the general was reassigned to a non-political job in December 1938 as Inspector General of the Army Aviation Tojo held their position until July 1940 when the then current cabinet led by prime minister yanai always dissolved conno resumed power and oh when appointing his new cabinet he chose Hideki Dojo as war minister and this may seem counter-intuitive given the history but the truth is that both men had much in common they both worshiped the emperor and both advocated for Japan to take a leading role in East Asia by creating a greater East Asia co-prosperity sphere but unlike Dojo Kono had no plans to expand the conflict to other powers in the region and he hoped to find a peaceful settlement of the second sino-japanese war but these plans would be foiled by Tojo and foreign minister matsulka Toto intended the war to continue against China until total Victory and the major obstacle to this goal was the Embargo on vital resources especially crude oil enacted by the United States Tojo and matsoka their before pressure of the cabinet into forming an alliance with Nazi Germany and fascist Italy The tripartite Pact of September 1940 which was intended by Tojo as a guarantee against potential American aggression relations with Washington deteriorated further when Japanese troops moved into Indochina to cut off the Chinese army supply lines in cooperation with the British and the Dutch government the U.S froze Japanese assets abroad establishing an economic blockade cono and Emperor Hirohito considered re-establishing friendly relations with Western Powers but Tojo maintained his hard line according to him the only way to secure success in China and strengthen Japan for the eventual inevitable confrontation with the Soviet Union was to strike first against America and not only against the U.S Europe had been at War since September 1939 Germany and Italy's aggression had weakened the military presence of Britain France and the Netherlands and Southeast Asia as stated by Tojo in his own diary the time was ripe to conquer their colonial Holdings seizing their Bountiful oil at Food reserves Kono tried to persuade Dojo to seek diplomatic solution but facing continuous and transients that prime minister resigned in October 1941 and yet another counter-intuitive move Hirohito and his advisors appointed General Tojo as the new head of the government they hoped that tojo's Devotion to the emperor would eventually cause him to stop the saber rattling but they had underestimated the razor's determination the new prime minister maintained his earlier brief as war minister and appointed himself as home minister too this move ensured he could quell any internal unrest stemming from a decision to go to war craftily the sold the move as amines to quell on rest should Japan not go to war later he would accumulate job titles minister of Education minister of Commerce and Industry and Minister of Foreign Affairs in other words Dojo aims to concentrate all aspects related to indoctrination propaganda and the conduct of the war into his hands on November 17 1941 Tojo dropped any pretense of seeking diplomatic terms with the United States in a speech to Parliament he warned any third power for example America from interfering in the sino-japanese war meanwhile the Army and Navy Chiefs of Staff had been drafting plans for simultaneous attacks against U.S bases in Pearl Harbor the Philippines Wake Island and Guam British possessions in malar Singapore and Hong Kong would also be targeted the aim was to extend Japanese defense lines well beyond their home islands and mantrico and to seize natural resources Within These new borders in achieving these goals through a lightning fast Victory Tojo also hoped that Western Powers would immediately capitulate the decision to launch these attacks was taken at the Imperial conference on December the 1st and then came December the 7th the day that will live in infamy shortly before Japan's fighter bombers mauled the U.S Pacific flee to Pearl Harbor Toto wrote this entry in his diary December the 7th Sunday Sunny 1100 hours consultation with Emperor discussion of the secretary of the cabinet hoshino and Kido Lord Keeper of the privy seal about commencement of hostilities against U.S Britain and Holland tojo's plans succeeded spectacularly and Japan's sudden expansion made him immensely popular with the Japanese people he did not shy away however from admitting that the war in the Pacific would be long and hard in a speech on January 21 1942 he admitted that quote the present war will become a prolonged one in order to fulfill the purpose of the war the whole nation must persevere in whatever difficulties and tribulations with a firm conviction of ultimate victory the Prime Minister had Consolidated considerable power in his hands but he was still bound to the rules of the Imperial Constitution this meant that he needed full support of the parliament to sustain the war effort now in theory all political parties had been merged into an organization called Imperial rule assistance association iraa the aim was to create unity in the Japanese political Spectrum in times of War but the iraa I was never equivalent to a monolithic or powerful party like the Nazi or fascist parties in fact the majority of seats the Japanese Parliament were held by members of parliament not affiliated to the iraa Parliamentary elections were expected on April the 30th 1942 and Tojo knew that he had to swing parliament's majority into the iraa fold to do so he invested more than 2 million yen in bribes and newspapers and politicians garnering support for iraa candidates his efforts were compounded by the shock of April the 18th Doolittle Raid this was a daring American bombing raid over token which proved that the U.S had the will and resources to strike back it also had the unexpected effect of stealing the Japanese people's resolve to continue fighting and thus support tojo's military policies as a result 381 of tojo's pet candidates entered the darts securing a solid majority for the iraa the Doolittle Raid had also another unfortunate consequence most of the pilots who took part in the action crash landed in China and were helped by civilians tojo's military Unleashed a retaliatory campaign torturing and murdering 250 000 Chinese civilians despite his electoral Victory Tojo found himself at odds with other members of the political Elite for example following the Battle of Midway from June the 4th to the 7th 1942 he was challenged by foreign minister Togo in our battle the Japanese Navy had been bested by its American counterpart losing eight vessels and 248 planes toga pointed out that the razor quote was guilty of flagrant non-feasons in carrying out urgently needed moves for increasing fighting Power the Togo Dojo Feud reached its climax in November 1942 when the prime minister created the greater Asian Ministry snatching the administration of occupied territories off of the hands of foreign Ministry Togo argued that this move would divide Japan's strategy in foreign affairs and challenge Tojo to resign a cabinet crisis loomed and Hirohito intervened by asking Togo shigenori to resign instead before a Ministry fell into the grasp of Mr Razer the next rival in line was the Army Chief of Staff General tsugiyama who criticized hojo's Grand strategy for the war in the Pacific Dojo secured the support from the Navy and excluded Tsui armor from his next plans formalized at an imperial conference on December 31 1942. on that occasion Tojo ordered the military to abandon the defensive positions of Guadalcanal and Buna and launch an offensive against Port morrisby Papua New Guinea both decisions proved to be a mistake the former encouraged the U.S tragedy of island-hopping or Progressive encroaching towards the Japanese home Island the latter met with defeat against an Australian counter-offensive Tojo blamed these serpax on his lack of total Authority military political colleagues argued against giving him free pointing out that Germany's setbacks were due to Hitler's micromanagement of all things military Dojo replied to this Fury Hitler was an enlisted man I am a general but they had a point concentration of power does not yield good results in times of War those protests fell on deaf ears and Tojo continued to hog Ministry and high-ranking positions in April 1943 became minister of Education in November minister of Munitions in February 1944 Tojo appointed himself Army Chief of Staff an open violation of the Constitution what was worse by absorbing all key positions Tojo was left without scapegoats to blame for losing the war the turning point was the fall of the Pacific island of Saipan on July the 9th 1944 a disastrous defeat the duchin a privy Council of Elder Statesman advised Hirohito to remove Tojo from power and the emperor delivered Tojo was forced to resign and retire from the Army on July the 20th had he not resigned an Army Major sonoda was ready to assassinate him with the potassium cyanide bomb it was customary for former Prime Ministers to immediately join the Jew Shin but Hirohito did not invite Tojo until February 1945 which may have been a calculated slide even after joining the privy Council it was clear that the Razer had lost his slashing power following the fall of yet another prime minister in April 1945 Tojo put forward a candidate friendly to the Army but his plans were quashed by the intervention of Navy Admiral okada he was less amenable to a continuation of the war at any cost a war that despite Japan's strenuous resistance was orbit lost the Allies had retaken almost all of their territories China's forces were on the rise Hiroshima and Nagasaki suffered the first ever atomic bombings in history and if that wasn't enough August the 9th tojo's Nemesis the Soviet Union finally invaded Manchuria in force in an unprecedented act on August 15 1945 Emperor Hirohito spoke on the radio announcing Japan surrender on September the 2nd as the Allies began the occupation of Japan Dojo retreated to his private home conscious he would soon be arrested for his involvement in war crimes the former General can considered committing suicide for some time but was dissuaded by the new war minister shimamura shimamura advised surgery to postpone his deed until he had taken responsibility for starting the war thus sparing the emperor from going to trial but on September 11 1945 as occupation authorities and journalists gathered outside of time Dojo decided to act he asked a doctor to Mark the location of his heart with ink and then he fired a shot with his service pistol the bullet barely missed the heart and American Military doctors managed to save his life he would go on trial as a class a defendant in front of the international Military Tribunal for the Far East for war crimes proceedings began on May the 3rd 1946 with questioning conducted by Chief prosecutor Joseph Keenan International observers remarked how Tojo depended himself with dignity initially asserting that Japan was innocent of aggression as War had been forced upon its people as the trial continued Tojo gradually admitted responsibility for ordering the December 1941 attacks claiming that the emperor was blameless he initially rejected charges of Cruelty against prisoners War claiming that they endured the same hardships the average Japanese soldier but in this case he eventually admitted responsibility this was another move to protect the emperor from prosecution the trial ended on November 11 1948 with a conviction for crimes against peace crimes against humanity and war crimes the sentence death by hanging to be carried out on December the 23rd American Occupational authorities kept his Pace a burial of well-guarded Secret for decades wary that it may become a rallying point for Japanese ultra nationalists only in June 2021 was it revealed that tojo's remains had been cremated and his ashes scattered over the Pacific Ocean

Channel: Biographics

Views: 253,666

Keywords: biographics, biography, biographies, people, famous people, simon whistler, hideki tojo, jpana wartime prime minister hideki tojo, history, timeline, timeline channel, documentary movies - topic, tokyo, timeline world history, tojo's remains, second world war, yokohama, history documentary, world war ii, timeline world history documentaries, documentaries, documentary history

Id: ecRuPE-PzVE

Length: 23min 35sec (1415 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 23 2023