Tojo wanted to keep fighting

Kyt · Aug 12, 2008

AdelaideNow... Tojo wanted to keep fighting, diary shows

HIDEKI Tojo, Japan's prime minister for much of World War II, wanted to keep fighting after the atomic bombings because he believed surrender was a disgrace, according to journal entries published today.

Tojo, an army general, ordered the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor that brought the US into World War II but was forced out as premier in 1944 as the tide of the conflict turned.

He was hanged as a war criminal in 1948 by orders of an allied court.

In the run-up to Friday's anniversary of Japan's surrender, the Nikkei newspaper said it had discovered Tojo's diaries from the last days of the war.

"Without fully employing its abilities even at the final moment, the imperial nation is surrendering before the enemies' propaganda," Tojo wrote, as quoted by the newspaper.

"I never imagined the torpor of the nation's leaders and people," he wrote.

Tojo said Japan was surrendering because it was afraid of more atomic bombings and of the Soviet Union entering the Pacific front.

But Tojo warned Japan "will come off as a complete loser by accepting unconditional surrender, even if it makes a few demands".

"The purpose of the Greater East Asia War is to achieve a stable East Asia for the survival and defence of the nation," he wrote.

"The sacrifice of so many people who died in the war would go unrequited if this purpose remains unfulfilled."

The US destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the world's only atomic attacks on August 6 and 9, killing more than 210,000 people.

Japan afterwards accepted the Potsdam Declaration, in which the US, Britain and China demanded the country surrender unconditionally or face "prompt and utter destruction".

Tojo said he kept silent in public so as not to "disturb the holy statement" by Emperor Hirohito, who spoke in public for the first time on August 15, 1945 to announce surrender.

Tojo tried unsuccessfully to commit suicide before being arrested by US forces.

Tojo remains a highly controversial figure in Japan. His granddaughter, Yuko Tojo, has unsuccessfully run for parliament in a bid to rehabilitate both the late prime minister's name and Japan's war record.
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Tojo wanted to keep fighting

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