✖there were numerous reports of Japanese troops conducting raids on Chinese villages in the area 〇 there were numerous reports of Chinese bandits conducting raids on Japanese villages in the area
Don't make me laugh lol ✖Japanese however now sought to Annex China themselves 〇 Chinese Communist Party however now sought to Drag Japan into fighting with Chiang Kai-shek
"over the coming hours tensions between the two armies escalated" because of the gunfire by a leading member of the Chinese Communist Party, who later became the president of CCP. Despite repeated efforts of the Japanese Army there to stop fighting, promises to cease fire were broken every time by Chinese troops. That is how the war started.
✖ in which hundreds of civilians including women children and even babies were butchered 〇 in which hundreds of civilians including women children and even babies were protected and supplied with rice and medical care for free by the Japanese Army there That is what really happened in December in 1937 in Nanjing. I am telling the truth.
Tojo was not a politician, but a soldier. A soldier's mission purpose has always been to defend his country at literally ALL costs. Combine this with the Bushido code & the strictness of Tojo's upbringing, & you get a military Frankenstein monster who is supremely patriotic who puts honor & country above all, including his own people, whom he sees as having the sole raison d'etre of serving the emperor. Thank you ever so much for producing & showing this video. I learned a GREAT deal from it. joeinbuenosaires 😎
The prosecution lawyers at Tojo's trial literally coached Tojo to withdraw incriminating testimony against his master so that MacArthur could use his master to govern post war Japan without too much controversy. Tojo was going to be hanged anyway. So he agreed and loyally performed this one last act in serving his master.
all leaders were ruthless and cruel in their own way during ww2. wasnt a time for soft men leading countries. most faced decisions that would shatter leaders today should i nuke a city of civilians or risk the deaths of potentially millions of my own men etc or do i divert food from one place to feed the troops in other places. it was all done by cold hard caculation without the benefits of hindsight like we have today looking back. if there is a hell, theyre all in it.
I don't think Tojo is forgotten by anyone who has a scintilla of interest in the 20th century. Unlike Germany, Japan has institutionally glossed over its behavior in the 1930s and 1940s, including the acts of Tojo
Historical fact : Tojo saved many Jews from the Nazis. The Otopole Incident Higuchi as head of the Harbin Special Service Agency (Photo taken in 1937) On December 26, 1937, when the first Far Eastern Jewish Congress was held, the Army dispatched Army Colonel Senhiro Yasue, a "Jewish expert," Higuchi (then Army Major General), who was serving as Director of the Harbin Army Special Service Agency at the time, and others to the Congress, which was scheduled for three days with the approval of the Kwantung Army. At the meeting, Higuchi delivered a congratulatory speech in which he indirectly and vehemently criticized the anti-Semitic policies of Germany under the Nazi regime, an ally with which Japan had just concluded the German-Japanese Anti-Comintern Pact the previous year, by saying "Before expelling the Jews, give them land," which drew applause from the Jews in attendance[4]. Under these circumstances, in March 1938, 18 Jews fled to Otpor (now Zabaykalsk Station) on the Trans-Siberian Railway along the Soviet-Manchuku border to escape persecution in Germany. However, they were held back by the Manchukuo diplomatic mission, which they had to pass through in order to reach the U.S. concession in Shanghai, where they were given asylum, because they were reluctant to be allowed to enter. Higuchi, who was consulted by Dr. Abraham Kaufman, the head of the Far Eastern Jewish Association, could not see their plight, and together with his immediate subordinate, Major Aizo Kawamura, and others, immediately distributed food, clothing, and fuel to the Jews, and provided medical treatment to those in need of treatment. In addition, they mediated the departure of Jews from Japan, which was in a stalemate, and made arrangements for settlements in Manchuria and transfers to the Shanghai concession. Although Japan was an ally of Germany, which had signed the Japan-Germany Anti-Comintern Pact, Higuchi went directly to Yosuke Matsuoka, then president of the South Manchuria Railway (Manchuria Railway), to obtain his approval and allowed him to escape to Shanghai on a special Manchuria Railway train [5]. According to the records of the Toa Travel Agency (now Nippon Kotsu Kosha), the number of people who entered Manchuria from Germany via Manchuria increased from 245 in 1938 alone to 551 in 1939 and 3.574 in 1940[5], In 1940, the number had increased to 3, 574 [6]. However, according to Takashi Hayasaka, there is no record for 1941, and although it is thought that a not small percentage of the numbers include Jews, the percentage is unknown and it is unclear whether the cumulative total reached 20,000 [6]. Shigematsu Matsui, then head of the information desk, wrote in his recollection, "Once a week, every time a train arrived, 20 or 30 Jews would rush to the station, and the four staff members could not handle it all. Another witness, Tatsuto Shojima, who was President Matsuoka's secretary, stated that after the first 18 (March 8, 1938), 5 or 10 Jewish refugees arrived every week, saving a total of about 50 people during March and April [8]. 8] However, perhaps out of diplomatic concern for Germany, there is no official documentation of the specific number of refugees who arrived in large numbers. [Independent research?] The sixth "Book of Honor" extant at the Keren Kayemeth Lelsrael Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF) headquarters, written in 1941, describes the achievement as "General Higuchi - Tokyo, Far East National Jewish Consul General in Harbin - inscribed by Abraham Kaufmann." [9]. The total number of Jews saved by the "Higuchi Route" was estimated to have been possibly up to 20,000-30,000 [Note 1][Note 2]; the official opinion of Foreign Minister Hachiro Arita at the time in 1939 put the number at "just over 80."[11] While it was reported that 20,000 Jewish refugees were saved, Nitoaki Shiraishi questions the very existence of the incident because of the sheer number[12]. Hiroshi Matsuura states that this figure of 20,000 was spread due to typographical errors in the publication of Higuchi's memoirs [13]. Takashi Hayasaka points out that Higuchi's own manuscript states that "thousands of them [Jews] crowded into the otporu west of the Manzhouli station and wished to enter Manchuria," but the figure in the Fuyoshobo edition of his memoirs changes to "20,000," which has caused confusion in verifying the actual number of refugees. Hayasaka also points out that the above figure was changed to "20,000" in Fuyo's "Memoirs. Hayasaka believes that many of the above-mentioned Toa Travel Agency records may have been Jewish, and estimates the number to be several thousand [15]. Hiroshi Matsuura confirms the estimate of 100-200 people [16], which was assigned based on the composition of the Hamashu Line trains at the time and the testimonies of the crew [13][13]. The Manchurian Railway Association estimates that the number of people in the strict sense who were unable to obtain visas was about 100[17]. Higuchi's commitment to Jewish rescue is said to have been triggered by an incident during his travels in Georgia. When he was a military officer stationed in Poland, he stopped at a poor village in the suburbs of Tiflis during his trip to the Caucasus region, and an old man stopped him by chance. He tearfully appealed to Higuchi about the fact that Jews are persecuted all over the world and that the Japanese emperor must be the savior who can save Jews in their time of sorrow, and prayed for him. Higuchi recalls that when he received a report of Jewish refugees who had reached Otpor, the incident flashed through his mind [18]. The incident became a major diplomatic issue between Japan and Germany, and a letter of protest was received from then German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop[19]. Criticism of Higuchi also increased within the Army, and there were calls within the Kwantung Army for Higuchi to be punished[19]. In the midst of this situation, Higuchi sent a letter to then General Kenkichi Ueda, Commander of the Kanto Army, stating his views, and when he appeared at headquarters and met with then Lieutenant General Hideki Tojo, Chief of Staff of the Kanto Army, he is said to have said, "Do you think it is right to torment the weak by taking Hitler's lead? Hideki Tojo, who understood these words, decided not to question Higuchi [21]. Tojo's decision, and that of Commander Ueda, who also supported the decision, led to a decline in demands for Higuchi's punishment from within the Kwantung Army[22], and Tojo brushed off repeated protests from Germany, saying that he had done so out of natural humanitarian considerations[23]. His grandson Ryuichi Higuchi (professor emeritus at Meiji Gakuin University) received a letter on June 15, 2018 at the Tel Aviv Keren Kayemeth Lelsrael Jewish National Fund headquarters in Israel from the son of Carl Friedman, a survivor who escaped on the "Higuchi Route," saying "Kiichiro's Jewish Kiichiro's positive attitude toward the Jewish community made the rescue possible. Incidentally, the "Golden Book" often referred to in connection with Higuchi is a list of contributors and donors maintained by the Keren Kayemeth Lelsrael Jewish National Fund, an organization whose main activities in Palestine include land purchase, tree planting, and the establishment of the borders of the State of Israel. The Golden Book is a list of contributors and donors[25][26][27].
Please note: Higuchi was not Hideki Tojo. HT condoned this, and that is all. However if HT would have decided otherwise , probably nothing would have been done for the Jewish refugees back then.
Even if Hideki Tojo acquiesced to the rescue of Jews, the unprecedented genocide in human history against the Republic of China, Southeast Asia and allied prisoners of war at that ti will not disappear. The Empire of Japan was the worst empire that was more inhumane and ugly than Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
meanwhile, japan slaughtered more ppl than the 3rd reich. and glorified their brutality. proven by what atrocities the committed in nanking, despite knowing international representatives were watching them from the exclusion zone, established by a german industrialist john rabe , who saved a lot of ppl from the japanese monsters. it's not an easy thing, but tojo managed to be an even bigger mass murder monster than hitler and stalin. only tied by mao. (who was indirectly responsible that japan could go on so long in china)
Amazing documentary!! You do a wonderful job here covering historic topics like this. Thank you for your hard work in bringing important history to more people.
The only thing I will give Tojo respect for is that he took responsibility for the atrocities committed by the Japanese military. That's more than many Nazis did.
He died in defense of his Emperor, just somewhat later than many other Nipponese soldiers. He is where-ever the other Shintoist samurai are... Strong dislike for his war crimes, but great respect for a soldier.
@@garykubodera9528 Good point. However, we should also consider the Japanese war crimes committed in Malaysia and Singapore in 1942. The perpetrators of those atrocities were troops under Yamashita's overall command. The Alexandra Hospital Massacre is one example that comes to mind.
@@NobleKorhedron yes really. mccarth was no saint and had an ego and made mistakes and cost lives also. He island hopped to take back the Philippines when there was no strategic reason to. Look at the big picture of what he did. He was not perfect
Japan during WW2 was more of a military junta. Kind of like a modernized version of the shogunate with international boundaries which is why Tojo wasn’t considered a dictator despite Japan’s dictatorial style government. That being said, Hideki Tojo was, at best, an enabler of Japanese Fascism and imperialism, and at worst, a perpetrator of it
The idea that Japan was forced to take action against the Allies only holds water IF you argue that Japan had to right to invade China, occupy Manchuria and abuse the Chinese population. Consideration especially to the US must be given in that they offered to normalize trade if Japan withdrew from occupied territories, an idea that Tojo and the Japanese military simply couldn't fathom. Just as it is today, trade with other nations is a much better path to influence than war mongering. An idea that to this day is a foreign concept to Russia which has never given up their path to World influence through threats, bullying and instigating land wars. As to the claim of a US empire in the Pacific, it should be noted that in the 1930's the US and the Philippines had begone negotiations for Philippine independence and the withdrawal of US forces.
Atough you are correct in what you say, your defense of the USA is almost propagandistic. USA doesnt bother about invading, from Iraq to Afghanistan, to Syria or a couple North African nations... You again state the correct but fail to see that your country does the same. Simply no one is in position of doing to the USA what the USA did to Japan. But at least the USA is much less brutal so, lesser of 2 evils?
@@yia01 What about Churchill? Who should be held accountable for the death of over 3 Million Indian Civilians who were deprived of food by the policies of Churchill in a man made famine also known as the Bengal Famine (1943 - 1944 ) ?
@@torpenhigalak5909 Western narratives of the lives of those who opposed the European colonial empires and fought to liberate Asia and Africa are highly biased and lack credibility. The failure of the Western countries despite their high profile rhetoric on Human Rights to recognize the legitimacy of the freedom fight in both Asia and Africa to liberate the natives and their land speaks volumes of double standards and hypocrisy.
Masterful job of concisely organizing massive amounts of information to give an understanding of the many converging events that led to this horrible conflict. THANK YOU!!!!!
This explanation of the Meiji government at the beginning of this video is superb. Very concise, but transmit the mess that was the Meiji Constitution. They completely separated all the powers and put them only under the Emperor, and then the emperor become a figurehead. It was certain disaster since the beginning. But I guess that's what happen when you try to modernize a State in such a short period of time.
The question at the end left me perplexed. Why not both? People have a habit of thinking in This/That and good/bad perceptions of each other. Humans are paradoxes. We are horrible and we are beautiful. He was a servant of Japan, his home and his love, but he was also cruel and rigid.
The Treaty of Portsmouth was signed in New Hampshire. Portsmouth is not in the state of Maine. However Bath Iron Works is in Maine and that is the shipyard mentioned.
Thank you for an enlightening narrative of the historical context in which Japan became an empire and bred the likes of Tojo. In any narrative, there's always a tension of striking a delicate balance between how the past (history) shapes the present (to the extent of allowing the present and future to be held hostage to the past) and the present generation of key decision makers (like Hideki Tojo) who had the power to break Japan free of its past (however partial) to keep their nation on the way of peace; not warrior. On one hand, Tojo was a product of the Samurai / Bushido system and culture that militarized Japan and stoked the fires of ultra-nationalism. On the other hand, Tojo and his contemporaries (Emperor Hirohito) and his predecessors (Emperor Meiji, Baron Giichi Tanaka and Japanese constitutional writers) had several opportunities in their power to steer Japan away from militarism and towards peaceful democratic development. But they missed time and again. One can always attribute the unique history, context, culture and circumstances of each nation to breeding the likes of Hitler and Tojo to spark off a world war. But there also seems to be a common pattern: Stoking the fires of ultra-nationalism and militarism, while serving as a good servant in uniting the nation that ultimately legitimizes the regime in governance, can become a terrible master in drowning out voices of reason, reservation and moderation against war. Furthermore, lurking behind historical grievances as an ultimately self-serving way to justify war, lie unlimited ambition, lust for power and nationalistic pride, feeding on one another in a dynamic that fuel the regional security dilemma that edge / spiral nations closer to war. This dynamic is still present and growing today. This time, uncontrolled war can multiply deaths by nuclear destruction. When will the fallen human nature really learn from history?
the true learning from history is that this will never be overcome. and ppl who think they can be peaceful by demilitarizing will just get conquered by the one who doesn't (look at how it went for ukraine after giving up their nukes to russia..... and israel/jews would all be dead without desperate militarization, facing wars of annihilation since 1948 on a regular basis) there is some hope. i think no countries had as many wars among them as denmark vs sweden. they are good neighbors nowadays.
I gotta give respect for Tojo for taking full responsibility unlike the Germans who tried to erase every bit of their war crimes. Even Albert Speer the so called good German tried to wash his hands of being the largest slave owner in modern history.
In regards to your question on Tojo's legacy. From where I sit. From time stamp 1:00:23 onward. All of the above actually. The civilian lives lost on Saipan,if my understanding of history came about because the population was brainwashed by the military as to the U.S forces treatment of those they capture. The Japanese treatment of conquered peoples, prisoners of war , are IMHO tied into his philosophy for life. There is IMHO No "One size fits all " answer to that question.
It was so touching he apologized and took responsibility for all the atrocities his men committed and pleaded for his countrymen be spared from condemnation. He wasn't innately an evil man but just a hard-headed career soldier molded by a brutal cultural code
The fact we let the emperor off the hook in no way makes tojo less guilty. We showed Japan more compassion then they deserved. We put those sanctions on Japan before the war because they were already trying to invade other countries like China. Now China hates us...lol , no good deed goes unpunished.
The Republic of China (the one we saved from Japan) likes us. Its Communist China that hates us and that is mostly due to the USA being an obstacle for the CCP. We let Hirohito off the hook for practical reasons. The evidence against him was sketchy and putting him on trial would have resulted in even more deaths. Enough blood had been spilled at that point.
My late father was a Captain in the Chinese Army during WW2. In spite of the fact of enormous amount of atrocities committed by the Japanese army, he told me that it was difficult to forget but he forgives them. As my father’s son, I forgive them also.
I see it as a pragmatic decision, i. e,. that letting the Emperor stay made the country easier to pacify post-war. Ishii should definitely have been hung for his crimes and why he evaded prosecution is beyond me.
The Emperor should have been required to abdicate. His inability or unwillingness to control the madness of the military was indictment enough of his leadership, it seems to me.
MacArthur was not stupid. The overthrow of the German Empire at the end of the First World War led to the rise of Hitler. Keeping the Emperor around as a symbol of national unity allowed Japan to become a stable democracy and friend of the West.
@@johnrose4572 Well, we could also argue that had the Emperor started to impose his ways against the military and Pro-War political factions, an imperial coup would probably had be staged to replace him. I don't think it is a mad conclusion to conclude that both institutions (military and Imperial) leveraged on each other throughout. I'm also quite sure the news and updates outlet to the Emperor would also probably been more Pro-War and Japanese-centric to sustain his support until the two atomic drops became untenable. Either way, the Emperor looked to me as being wedged to a corner, and one can now say he took the correct gamble in retrospect given the throne was preserved by the West.
Both were guilty of the war and certainly Tojo of ignoring the slaughter and rape of civilians in occupied territories. Hence, the sparing of Emperor was political but not justice and is a blemish on any sense of trial of war crimes.
Pride (プライド 運命の瞬間;, Puraido: Unmei no Shunkan), also known as Pride: The Fateful Moment, is a 1998 Japanese historical drama directed by Shunya Itō. The film, based on the International Military Tribunal for the Far East of 1946-48, depicts Japanese prime minister Hideki Tojo (played by Masahiko Tsugawa) as a family man who fought to defend Japan and Asia from Western colonialism but was ultimately hanged by a vengeful United States. Shot at a cost of ¥1.5 billion and partially funded by a right-wing businessman, Pride was one of the highest-grossing Japanese films of 1998 and was nominated for two Japan Academy Prizes. Although the filmmakers intended the film to open dialogue on Japanese history, it was controversial in China, South Korea, and Japan owing to concerns of revisionism..
Why does UA-cam only focus on the alleged 'dark side' of Tojo? If Japan did not enter the WW2 by its attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941 who would be there to prevent the Conquest and Occupation of the rest of Asia by the Western colonial countries on the theory of ' Manifest Destiny ' which is to the effect that God has sanctioned the Euro Christian Nations to Rule the World. Japan both in 1904 and 1942 (under Hideki Tojo in 1942) delivered devastating blows to White Supremacism and European overlord ship of non - European countries. Tojo had a positive side to him in paving the way for the liberation of Asia from Western colonial domination. If Netaji Subash Chandra Bose is the Liberator of India as officially recognized and declared as such by the Narendra Modi Govt. in 2022 then it follows on similar reasoning that Hideki Tojo has strong claims to be recognized as the Liberator of Asia. The Western imperial countries conquered and occupied many Asian countries for over 400 years. The credit for ousting these invaders from Asian Territory must go to Asians. Japan heads that list and is entitled to the gratitude of the rest of Asia for the immense blood sacrifices that Japan made in fighting Western colonial countries. Something that other occupied Asian countries could not do on a bigger global scale in WW2. The so called Japanese war criminals convicted by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (Tokyo Trials) and its verdicts deserve a review and rehearing by an International neutral Panel of Judges using the brilliant and only dissenting judgement of Justice Radhabinod Pal ( the Indian Judge) as the basis and Term of Reference
@@senakaweeraratna741 Its not one-sided. Its from the experiences that countries like China, Korea, The US, Australia and many others had during WW2. The Rape in Nanking. Unit 731. The Batten Death March. The attack on Pearl harbor. All of those instances are well-documented and backed up by facts and history. All of the countries who participated in World War 2 bear some level of responsibility for the actions they each took, some of which are still highly controversial. There should be no doubt that Japan, Germany and Italy were all responsible for the cause of WW2. Japan and Germany's brutal murder of ordinary citizens on grounds of sheer racism should never be forgotten. My Grandfathers, Uncles and other relatives all fought in the war. Some against the Germans, some against the Japanese. Most of them came back as ruined men who were forever changed by the horrors they saw and experienced. None of that would have been possible had Japan, Germany and Italy not decided to start the war. The US had no interest in fighting in a war. Had Japan not attacked Pearl Harbor the US may very well have never entered the war. As such it was Tojo, Hitler and Mussolini who were the most responsible for brining their own destruction. Its been 80 years. We in the US are now friends with Japan, Germany and Italy. We have long ago made peace. We are now allies. But we must never forget our history. Look at what Russia is now doing. They have clearly forgot their own brutal history.
@@setharp The ' Scramble for Africa ' was unconscionable. It was a monstrous crime against humanity. It has brought nothing but shame on European colonial countries. The 'Heart of Darkness' by Joseph Conrad captures the evil of Western colonialism in Africa with literary finesse.
@@setharp so you evil 😈 Americans aren't the biggest racists on earth?! Well history tells a different story you murdered native Americans, you murdered coloured people and your racists actions against Japan ment they had to go to war with you for their survival. You started wars with Vietnam, Korea and China because you hate non-whites etc., you have the biggest crime rates of any country on earth 🌎 you invade countries over oil 🛢 because you insists on making gas ⛽️ eating cars 🚗 wicked people, selfish people and trouble making people. You are the only country that dropped Atomic bombs 💣 on another country evil 😈 beyond belief
Tojo is as evil as any other war criminals in history if not the worst. The way he pushed his country into such devastating madness war is beyond comprehension. He is hunted by millions of souls in hell.
I admit I had no idea the POW death rate under the Japanese was so high. It’s sort of an interesting commentary on which horrific war incidents are emphasized. A lot of American WWII cultural depictions are from the European theater, so we learn about the concentration camps before Nanking or Unit 731.
@@user-mh5xk6fl1x I doubt that would have happened. Russia at that time was fighting for its life against Nazi Germany! Stalin needed the alliance with Britain and America to survive! Russia also had bad memories of the war fought against Japan 40 years earlier (so had Japan, for that matter!) So I doubt such an alliance would have been popular or would have worked at all for that matter!
@@user-mh5xk6fl1x then both the Japanese and Russians would have been defeated. Russia wouldn't have survived ww2 without our lend lease so that would not have been beneficial for either Russia or japan.
one story that came out of this war were two men who became friends, jake deshazer of the doolittle raid and mitsuo fuchida who led the attack on pearl harbor, after being a prisoner of japan for 3 years, jake deshazer went to college and trained as a missionary, in november of 1948 he and his wife and children sailed for japan , they worked with the united methodist church in japan and started several churches, in 1950 mitsuo fuchida joined the church and worked with the deshazers, for many years, mitsuo fuchida died in 1976, jake and his family retired as missionarys in 1977, and jake deshazer passed away in 2008 at the age of 95 mitsuo fuchida wrote a book titled from pearl harbor to calvary. a documentary was made about jake deshazer titled from vengeance to forgiveness, you can find them on line,
What a fascinating telling of the events surrounding Japan’s role in WWII. Perhaps it is somewhat unfair to put the blame on Tojo, but as the leader in the war effort, it doesn’t seem unfair to punish him for his role, especially considering he had already attempted his own self-lexecution. Allowing Hirohito to live out his life as emperor seems a very wise decision, especially from the vantage point of today and all that Japan has become.
I was and still am interesting about Japanese history. My grandfather was in a prison camp during world war two in Indonesia I never knew him, because two years after the liberation he died, because of brutal treatment in the war. This fact made my opinion about theJapanese people pretty hateful, later I became more open and wanted to know more about her history and politics and why Japan became an Empire with an aggressive war policy Today my hate is gone and maybe some day I want to visit Indonesia and find peace in my heart Thank you for this upload ❤
i love to go back in time and do a google earth type time travel. see what the earth looked like 15,000 years ago, see if something did hit the planet that caused the ice to melt real fast, see how fast the ocean rose. go back a million years to see.
The history of Japan controlling Southeast Asia seems more interesting to remember, history from 1942-1945... then Japan rose to become a producing country to this day.
They were warned before the first that not surrendering would result in complete annihilation. They were told immidately after hiroshima that another would come u less they surrendered they argued with each other over if was an empty threat when we hit nagasaki. Even then some of the generals tried to stage a coup and keep going when the emperor surrendered
The most important question here is whether or not Japanese Nationalism will rise again. I'm pretty sure it already has. People are people. The horrors of WWII were committed by ordinary folks just like the person in your mirror.
@@elessartelcontar9415 So when the nukes go off killing every single Japanese citizen, they can claim they got some Chinese too. Great. Perfect solution to a problem they created in the first place. Not.
It will rise as it should and it will act as the counterweight against paper Tiger that is China. The Japanese are the only asian peoples who can throw down, this due to their Aryan ancestry which is also present in the ancient Chinese elites as seen with the Tocharian graves.
First of all I must congratulate your team for this honest lesson of a dark portion of WW2 history. I'm not sure how many of your audience must've known all this in this great detail. The questions raised in the end have perspectives, that I quickly come up with. From Tojo's perspective, he was a true, honest and a very humble soldier of the emperor of Japan. From an outsider's neutral perspective. He was an evil army general. As bad as any other big WW general. Final words. WW2 can never be understood in isolation. A deep study like yours can only help in understanding it a wee bit better. All the main actors in both WWs were equally bad.
Uh, you forgot (and probably deliberately forgot for propaganda reasons) a little incident that almost assuredly brought about the Japanese surrender: the Soviet invasion of Manchuria. Indeed, the bomb on Nagasaki happened less than 24 hours after this invasion, with the invading forces already going through Manchuko like a hot knife through butter. Hirohito thought so little of this invasion that he cited it as the reason for the surrender in his address to the Japanese military. He even left the atomic bombs out of his address to the military.
Source? His famous surrender broadcast says "the enemy has begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb [..] Should we continue to fight, not only would it result in an ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation, but also it would lead to the total extinction of human civilization. Such being the case, how are we to save the millions of our subjects, or to atone ourselves before the hallowed spirits of our imperial ancestors? This is the reason why we have ordered the acceptance of the provisions of the joint declaration of the powers."
@@Vangard21 I told you the source: his address to the military, which was different from the address to the nation: Three years and eight months have elapsed since we declared war on the United States and Britain. During this time our beloved men of the army and navy, sacrificing their lives, have fought valiantly on disease-stricken and barren lands and on tempestuous waters in the blazing sun, and of this we are deeply grateful. Now that the Soviet Union has entered the war against us, to continue the war under the present internal and external conditions would be only to increase needlessly the ravages of war finally to the point of endangering the very foundation of the Empire's existence With that in mind and although the fighting spirit of the Imperial Army and Navy is as high as ever, with a view to maintaining and protecting our noble national policy we are about to make peace with the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union and Chungking. To a large number of loyal and brave officers and men of the Imperial forces who have died in battle and from sicknesses goes our deepest grief. At the same time we believe the loyalty and achievements of you officers and men of the Imperial forces will for all time be the quintessence of our nation. We trust that you officers and men of the Imperial forces will comply with our intention and will maintain a solid unity and strict discipline in your movements and that you will bear the hardest of all difficulties, bear the unbearable and leave an everlasting foundation of the nation.
Tojo tried to quietly sidestep the responsibilities of all the atrocities committed by soldiers under his command. The Pacific theater of WW2 is more than Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
@@moiseshuerta3984 Cry me a river of tears for the Japanese. The Germans, Italians & Japanese killed thousands of civilians prior to the US entering WW2. The Japs purposely strafed civilians while attacking Pearl Harbor. Japanese troops massacred over 100,000 Filipino civilians (who were American citizens) when US troops tried to liberate it. They start crap, yet you try to place guilt on the US. By firebombing Japanese cities, the economy and will to fight was being destroyed and by getting the Japanese to surrender would save 100s of thousands of lives on both sides.
He was a warcriminal no doubt. Its equally true doe that the US embargo was partially to blame for the war. But that does not excuse the crimes that were made, ask the Philipinos or the Chinese and you will see exactly what crimes Japan commited.
Just reading about the Nanjing massacre and the "comfort women" appalled me, Then Unit 731 and how our military was treated as POWs...! Not that Japanese in the US, most of whom were loyal to our country, should have been been interned. But at least we never massacred them or did what the Japanese military did to conquered populations.
The "US embargo was partially to blame for the war"? That's stretching it. Japan was dependent upon the US to provide most of its oil and raw materials such as iron ore. Japanese atrocities in China caused the US embargo after several warnings. Because Japan realized that it could not sustain it's war without a steady supply of oil and raw materials, instead of choosing peace, it lashed out and took what it needed. Yamamoto even said before Pearl Harbor that Japan only had about six months of free reign. After that, expect the US's industrial capability to kick in.
Japan needed more carriers, aircraft, and battleships. They also should have conducted a second wave of attacks against Pearl Harbor and other installations.
They shouldn’t have and never originally intended to hit Pearl. Pearl was FDR’s second attempt in setting up the US for an attack to excuse entry into Europe to save the Rothschilds ass. Rothschilds jerked the chain they have on the Americans like a dog in WWII just as they had done so on WWI and just as they will once more do so one last time in WWIII in the 2030’s as the final act to remake this world into the New Atlantis at the expense of America. This jerking is made possible via the US Federal Reserve, a privat banks that is subsidiary to the Bank of England, a private bank established by the Jew shortly after their return to England from exile after they financed Oliver Cromwell to execute King Charles I.
Tojo = a man of his time AKA Nationalism....................sounds like he got screwed since the emperor could not be found guilty. It is what it is ......... I love how time discloses history!!!
I mostly watch doc videos on UA-cam, have for a lot of years. This is the best channel. It's small right now but please don't stop making vids! This channel will be huge in a year or two.
Japanese militarism was for more of a collective hivemind of officers and military leaders, it can't be pinned on any one man or movement, Tojo was simply a competent member of the group and executed it's ideological goals rather then formulating them. This is why Japan fails to fit so neatly into the Faschist narrative of Itay and Germany, you can argue that Japan was just an Imperialist Junta due to not relying on scapegoated internal enemies or leadership charisma.
European colonies in Asia would continue to have remained European colonies decades after decades had WW2 not taken place. No western imperial empire expressed an iota of interest in giving freedom to the black man, brown man, and the yellow man. Not even an empty promise in 1939. Enter Japan with attack on Pearl Harbour and sinking of the pride of the Royal Navy i.e. 'Prince of Wales' and 'Repulse' on December 8, 1941, and thereafter the people of Asia never looked back.
@@senakaweeraratna741 You are correct that World War II led to the downfall of European imperialism. This has more to do with the actions of Germany than Japan though. Britain and France were economically exhausted by the end of World War II and the British and French people had little stomach to fight wars to continue holding onto colonies that now saw their chance to demand Independence. On the few occasions where there was resistance to independence (such as France in Indochina) it did not go well for the former Imperial power. Japan was not on a path to liberate Asia from the westerners so much as it was on a path to add those colonies to its own empire either as territories or protectorates.
@@CStone-xn4oyWhat I have said is that Japan was the only major country to have openly declared the liberation of Asia from Western colonial domination. No Western country gave even an empty promise. The war waged by the Axis powers weakened the Western colonial countries ultimately leading to grant of independence to their colonies. What matters is the final outcome and not the intention. Japan is entitled to credit for having played a critical role that led to the freedom of people in European colonies in Asia and Africa.
@@senakaweeraratna741 While you are correct about World War II weaking the European Imperial powers, I dispute your conclusion. Japan played little role in the independence of former European colonial possessions. Its greatest contribution to that cause was that its efforts weakened the British and they directly occupied French colonies. The war in Europe played a much larger role in weakening Britain and France. Japan planned to liberate Asia in the same way that the Soviet Union liberated Eastern Europe. Under new management is a more accurate phrase.
@@CStone-xn4oy The Imperial Japanese Navy is entitled to credit for having chased the Royal Navy from the Indian Ocean. The sinking of the Prince of Wales ( flagship of the Royal Navy ) and 'Repulse' on December 08, 1941 off the waters of Singapore was in a sense the performance of the unthinkable. By these heroic acts Japan awakened the enslaved people in European colonies in Asia and Africa to fight for their freedom. Furthermore Japan came out with a catchy irresistible slogan ' Asia for Asians'. It was difficult for enemies of Japan to beat that.
anyone who doesn't see Tojo as borderline on-par with Hitler, Stalin and on-par with Mussolini needs to wake up. He was a ruthless leader, and his actions were very much decisive. even if he was a "loayl servant to the emperor" is that not what Germany tried to say? "we were following orders, otherwise they'd of killed us too." that excuse doesn't fly.
But he wasn't on par. Hitler, Stalin and (for a time) Mussolini were real dictators - meaning they had a final say in anything. Can you imagine Hitler or Stalin stepping down ? Even Mussolini was reinstated at the helm of nazi Italian Social Republic - because he was more than a politician. Tojo was replaced in 1944 and nobody blinked. He was responsible for war as much as others from in or outside of Tōseiha - this doesn't mean that he should have been let go. He should face consequences along with many others from officer corps, politics and the court - with crown princes and the main muppet as well.
@@buttercup9884 I’m gonna be honest, I think I was pretty drunk and trying to sleep when I made that original comment, but yeah. I agree with you lmao, I don’t know what I was saying calling him as bad as hitler or Stalin, he’s more of a Himmler or a Beria
The policy that obedience to authority is the highest duty not only of warriors, but of all citizens, is loathsome and was even so in ancient Athens. That is different from obedience to national or better still international law (which doesn't exist yet). Among other things, and contrary to Alfred Tennyson's poem about the Light Brigade, there are times when disobedience to fools or villains is more heroic.
This was an amazing video to watch. So much detail to soak in. Of all the major Axis leaders, Tojo may be the least researched. Everybody tends to focus on Hitler and to some extent Mussolini, and yet Tojo has become a nearly forgotten figure, despite the fact that he sanctioned countless acts of barbarism that rivaled anything the SS committed.
People fail to understand what war is. It's the complete abandonment of civil discourse and it's substitution is total and utter barbarism, on both sides.
I would also add Sook Ching, Unit 731, Operation Sei-Go and Wenceslao Vinzons (Philippine Guerilla, look them up, fucking amazing). And for the odd man out (and I admit I only learned of him recently, but think he should be known more widely), Hitoshi Imamura.
@@jamiecullum5567thr Japanese had conscripted all men women and children ages 12-80 into thr army. So really very few actual civillians died. Also a vast majority of thr population was aware of the illegal chemical experiments being done on human beings. The general population believed that it wasnt a big deal, because they are the superior race. So really not many "innocents" in japan during ww2. In fact almost 0.
This was a wonderful documentary and I learned so much about the part that Tojo played in Japan’s brutal approach to war before and during World War Two. The staggering numbers of casualties alone is incredible in and of itself. Having watched a couple of documentaries on the rape of Nanking prior to viewing this one, I must say, it is hard to be sympathetic to man in his position of power “to turn a blind eye” to what his soldiers were doing in and around Nanking. It has to be one, of not the most horrific act of violence towards a population of non-combatants. A documentary worthy of a second viewing
Just ask the 25 million dead Chinese, the torture victims of the Japanese military, and millions of dead Japanese civilians how was Tojo. Blaming it on the Americans is more of British thing (your thing) than those of the Japanese
An apparently universally overlooked factor in Japan’s defeat in WWII by western or at least, English language documentaries and other historical presentations, is that if Japan had not already been at war for years prior to its entry into WWII, its cause would not have been nearly as “hopeless” as such presentations would have audiences believe. Japan effortlessly beat Russia in a one on one conflict decades earlier, conquered Korea and China, and cleaned the ‘house’ of the Pacific Ocean of European colonies and forces before America issued its embargo of oil and other resources, which effectively compounded Japan’s already war and resource-exhausted state. Including a more rounded or objective assessment not only makes for more truthful narration, but makes any documentary or historical presentation much more interesting.
Not quite. 'if Japan had not already been at war for years prior to its entry into WWII, its cause would not have been nearly as “hopeless” as such presentations would have audiences believe. ' - each conquest had it price . The Japanese captured Korea and tried to subjugate China - but while Korea was 'consumed' relatively quickly (still 40 years after annexation Japanese mob routinly lynched Korean workers - there was little harmony) - China proved too big (even when divided between warlords and cliques after 1911 revolution) to gobble. Domestically the cost of war made Japan ration food and resources before even going into Pacific War + political scene was shattered by assasinations and politically Japan was less and less flexible. On the other hand if Japan did not go for raw materials into the continent they would have resources for war with the west. Manchukuo steel production exceeded Japan in late 1930s. Without resources from the continent Japanese couldn't go to war with west- but having this territories embroiled them in conflict with Chinese communists, warlords and govenment + Soviet Russia + western powers. Japan overextended itself before the war started - but without this commitment it would not have build such fleet to threaten US or British domination in Far East. on side note ' Japan effortlessly beat Russia' - Japan was nearly bancrupt at the conclusion of Russo-Japanese War plus casualties were quite high. Cheers
Japan did not "clean house". They just hung up a sign "Under new management" in form of the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Region", a thin fig-leaf for the exploitation of the conquered countries that made the European colonization pale into insignificance. Where the Europeans took the blood, the Japanese took the bones. Basically Japan went to war to get the resources they needed to go to the war they needed to get the resources they needed... This strategy worked as long as the enemy was weak (Korea), preoccupied (Russia, 1905) or unstable (China). Likewise the successes in the nanshinron (Singapore, Philippines) was mainly due to the fact that the Europeans were preoccupied with the war in Europe (which had prompted the Japanese move, together with the crushing defeat in the North at Khalkin Ghol). Ironically, without the prior conquests, Japan would not have had the resources or the well drilled war machine to make the nanshinron a reality. PS: The oil embargo was only installed after the occupation of Vietnam by Japan, as the Japanese bombers were now a direct threat to the British Singapore and Dutch Indonesia.
Japan never conquered China. The Chinese were major participants in the fighting for Burma. Further, the Russians got their asses handed to them in the Russo-Japanese war, but they faced a much different Russian army in the 1930's. Tojo and Hirohito should have stopped the other militarists after the Mukden incident, because "let's just invade and enslave everyone within our reach" attitudes rarely bring good to nations.
The US did not force Japans hand. The US tried by political means like embargo to get the Japanese to stop their unmitigated war of aggression. The Japanese would not, with the final upping the ante in Pearl Harbour. And they got what they asked for.
Just because there is war it’s not an excuse to open season on civilians and do whatever you want to them. As you see in time eventually a good nation prevails and then war criminals cry for decades that they didn’t do it. I can find people in many countries today that deny everything during WW2 and other conflicts(Serbia and Turkey come to mind).
It presents kind of an interesting perspective in that you could argue Japan’s people were also a victim of Tojo’s war crimes, because Japanese leaders knew the war was lost, but they encouraged such radicalization of their soldiers that they committed banzai attacks and honorable suicides in huge numbers, as is well known. However, so effective was Japanese propaganda at portraying Americans as subhuman monsters and rapists that even Japanese citizens, some even used as suicide incendiary devices by their own military late in the war, would kill themselves rather than receive aid by Americans
My mother was a teenager during the war and she remembers broadcasts about Japan. Here in the Midwest ToJo was a bigger villain than Hitler. They didn’t know about the Holocaust until later.
In the end, he got smacked in his shiny bald head by someone sitting behind him who had had enough light reflecting off his shiny bald head into that someone's eyes during the trial of execution by USAmerica.
Brutal and ruthless war leader or loyal servant of the Emperor who was treated as a convenient sacrifice to deflect blame from Hirohito? How about both? There was no doubt as to his ruthlessness and at least cooperation with crimes against humanity, but also no doubt as to his devotion and was very willing to be hung if it meant saving the Emperor. He was a true believer in that respect, though he was no doubt much chagrined that his suicide attempt failed, thus forcing him to commit the unpardonable crime of being taken prisoner. An ironic twist of fate, considering how he failed to protect prisoners of war and refused to allow Japanese soldiers to surrender.
One thing is clear, it was neither easy nor safe to be prime minister of Japan in 30's and 40's. I for sure wouldn't have taken that job with the IJA and the IJN more or less doing what they wanted, and fanatics from both factions being ready to murder you if you tried to restrain either.
As Prof. Robert Higgs pointed out, “U.S. economic warfare provoked Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. I strongly believe the concentration of the US fleet at Pearl Harbor and another concentration of B17 bombers in the Philippines posed a great threat upon the security of Japan (as Cuban Crisis the US experienced much later). At the Imperial Conference, held on September 6, 1941, Nagano Osami, Navy Chief of Staff said to the Emperor Hirohito, “If we do not fight, we will be perished, even if we fight, we will be perished. However, if we don’t, that defeat means the true defeat losing the spirit of our nation. I we fight, our children and descendants will rise up again.” As a Japanese, I cry every time when I read the Nagano’s statement. All the Japanese historians know that the Hull Note, issued on November 27, 1941, triggered the Pearl Harbor Attack. Japanese top leaders took it as an ultimatum and the FDR administration had no intention of negotiating the peace talks. By destroying Japan, the Far East lost the bulwark that defended the expansion of Soviet Union. The Soviet Union invaded Manchukuo and mainland China fell into the hands of Mao’s communist China. As the result. The Korean War ensued.
The Pearl Harbour base meant shit. The threat of US intercepting transports from the "Southern Resource Area" read Indonesia, which Japan intended and did exploit mercilessly, was much bigger. What triggered the Pearl Harbour attack was the Japanese government hellbent on an aggressive war of exploitation, seeking to nip any US interference in the bud by a first strike (advocated most strongly by its chief architect Yamamoto Isoroku). And no, Japan was not a bulwark against communism. That is like saying a bullet to the head is a cure for brain cancer.
@@TomFynn If the U.S. did not take blockade tactics to cut off the supply of resources (iron, rubber, oil, etc.) to Japan, there was no Pearl Harbor Attack. This siege strategy was called ABCD (America, Britain, China, Dutch Indies) Blockade, meaning the U.S. encouraged other European Colonial Powers in Asia not to supply such resources to Japan. Just before the Pearl Harbor Attack, the U.S. Pacific fleet was concentrated in Pearl Harbor, and more than 30 B-17 bombers were stationed in the Philippines (Taiwan, then part of Japan, was within the bombing range). It was like suffocating a person with a cotton towel at point of a knife. Japan was like a mouse cornered by a cat. Surprisingly, the cornered mouse jumped to bite the nose of the cat. After the war, in 1951, General MacArthur testified in the hearing held by the Congress, “Their (Japan's) purpose, therefore, in going to war was largely dictated by security.” What the U.S./U.K. did in the WWII? At the 1945 Yalta Conference, they encouraged the Soviet Union to invade Manchuria. As the result, Manchuria was occupied by the Soviet Union, then Mainland China fell into the hands of Mao’s communist China. About a quarter of all humankind was placed under the communist rule and their dictatorship, BECAUSE FDR DESTROYED JAPAN AND GERMANY, a staunch bulwark to fend off bolshevism. I strongly believe FDR and Churchill are responsible for the human misery committed under the communist rule thereafter in East Europe and Far East (particularly, North Korea and China).
In addition to the above, I have more to say. Manchukuo, one of the highest civilizations at the time enjoyed by many Mongolians, Manchurians, Chinese, Koreans and Japanese was annihilated in the process. Manchukuo’s flourished prosperity was devoured and scavenged by greedy Russians and the Chinese. The U.S. and the U.K. became grave diggers of Manchukuo. The act of destroying the civilization is a serious crime in human history.
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Adam Thrussell @ Warrior Tojo Samurai traditional way.
Big M Marathon 1981 Frankston to Melbourne Town Hall State of Victoria.
Stay healthy and fit
Don't distort history!
✖there were numerous reports of Japanese troops conducting raids on Chinese villages in the area
〇 there were numerous reports of Chinese bandits conducting raids on Japanese villages in the area
Don't make me laugh lol
✖Japanese however now sought to Annex China themselves
〇 Chinese Communist Party however now sought to Drag Japan into fighting with Chiang Kai-shek
"over the coming hours tensions between the two armies escalated"
because of the gunfire by a leading member of the Chinese Communist Party, who later became the president of CCP.
Despite repeated efforts of the Japanese Army there to stop fighting, promises to cease fire were broken every time by Chinese troops.
That is how the war started.
✖ in which hundreds of civilians including women children and even babies were butchered
〇 in which hundreds of civilians including women children and even babies were protected and supplied with rice and medical care for free by the Japanese Army there
That is what really happened in December in 1937 in Nanjing. I am telling the truth.
Hello everyone. We're going to be re-making our WW2 leaders series over the coming months starting with Tojo. We hope you enjoy the video!
Thank you I always listen to your vids while walking or working out or what ever I’m doing
just watched the movie "emperor" here on UA-cam for free. highly recommend!! Tommy Lee Jones as general macarthur lol
Can you perhaps do Benito Mussolini
I've seen both for Tojo, and I think you've made great improvements in depth and analysis.
reply above. Thank you..
Tojo was not a politician, but a soldier. A soldier's mission purpose has always been to defend his country at literally ALL costs. Combine this with the Bushido code & the strictness of Tojo's upbringing, & you get a military Frankenstein monster who is supremely patriotic who puts honor & country above all, including his own people, whom he sees as having the sole raison d'etre of serving the emperor.
Thank you ever so much for producing & showing this video. I learned a GREAT deal from it.
joeinbuenosaires 😎
Saint Ignatius Of Loyola
The Patron Saint Of Soldiers
honor...tojo...lol...
The prosecution lawyers at Tojo's trial literally coached Tojo to withdraw incriminating testimony against his master so that MacArthur could use his master to govern post war Japan without too much controversy. Tojo was going to be hanged anyway. So he agreed and loyally performed this one last act in serving his master.
🧢
Not inconceivable, but as apparently firsthand reporting, in what capacity did you witness this?
@@barry5643 This is commonly known historical fact among most WW2 enthusiasts.
tojo is pretty much forgotten in terms of most cruel leaders due to his reserved leadership style but he was absolutely ruthless
all leaders were ruthless and cruel in their own way during ww2. wasnt a time for soft men leading countries. most faced decisions that would shatter leaders today should i nuke a city of civilians or risk the deaths of potentially millions of my own men etc or do i divert food from one place to feed the troops in other places. it was all done by cold hard caculation without the benefits of hindsight like we have today looking back. if there is a hell, theyre all in it.
I agree. His cruelty was over the top. He earned his nickname of "The Razor" by cutting other peoples throats. Justice was done when they hung him.
A tyrant has to be ruthless,
The society is brutal and violent too ready for an instigator.
I don't think Tojo is forgotten by anyone who has a scintilla of interest in the 20th century. Unlike Germany, Japan has institutionally glossed over its behavior in the 1930s and 1940s, including the acts of Tojo
Historical fact : Tojo saved many Jews from the Nazis.
The Otopole Incident
Higuchi as head of the Harbin Special Service Agency
(Photo taken in 1937)
On December 26, 1937, when the first Far Eastern Jewish Congress was held, the Army dispatched Army Colonel Senhiro Yasue, a "Jewish expert," Higuchi (then Army Major General), who was serving as Director of the Harbin Army Special Service Agency at the time, and others to the Congress, which was scheduled for three days with the approval of the Kwantung Army. At the meeting, Higuchi delivered a congratulatory speech in which he indirectly and vehemently criticized the anti-Semitic policies of Germany under the Nazi regime, an ally with which Japan had just concluded the German-Japanese Anti-Comintern Pact the previous year, by saying "Before expelling the Jews, give them land," which drew applause from the Jews in attendance[4].
Under these circumstances, in March 1938, 18 Jews fled to Otpor (now Zabaykalsk Station) on the Trans-Siberian Railway along the Soviet-Manchuku border to escape persecution in Germany. However, they were held back by the Manchukuo diplomatic mission, which they had to pass through in order to reach the U.S. concession in Shanghai, where they were given asylum, because they were reluctant to be allowed to enter.
Higuchi, who was consulted by Dr. Abraham Kaufman, the head of the Far Eastern Jewish Association, could not see their plight, and together with his immediate subordinate, Major Aizo Kawamura, and others, immediately distributed food, clothing, and fuel to the Jews, and provided medical treatment to those in need of treatment. In addition, they mediated the departure of Jews from Japan, which was in a stalemate, and made arrangements for settlements in Manchuria and transfers to the Shanghai concession. Although Japan was an ally of Germany, which had signed the Japan-Germany Anti-Comintern Pact, Higuchi went directly to Yosuke Matsuoka, then president of the South Manchuria Railway (Manchuria Railway), to obtain his approval and allowed him to escape to Shanghai on a special Manchuria Railway train [5].
According to the records of the Toa Travel Agency (now Nippon Kotsu Kosha), the number of people who entered Manchuria from Germany via Manchuria increased from 245 in 1938 alone to 551 in 1939 and 3.574 in 1940[5], In 1940, the number had increased to 3, 574 [6]. However, according to Takashi Hayasaka, there is no record for 1941, and although it is thought that a not small percentage of the numbers include Jews, the percentage is unknown and it is unclear whether the cumulative total reached 20,000 [6]. Shigematsu Matsui, then head of the information desk, wrote in his recollection, "Once a week, every time a train arrived, 20 or 30 Jews would rush to the station, and the four staff members could not handle it all. Another witness, Tatsuto Shojima, who was President Matsuoka's secretary, stated that after the first 18 (March 8, 1938), 5 or 10 Jewish refugees arrived every week, saving a total of about 50 people during March and April [8]. 8] However, perhaps out of diplomatic concern for Germany, there is no official documentation of the specific number of refugees who arrived in large numbers. [Independent research?] The sixth "Book of Honor" extant at the Keren Kayemeth Lelsrael Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF) headquarters, written in 1941, describes the achievement as "General Higuchi - Tokyo, Far East National Jewish Consul General in Harbin - inscribed by Abraham Kaufmann." [9].
The total number of Jews saved by the "Higuchi Route" was estimated to have been possibly up to 20,000-30,000 [Note 1][Note 2]; the official opinion of Foreign Minister Hachiro Arita at the time in 1939 put the number at "just over 80."[11] While it was reported that 20,000 Jewish refugees were saved, Nitoaki Shiraishi questions the very existence of the incident because of the sheer number[12]. Hiroshi Matsuura states that this figure of 20,000 was spread due to typographical errors in the publication of Higuchi's memoirs [13]. Takashi Hayasaka points out that Higuchi's own manuscript states that "thousands of them [Jews] crowded into the otporu west of the Manzhouli station and wished to enter Manchuria," but the figure in the Fuyoshobo edition of his memoirs changes to "20,000," which has caused confusion in verifying the actual number of refugees. Hayasaka also points out that the above figure was changed to "20,000" in Fuyo's "Memoirs. Hayasaka believes that many of the above-mentioned Toa Travel Agency records may have been Jewish, and estimates the number to be several thousand [15]. Hiroshi Matsuura confirms the estimate of 100-200 people [16], which was assigned based on the composition of the Hamashu Line trains at the time and the testimonies of the crew [13][13]. The Manchurian Railway Association estimates that the number of people in the strict sense who were unable to obtain visas was about 100[17].
Higuchi's commitment to Jewish rescue is said to have been triggered by an incident during his travels in Georgia. When he was a military officer stationed in Poland, he stopped at a poor village in the suburbs of Tiflis during his trip to the Caucasus region, and an old man stopped him by chance. He tearfully appealed to Higuchi about the fact that Jews are persecuted all over the world and that the Japanese emperor must be the savior who can save Jews in their time of sorrow, and prayed for him. Higuchi recalls that when he received a report of Jewish refugees who had reached Otpor, the incident flashed through his mind [18].
The incident became a major diplomatic issue between Japan and Germany, and a letter of protest was received from then German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop[19]. Criticism of Higuchi also increased within the Army, and there were calls within the Kwantung Army for Higuchi to be punished[19]. In the midst of this situation, Higuchi sent a letter to then General Kenkichi Ueda, Commander of the Kanto Army, stating his views, and when he appeared at headquarters and met with then Lieutenant General Hideki Tojo, Chief of Staff of the Kanto Army, he is said to have said, "Do you think it is right to torment the weak by taking Hitler's lead? Hideki Tojo, who understood these words, decided not to question Higuchi [21]. Tojo's decision, and that of Commander Ueda, who also supported the decision, led to a decline in demands for Higuchi's punishment from within the Kwantung Army[22], and Tojo brushed off repeated protests from Germany, saying that he had done so out of natural humanitarian considerations[23].
His grandson Ryuichi Higuchi (professor emeritus at Meiji Gakuin University) received a letter on June 15, 2018 at the Tel Aviv Keren Kayemeth Lelsrael Jewish National Fund headquarters in Israel from the son of Carl Friedman, a survivor who escaped on the "Higuchi Route," saying "Kiichiro's Jewish Kiichiro's positive attitude toward the Jewish community made the rescue possible.
Incidentally, the "Golden Book" often referred to in connection with Higuchi is a list of contributors and donors maintained by the Keren Kayemeth Lelsrael Jewish National Fund, an organization whose main activities in Palestine include land purchase, tree planting, and the establishment of the borders of the State of Israel. The Golden Book is a list of contributors and donors[25][26][27].
Please note: Higuchi was not Hideki Tojo. HT condoned this, and that is all. However if HT would have decided otherwise , probably nothing would have been done for the Jewish refugees back then.
Even if Hideki Tojo acquiesced to the rescue of Jews, the unprecedented genocide in human history against the Republic of China, Southeast Asia and allied prisoners of war at that ti will not disappear. The Empire of Japan was the worst empire that was more inhumane and ugly than Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
meanwhile, japan slaughtered more ppl than the 3rd reich. and glorified their brutality. proven by what atrocities the committed in nanking, despite knowing international representatives were watching them from the exclusion zone, established by a german industrialist john rabe , who saved a lot of ppl from the japanese monsters.
it's not an easy thing, but tojo managed to be an even bigger mass murder monster than hitler and stalin. only tied by mao. (who was indirectly responsible that japan could go on so long in china)
Amazing documentary!! You do a wonderful job here covering historic topics like this. Thank you for your hard work in bringing important history to more people.
All of your documentaries are nothing short of excellent!
Thank you!!!
The only thing I will give Tojo respect for is that he took responsibility for the atrocities committed by the Japanese military. That's more than many Nazis did.
He died in defense of his Emperor, just somewhat later than many other Nipponese soldiers. He is where-ever the other Shintoist samurai are... Strong dislike for his war crimes, but great respect for a soldier.
@@garykubodera9528 Good point. However, we should also consider the Japanese war crimes committed in Malaysia and Singapore in 1942. The perpetrators of those atrocities were troops under Yamashita's overall command. The Alexandra Hospital Massacre is one example that comes to mind.
Seriously, @@garykubodera9528? Rather vindictive of McArthur, in that case...
@@NobleKorhedron yes really. mccarth was no saint and had an ego and made mistakes and cost lives also. He island hopped to take back the Philippines when there was no strategic reason to. Look at the big picture of what he did. He was not perfect
I wonder how much of him taking blame was to be a fall guy so the emperor wouldn't have the blame placed on him
Tojo was a product of his time.
Japan during WW2 was more of a military junta. Kind of like a modernized version of the shogunate with international boundaries which is why Tojo wasn’t considered a dictator despite Japan’s dictatorial style government. That being said, Hideki Tojo was, at best, an enabler of Japanese Fascism and imperialism, and at worst, a perpetrator of it
the thing is you can be many despicable things and get away with it..this means somethibg else to someone else
and where did he learn to be an imperialist?
@@AB-kg6rk perhaps by reading a history book
Great documentary. Thank you very much.
The idea that Japan was forced to take action against the Allies only holds water IF you argue that Japan had to right to invade China, occupy Manchuria and abuse the Chinese population. Consideration especially to the US must be given in that they offered to normalize trade if Japan withdrew from occupied territories, an idea that Tojo and the Japanese military simply couldn't fathom. Just as it is today, trade with other nations is a much better path to influence than war mongering. An idea that to this day is a foreign concept to Russia which has never given up their path to World influence through threats, bullying and instigating land wars. As to the claim of a US empire in the Pacific, it should be noted that in the 1930's the US and the Philippines had begone negotiations for Philippine independence and the withdrawal of US forces.
Exactly.
Had the Japanese not invaded, Philippines might have been spared the worst.
Atough you are correct in what you say, your defense of the USA is almost propagandistic. USA doesnt bother about invading, from Iraq to Afghanistan, to Syria or a couple North African nations... You again state the correct but fail to see that your country does the same. Simply no one is in position of doing to the USA what the USA did to Japan. But at least the USA is much less brutal so, lesser of 2 evils?
You mean like Perry's way in July 1853/1854 ?
03:30 what happened
Tojo doesn’t get enough attention as one of the most cruel and despicable rulers in history.
He barely ranks in the top 100
i dont know, hard to make it into history book when he have compititor such as Mao, Stalin and Hitler.
@@yia01 What about Churchill? Who should be held accountable for the death of over 3 Million Indian Civilians who were deprived of food by the policies of Churchill in a man made famine also known as the Bengal Famine (1943 - 1944 ) ?
@@senakaweeraratna741 Cool story but that's different from management issues to the martial debauchery that Japan became paradigms of.
@@torpenhigalak5909 Western narratives of the lives of those who opposed the European colonial empires and fought to liberate Asia and Africa are highly biased and lack credibility. The failure of the Western countries despite their high profile rhetoric on Human Rights to recognize the legitimacy of the freedom fight in both Asia and Africa to liberate the natives and their land
speaks volumes of double standards and hypocrisy.
Masterful job of concisely organizing massive amounts of information to give an understanding of the many converging events that led to this horrible conflict. THANK YOU!!!!!
These documentary’s are so good ! at ya finger tips in a few seconds 😎
This explanation of the Meiji government at the beginning of this video is superb. Very concise, but transmit the mess that was the Meiji Constitution. They completely separated all the powers and put them only under the Emperor, and then the emperor become a figurehead. It was certain disaster since the beginning. But I guess that's what happen when you try to modernize a State in such a short period of time.
The question at the end left me perplexed. Why not both? People have a habit of thinking in This/That and good/bad perceptions of each other. Humans are paradoxes. We are horrible and we are beautiful. He was a servant of Japan, his home and his love, but he was also cruel and rigid.
The Treaty of Portsmouth was signed in New Hampshire. Portsmouth is not in the state of Maine. However Bath Iron Works is in Maine and that is the shipyard mentioned.
Thank you for an enlightening narrative of the historical context
in which Japan became an empire and bred the likes of Tojo.
In any narrative, there's always a tension of striking a delicate balance between
how the past (history) shapes the present (to the extent of allowing the present and future to be held hostage to the past)
and the present generation of key decision makers (like Hideki Tojo) who had the power to break Japan free of its past (however partial) to keep their nation on the way of peace; not warrior.
On one hand, Tojo was a product of the Samurai / Bushido system and culture that militarized Japan and stoked the fires of ultra-nationalism.
On the other hand, Tojo and his contemporaries (Emperor Hirohito) and his predecessors (Emperor Meiji, Baron Giichi Tanaka and Japanese constitutional writers)
had several opportunities in their power to steer Japan away from militarism
and towards peaceful democratic development.
But they missed time and again.
One can always attribute the unique history, context, culture and circumstances of each nation to breeding the likes of Hitler and Tojo to spark off a world war.
But there also seems to be a common pattern:
Stoking the fires of ultra-nationalism and militarism,
while serving as a good servant in uniting the nation that ultimately legitimizes the regime in governance,
can become a terrible master in drowning out voices of reason, reservation and moderation against war.
Furthermore, lurking behind historical grievances as an ultimately self-serving way to justify war,
lie unlimited ambition, lust for power and nationalistic pride,
feeding on one another in a dynamic that fuel the regional security dilemma that edge / spiral nations closer to war.
This dynamic is still present and growing today.
This time, uncontrolled war can multiply deaths by nuclear destruction.
When will the fallen human nature really learn from history?
the true learning from history is that this will never be overcome. and ppl who think they can be peaceful by demilitarizing will just get conquered by the one who doesn't (look at how it went for ukraine after giving up their nukes to russia..... and israel/jews would all be dead without desperate militarization, facing wars of annihilation since 1948 on a regular basis) there is some hope. i think no countries had as many wars among them as denmark vs sweden. they are good neighbors nowadays.
When will there be an epsiode about Isorouku Yamamoto?
I gotta give respect for Tojo for taking full responsibility unlike the Germans who tried to erase every bit of their war crimes. Even Albert Speer the so called good German tried to wash his hands of being the largest slave owner in modern history.
In regards to your question on Tojo's legacy. From where I sit. From time stamp 1:00:23 onward. All of the above actually. The civilian lives lost on Saipan,if my understanding of history came about because the population was brainwashed by the military as to the U.S forces treatment of those they capture. The Japanese treatment of conquered peoples, prisoners of war , are IMHO tied into his philosophy for life. There is IMHO No "One size fits all " answer to that question.
Tojo was a war criminal of course but no one ever doubted Tojo's loyalty. He went to the gallow quietly so that his master could get off scot free.
It was so touching he apologized and took responsibility for all the atrocities his men committed and pleaded for his countrymen be spared from condemnation. He wasn't innately an evil man but just a hard-headed career soldier molded by a brutal cultural code
The fact we let the emperor off the hook in no way makes tojo less guilty. We showed Japan more compassion then they deserved. We put those sanctions on Japan before the war because they were already trying to invade other countries like China. Now China hates us...lol , no good deed goes unpunished.
The world hates China. They are pretty much the imperial japan of today. Look at the military buildup in the pacific.
The Republic of China (the one we saved from Japan) likes us. Its Communist China that hates us and that is mostly due to the USA being an obstacle for the CCP.
We let Hirohito off the hook for practical reasons. The evidence against him was sketchy and putting him on trial would have resulted in even more deaths. Enough blood had been spilled at that point.
I'm sure he was good to his mother.
Reminds me of a Monty Python sketch about a London gangster:
"He was a hard man. Cruel, but fair."
Hideki Tojo was one of the most monstrous leaders of all. Glad he was exposed for the monster that he was.
History is written by the victors and Internet is so reliable source of information
I agree, though at least he did accept responsibility for the crimes of the Japanese military and his own.
@@harrietharlow9929 yes, but now the Japanese people deny it, so what was it really worth?
@@Tom_Cruise_Missile Not much, sadly.
@@harrietharlow9929 Did he though? He tried to shoot himself to death, not really an honorable and samurai thing to do.
My late father was a Captain in the Chinese Army during WW2. In spite of the fact of enormous amount of atrocities committed by the Japanese army, he told me that it was difficult to forget but he forgives them. As my father’s son, I forgive them also.
1450
嘘つきのチャイニーズ
Still scum
The Japanese were great warriors
Indeed.Anger is tiring. Best is to forgive and forget. Forgive your enemies and yourself and forgetting the pain, rather than history
A man of his time.
The Emperor, in a miscarriage of justice, got off. scot-free. So did General Ishii, the Joserph Mengele of Japan.
I see it as a pragmatic decision, i. e,. that letting the Emperor stay made the country easier to pacify post-war. Ishii should definitely have been hung for his crimes and why he evaded prosecution is beyond me.
Yes, curious that General Ishii wasn't examined.
The Emperor should have been required to abdicate. His inability or unwillingness to control the madness of the military was indictment enough of his leadership, it seems to me.
MacArthur was not stupid. The overthrow of the German Empire at the end of the First World War led to the rise of Hitler. Keeping the Emperor around as a symbol of national unity allowed Japan to become a stable democracy and friend of the West.
@@johnrose4572 Well, we could also argue that had the Emperor started to impose his ways against the military and Pro-War political factions, an imperial coup would probably had be staged to replace him. I don't think it is a mad conclusion to conclude that both institutions (military and Imperial) leveraged on each other throughout. I'm also quite sure the news and updates outlet to the Emperor would also probably been more Pro-War and Japanese-centric to sustain his support until the two atomic drops became untenable. Either way, the Emperor looked to me as being wedged to a corner, and one can now say he took the correct gamble in retrospect given the throne was preserved by the West.
Both were guilty of the war and certainly Tojo of ignoring the slaughter and rape of civilians in occupied territories. Hence, the sparing of Emperor was political but not justice and is a blemish on any sense of trial of war crimes.
That’s correct thank you.
Pride (プライド 運命の瞬間;, Puraido: Unmei no Shunkan), also known as Pride: The Fateful Moment, is a 1998 Japanese historical drama directed by Shunya Itō. The film, based on the International Military Tribunal for the Far East of 1946-48, depicts Japanese prime minister Hideki Tojo (played by Masahiko Tsugawa) as a family man who fought to defend Japan and Asia from Western colonialism but was ultimately hanged by a vengeful United States. Shot at a cost of ¥1.5 billion and partially funded by a right-wing businessman, Pride was one of the highest-grossing Japanese films of 1998 and was nominated for two Japan Academy Prizes. Although the filmmakers intended the film to open dialogue on Japanese history, it was controversial in China, South Korea, and Japan owing to concerns of revisionism..
Why does UA-cam only focus on the alleged 'dark side' of Tojo? If Japan did not enter the WW2 by its attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941 who would be there to prevent the Conquest and Occupation of the rest of Asia by the Western colonial countries on the theory of ' Manifest Destiny ' which is to the effect that God has sanctioned the Euro Christian Nations to Rule the World.
Japan both in 1904 and 1942 (under Hideki Tojo in 1942) delivered devastating blows to White Supremacism and European overlord ship of non - European countries.
Tojo had a positive side to him in paving the way for the liberation of Asia from Western colonial domination.
If Netaji Subash Chandra Bose is the Liberator of India as officially recognized and declared as such by the Narendra Modi Govt. in 2022 then it follows on similar reasoning that Hideki Tojo has strong claims to be recognized as the Liberator of Asia.
The Western imperial countries conquered and occupied many Asian countries for over 400 years. The credit for ousting these invaders from Asian Territory must go to Asians. Japan heads that list and is entitled to the gratitude of the rest of Asia for the immense blood sacrifices that Japan made in fighting Western colonial countries. Something that other occupied Asian countries could not do on a bigger global scale in WW2.
The so called Japanese war criminals convicted by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (Tokyo Trials) and its verdicts deserve a review and rehearing by an International neutral Panel of Judges using the brilliant and only dissenting judgement of Justice Radhabinod Pal ( the Indian Judge) as the basis and Term of Reference
Unfair one sided propaganda attacks demonizing Hideki Tojo on You Tube continue to this day and must be countered.
@@senakaweeraratna741 Its not one-sided. Its from the experiences that countries like China, Korea, The US, Australia and many others had during WW2. The Rape in Nanking. Unit 731. The Batten Death March. The attack on Pearl harbor. All of those instances are well-documented and backed up by facts and history. All of the countries who participated in World War 2 bear some level of responsibility for the actions they each took, some of which are still highly controversial. There should be no doubt that Japan, Germany and Italy were all responsible for the cause of WW2. Japan and Germany's brutal murder of ordinary citizens on grounds of sheer racism should never be forgotten. My Grandfathers, Uncles and other relatives all fought in the war. Some against the Germans, some against the Japanese. Most of them came back as ruined men who were forever changed by the horrors they saw and experienced. None of that would have been possible had Japan, Germany and Italy not decided to start the war. The US had no interest in fighting in a war. Had Japan not attacked Pearl Harbor the US may very well have never entered the war. As such it was Tojo, Hitler and Mussolini who were the most responsible for brining their own destruction.
Its been 80 years. We in the US are now friends with Japan, Germany and Italy. We have long ago made peace. We are now allies. But we must never forget our history. Look at what Russia is now doing. They have clearly forgot their own brutal history.
@@setharp The ' Scramble for Africa ' was unconscionable. It was a monstrous crime against humanity. It has brought nothing but shame on European colonial countries. The 'Heart of Darkness' by Joseph Conrad captures the evil of Western colonialism in Africa with literary finesse.
@@setharp so you evil 😈 Americans aren't the biggest racists on earth?! Well history tells a different story you murdered native Americans, you murdered coloured people and your racists actions against Japan ment they had to go to war with you for their survival. You started wars with Vietnam, Korea and China because you hate non-whites etc., you have the biggest crime rates of any country on earth 🌎 you invade countries over oil 🛢 because you insists on making gas ⛽️ eating cars 🚗 wicked people, selfish people and trouble making people. You are the only country that dropped Atomic bombs 💣 on another country evil 😈 beyond belief
Tojo is as evil as any other war criminals in history if not the worst. The way he pushed his country into such devastating madness war is beyond comprehension. He is hunted by millions of souls in hell.
チャイナがバカなことゆうな。自分の事を考えろ。
European kill millions of natives Americans. 😊
Completely agree.
If aggression is bad, all American presidents are bad.
Tjo is a monster as was the emprer
Great comments,thankyou,kept me really interested.😊
I admit I had no idea the POW death rate under the Japanese was so high. It’s sort of an interesting commentary on which horrific war incidents are emphasized. A lot of American WWII cultural depictions are from the European theater, so we learn about the concentration camps before Nanking or Unit 731.
@lati long Правильно! А что бы было, если бы русские заключили союз с японцами, против американцев:)?
@@user-mh5xk6fl1x I doubt that would have happened. Russia at that time was fighting for its life against Nazi Germany! Stalin needed the alliance with Britain and America to survive! Russia also had bad memories of the war fought against Japan 40 years earlier (so had Japan, for that matter!) So I doubt such an alliance would have been popular or would have worked at all for that matter!
Due to heavy revisionism/bias towards Japan as well as the atom bombs that give them a “pass”. It sucks it’s not known about
@@user-mh5xk6fl1x then both the Japanese and Russians would have been defeated. Russia wouldn't have survived ww2 without our lend lease so that would not have been beneficial for either Russia or japan.
“Fun” fact: less than 60 Chinese POWs were freed at the end of the war
one story that came out of this war were two men who became friends, jake deshazer of the doolittle raid and mitsuo fuchida who led the attack on pearl harbor, after being a prisoner of japan for 3 years, jake deshazer went to college and trained as a missionary, in november of 1948 he and his wife and children sailed for japan , they worked with the united methodist church in japan and started several churches, in 1950 mitsuo fuchida joined the church and worked with the deshazers, for many years, mitsuo fuchida died in 1976, jake and his family retired as missionarys in 1977, and jake deshazer passed away in 2008 at the age of 95 mitsuo fuchida wrote a book titled from pearl harbor to calvary. a documentary was made about jake deshazer titled from vengeance to forgiveness, you can find them on line,
These videos are great, really, like BBC quality. Thank you so much!
Glad you enjoy it!
Amazing personality,Sunil.
What a fascinating telling of the events surrounding Japan’s role in WWII. Perhaps it is somewhat unfair to put the blame on Tojo, but as the leader in the war effort, it doesn’t seem unfair to punish him for his role, especially considering he had already attempted his own self-lexecution. Allowing Hirohito to live out his life as emperor seems a very wise decision, especially from the vantage point of today and all that Japan has become.
A valuable and informative documentary 👍
I was and still am interesting about Japanese history. My grandfather was in a prison camp during world war two in Indonesia
I never knew him, because two years after the liberation he died, because of brutal treatment in the war.
This fact made my opinion about theJapanese people pretty hateful, later I became more open and wanted to know more about her history and politics and why Japan became an Empire with an aggressive war policy
Today my hate is gone and maybe some day I want to visit Indonesia and find peace in my heart
Thank you for this upload ❤
Hard work; please keep it up
Absolutely fascinating.
Emperor Meiji did all that work, fought to boshin war, industrialized the country, just for them to basically end up with a Shogun again. Amazing lol
Excellent production.
i love to go back in time and do a google earth type time travel. see what the earth looked like 15,000 years ago, see if something did hit the planet that caused the ice to melt real fast, see how fast the ocean rose. go back a million years to see.
The history of Japan controlling Southeast Asia seems more interesting to remember, history from 1942-1945... then Japan rose to become a producing country to this day.
They were warned before the first that not surrendering would result in complete annihilation. They were told immidately after hiroshima that another would come u less they surrendered they argued with each other over if was an empty threat when we hit nagasaki. Even then some of the generals tried to stage a coup and keep going when the emperor surrendered
The most important question here is whether or not Japanese Nationalism will rise again. I'm pretty sure it already has. People are people. The horrors of WWII were committed by ordinary folks just like the person in your mirror.
@@elessartelcontar9415 So when the nukes go off killing every single Japanese citizen, they can claim they got some Chinese too. Great. Perfect solution to a problem they created in the first place. Not.
It will rise as it should and it will act as the counterweight against paper Tiger that is China. The Japanese are the only asian peoples who can throw down, this due to their Aryan ancestry which is also present in the ancient Chinese elites as seen with the Tocharian graves.
@@NarasimhaDiyasena And there it is! Stupid never dies.
First of all I must congratulate your team for this honest lesson of a dark portion of WW2 history. I'm not sure how many of your audience must've known all this in this great detail.
The questions raised in the end have perspectives, that I quickly come up with.
From Tojo's perspective, he was a true, honest and a very humble soldier of the emperor of Japan.
From an outsider's neutral perspective. He was an evil army general. As bad as any other big WW general.
Final words. WW2 can never be understood in isolation. A deep study like yours can only help in understanding it a wee bit better. All the main actors in both WWs were equally bad.
Uh, you forgot (and probably deliberately forgot for propaganda reasons) a little incident that almost assuredly brought about the Japanese surrender: the Soviet invasion of Manchuria. Indeed, the bomb on Nagasaki happened less than 24 hours after this invasion, with the invading forces already going through Manchuko like a hot knife through butter. Hirohito thought so little of this invasion that he cited it as the reason for the surrender in his address to the Japanese military. He even left the atomic bombs out of his address to the military.
Source? His famous surrender broadcast says "the enemy has begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb [..] Should we continue to fight, not only would it result in an ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation, but also it would lead to the total extinction of human civilization. Such being the case, how are we to save the millions of our subjects, or to atone ourselves before the hallowed spirits of our imperial ancestors? This is the reason why we have ordered the acceptance of the provisions of the joint declaration of the powers."
@@Vangard21 I told you the source: his address to the military, which was different from the address to the nation:
Three years and eight months have elapsed since we declared war on the United States and Britain. During this time our beloved men of the army and navy, sacrificing their lives, have fought valiantly on disease-stricken and barren lands and on tempestuous waters in the blazing sun, and of this we are deeply grateful.
Now that the Soviet Union has entered the war against us, to continue the war under the present internal and external conditions would be only to increase needlessly the ravages of war finally to the point of endangering the very foundation of the Empire's existence
With that in mind and although the fighting spirit of the Imperial Army and Navy is as high as ever, with a view to maintaining and protecting our noble national policy we are about to make peace with the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union and Chungking.
To a large number of loyal and brave officers and men of the Imperial forces who have died in battle and from sicknesses goes our deepest grief. At the same time we believe the loyalty and achievements of you officers and men of the Imperial forces will for all time be the quintessence of our nation.
We trust that you officers and men of the Imperial forces will comply with our intention and will maintain a solid unity and strict discipline in your movements and that you will bear the hardest of all difficulties, bear the unbearable and leave an everlasting foundation of the nation.
Agreed. This army would have been useless in defending Islands anyway
2:00 Japan's economy experienced basically NO economic growth during that period of isolation. Various Japanese channels even admit to that fact.
Tojo tried to quietly sidestep the responsibilities of all the atrocities committed by soldiers under his command. The Pacific theater of WW2 is more than Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
What atrocities?
Killing civilians?
US razed over 60 Japanese major cities before Hiroshima.
@@moiseshuerta3984 treatment and deaths of Singapore citizens and captured British POWs, construction of the Burma railway immediately spring to mind.
@@TheLargino
So just get some revenge by ravaging Japan's cities?
Actually that is exactly what happened.
And eye for an eye.
reply above..
@@moiseshuerta3984 Cry me a river of tears for the Japanese. The Germans, Italians & Japanese killed thousands of civilians prior to the US entering WW2. The Japs purposely strafed civilians while attacking Pearl Harbor. Japanese troops massacred over 100,000 Filipino civilians (who were American citizens) when US troops tried to liberate it. They start crap, yet you try to place guilt on the US. By firebombing Japanese cities, the economy and will to fight was being destroyed and by getting the Japanese to surrender would save 100s of thousands of lives on both sides.
He was a warcriminal no doubt. Its equally true doe that the US embargo was partially to blame for the war. But that does not excuse the crimes that were made, ask the Philipinos or the Chinese and you will see exactly what crimes Japan commited.
Just reading about the Nanjing massacre and the "comfort women" appalled me, Then Unit 731 and how our military was treated as POWs...! Not that Japanese in the US, most of whom were loyal to our country, should have been been interned. But at least we never massacred them or did what the Japanese military did to conquered populations.
And the Koreans
@@moegreene7940 Definitely. They were abused and kiIIed by the Japanese, too.
The "US embargo was partially to blame for the war"? That's stretching it. Japan was dependent upon the US to provide most of its oil and raw materials such as iron ore. Japanese atrocities in China caused the US embargo after several warnings. Because Japan realized that it could not sustain it's war without a steady supply of oil and raw materials, instead of choosing peace, it lashed out and took what it needed. Yamamoto even said before Pearl Harbor that Japan only had about six months of free reign. After that, expect the US's industrial capability to kick in.
They were warring with other countries well before embargos it wasnt US at fault
Japan needed more carriers, aircraft, and battleships. They also should have conducted a second wave of attacks against Pearl Harbor and other installations.
More than anything the Japanese needed time. It was only 6 months between PH and Midway.
They lacked industrial capacity. The US economy would overshadow Japan sooner or later.
Japan needed to ally the US instead of Germany before conquering all of asia!
They shouldn’t have and never originally intended to hit Pearl. Pearl was FDR’s second attempt in setting up the US for an attack to excuse entry into Europe to save the Rothschilds ass. Rothschilds jerked the chain they have on the Americans like a dog in WWII just as they had done so on WWI and just as they will once more do so one last time in WWIII in the 2030’s as the final act to remake this world into the New Atlantis at the expense of America. This jerking is made possible via the US Federal Reserve, a privat banks that is subsidiary to the Bank of England, a private bank established by the Jew shortly after their return to England from exile after they financed Oliver Cromwell to execute King Charles I.
Tojo was a War Criminal
No really?
Ya don't say...😅
Tojo = a man of his time AKA Nationalism....................sounds like he got screwed since the emperor could not be found guilty. It is what it is ......... I love how time discloses history!!!
Love these documentaries
You should cover adrien arcand the Canadian fuhrer.
I mostly watch doc videos on UA-cam, have for a lot of years. This is the best channel. It's small right now but please don't stop making vids! This channel will be huge in a year or two.
Very nice documentary
Japanese militarism was for more of a collective hivemind of officers and military leaders, it can't be pinned on any one man or movement, Tojo was simply a competent member of the group and executed it's ideological goals rather then formulating them. This is why Japan fails to fit so neatly into the Faschist narrative of Itay and Germany, you can argue that Japan was just an Imperialist Junta due to not relying on scapegoated internal enemies or leadership charisma.
European colonies in Asia would continue to have remained European colonies decades after decades had WW2 not taken place. No western imperial empire expressed an iota of interest in giving freedom to the black man, brown man, and the yellow man. Not even an empty promise in 1939. Enter Japan with attack on Pearl Harbour and sinking of the pride of the Royal Navy i.e. 'Prince of Wales' and 'Repulse' on December 8, 1941, and thereafter the people of Asia never looked back.
@@senakaweeraratna741 You are correct that World War II led to the downfall of European imperialism. This has more to do with the actions of Germany than Japan though. Britain and France were economically exhausted by the end of World War II and the British and French people had little stomach to fight wars to continue holding onto colonies that now saw their chance to demand Independence. On the few occasions where there was resistance to independence (such as France in Indochina) it did not go well for the former Imperial power.
Japan was not on a path to liberate Asia from the westerners so much as it was on a path to add those colonies to its own empire either as territories or protectorates.
@@CStone-xn4oyWhat I have said is that Japan was the only major country to have openly declared the liberation of Asia from Western colonial domination. No Western country gave even an empty promise. The war waged by the Axis powers weakened the Western colonial countries ultimately leading to grant of independence to their colonies. What matters is the final outcome and not the intention. Japan is entitled to credit for having played a critical role that led to the freedom of people in European colonies in Asia and Africa.
@@senakaweeraratna741 While you are correct about World War II weaking the European Imperial powers, I dispute your conclusion. Japan played little role in the independence of former European colonial possessions. Its greatest contribution to that cause was that its efforts weakened the British and they directly occupied French colonies. The war in Europe played a much larger role in weakening Britain and France.
Japan planned to liberate Asia in the same way that the Soviet Union liberated Eastern Europe. Under new management is a more accurate phrase.
@@CStone-xn4oy The Imperial Japanese Navy is entitled to credit for having chased the Royal Navy from the Indian Ocean. The sinking of the Prince of Wales ( flagship of the Royal Navy ) and 'Repulse' on December 08, 1941 off the waters of Singapore was in a sense the performance of the unthinkable. By these heroic acts Japan awakened the enslaved people in European colonies in Asia and Africa to fight for their freedom. Furthermore Japan came out with a catchy irresistible slogan ' Asia for Asians'.
It was difficult for enemies of Japan to beat that.
anyone who doesn't see Tojo as borderline on-par with Hitler, Stalin and on-par with Mussolini needs to wake up. He was a ruthless leader, and his actions were very much decisive. even if he was a "loayl servant to the emperor" is that not what Germany tried to say? "we were following orders, otherwise they'd of killed us too." that excuse doesn't fly.
But he wasn't on par. Hitler, Stalin and (for a time) Mussolini were real dictators - meaning they had a final say in anything.
Can you imagine Hitler or Stalin stepping down ? Even Mussolini was reinstated at the helm of nazi Italian Social Republic - because he was more than a politician. Tojo was replaced in 1944 and nobody blinked.
He was responsible for war as much as others from in or outside of Tōseiha - this doesn't mean that he should have been let go.
He should face consequences along with many others from officer corps, politics and the court - with crown princes and the main muppet as well.
@@buttercup9884 I’m gonna be honest, I think I was pretty drunk and trying to sleep when I made that original comment, but yeah. I agree with you lmao, I don’t know what I was saying calling him as bad as hitler or Stalin, he’s more of a Himmler or a Beria
A really interesting character. Japan is a epic story of victory syndrome.
The policy that obedience to authority is the highest duty not only of warriors, but of all citizens, is loathsome and was even so in ancient Athens. That is different from obedience to national or better still international law (which doesn't exist yet).
Among other things, and contrary to Alfred Tennyson's poem about the Light Brigade, there are times when disobedience to fools or villains is more heroic.
This was an amazing video to watch. So much detail to soak in.
Of all the major Axis leaders, Tojo may be the least researched. Everybody tends to focus on Hitler and to some extent Mussolini, and yet Tojo has become a nearly forgotten figure, despite the fact that he sanctioned countless acts of barbarism that rivaled anything the SS committed.
Tojo was very psychotic, jealous, and vengeful. He knew what was being done to everyone, especially the Chinese.
I learn so much from the People Profiles - thank you!
Thank you.
Whenever the narrator says "million" it sounds like "billion" to me and it keeps throwing me off lmao
Tojo was not a dictator. He was only an incompetent war leader.
东 條 英 机 ( Hideki Tojo) : Once upon a time, he was "War Minister" (+- 1940)
To all who keep complaining about us dropping the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, remember what Japan did to Nanking
And that their military policy was merely to make things as bloody as humanly possible.
People fail to understand what war is. It's the complete abandonment of civil discourse and it's substitution is total and utter barbarism, on both sides.
I would also add Sook Ching, Unit 731, Operation Sei-Go and Wenceslao Vinzons (Philippine Guerilla, look them up, fucking amazing). And for the odd man out (and I admit I only learned of him recently, but think he should be known more widely), Hitoshi Imamura.
Its wasnt the Japanese civilians who commited those atrocities, evil does not excuse evil
@@jamiecullum5567thr Japanese had conscripted all men women and children ages 12-80 into thr army. So really very few actual civillians died. Also a vast majority of thr population was aware of the illegal chemical experiments being done on human beings. The general population believed that it wasnt a big deal, because they are the superior race. So really not many "innocents" in japan during ww2. In fact almost 0.
Well done.
This was a wonderful documentary and I learned so much about the part that Tojo played in Japan’s brutal approach to war before and during World War Two. The staggering numbers of casualties alone is incredible in and of itself. Having watched a couple of documentaries on the rape of Nanking prior to viewing this one, I must say, it is hard to be sympathetic to man in his position of power “to turn a blind eye” to what his soldiers were doing in and around Nanking. It has to be one, of not the most horrific act of violence towards a population of non-combatants. A documentary worthy of a second viewing
Oh boy, I share a birthday with this guy. What company!
Japan great Asian nation fr WOW
Just ask the 25 million dead Chinese, the torture victims of the Japanese military, and millions of dead Japanese civilians how was Tojo. Blaming it on the Americans is more of British thing (your thing) than those of the Japanese
You have to spend the weekend with either Himmler or Tojo; who do you got?
0:23 hey look today is Tojo’s birthday !
An apparently universally overlooked factor in Japan’s defeat in WWII by western or at least, English language documentaries and other historical presentations, is that if Japan had not already been at war for years prior to its entry into WWII, its cause would not have been nearly as “hopeless” as such presentations would have audiences believe. Japan effortlessly beat Russia in a one on one conflict decades earlier, conquered Korea and China, and cleaned the ‘house’ of the Pacific Ocean of European colonies and forces before America issued its embargo of oil and other resources, which effectively compounded Japan’s already war and resource-exhausted state. Including a more rounded or objective assessment not only makes for more truthful narration, but makes any documentary or historical presentation much more interesting.
Not quite.
'if Japan had not already been at war for years prior to its entry into WWII, its cause would not have been nearly as “hopeless” as such presentations would have audiences believe. ' - each conquest had it price . The Japanese captured Korea and tried to subjugate China - but while Korea was 'consumed' relatively quickly (still 40 years after annexation Japanese mob routinly lynched Korean workers - there was little harmony) - China proved too big (even when divided between warlords and cliques after 1911 revolution) to gobble.
Domestically the cost of war made Japan ration food and resources before even going into Pacific War + political scene was shattered by assasinations and politically Japan was less and less flexible.
On the other hand if Japan did not go for raw materials into the continent they would have resources for war with the west. Manchukuo steel production exceeded Japan in late 1930s. Without resources from the continent Japanese couldn't go to war with west- but having this territories embroiled them in conflict with Chinese communists, warlords and govenment + Soviet Russia + western powers. Japan overextended itself before the war started - but without this commitment it would not have build such fleet to threaten US or British domination in Far East.
on side note ' Japan effortlessly beat Russia' - Japan was nearly bancrupt at the conclusion of Russo-Japanese War plus casualties were quite high.
Cheers
Japan did not "clean house". They just hung up a sign "Under new management" in form of the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Region", a thin fig-leaf for the exploitation of the conquered countries that made the European colonization pale into insignificance. Where the Europeans took the blood, the Japanese took the bones.
Basically Japan went to war to get the resources they needed to go to the war they needed to get the resources they needed... This strategy worked as long as the enemy was weak (Korea), preoccupied (Russia, 1905) or unstable (China). Likewise the successes in the nanshinron (Singapore, Philippines) was mainly due to the fact that the Europeans were preoccupied with the war in Europe (which had prompted the Japanese move, together with the crushing defeat in the North at Khalkin Ghol). Ironically, without the prior conquests, Japan would not have had the resources or the well drilled war machine to make the nanshinron a reality.
PS: The oil embargo was only installed after the occupation of Vietnam by Japan, as the Japanese bombers were now a direct threat to the British Singapore and Dutch Indonesia.
You can say the same thing about the U.S. being tied up in Europe and Africa. The inevitability is that Japan loses against the U.S. regardless.
Japan never conquered China. The Chinese were major participants in the fighting for Burma. Further, the Russians got their asses handed to them in the Russo-Japanese war, but they faced a much different Russian army in the 1930's. Tojo and Hirohito should have stopped the other militarists after the Mukden incident, because "let's just invade and enslave everyone within our reach" attitudes rarely bring good to nations.
Seems like a common sense idea and also a very scary one for what it can do.
I had a black lab, and anytime i'd mention TOJO, she'd go nuts. Fun-nom-i-nial.
The US forced Japans hand but the Japanese were unnecessary cruel and evil but then again war is hell.
Sorry, but Pearl Harbour was an unprovoked attack.
The US did not force Japans hand. The US tried by political means like embargo to get the Japanese to stop their unmitigated war of aggression. The Japanese would not, with the final upping the ante in Pearl Harbour. And they got what they asked for.
Just because there is war it’s not an excuse to open season on civilians and do whatever you want to them. As you see in time eventually a good nation prevails and then war criminals cry for decades that they didn’t do it. I can find people in many countries today that deny everything during WW2 and other conflicts(Serbia and Turkey come to mind).
It presents kind of an interesting perspective in that you could argue Japan’s people were also a victim of Tojo’s war crimes, because Japanese leaders knew the war was lost, but they encouraged such radicalization of their soldiers that they committed banzai attacks and honorable suicides in huge numbers, as is well known. However, so effective was Japanese propaganda at portraying Americans as subhuman monsters and rapists that even Japanese citizens, some even used as suicide incendiary devices by their own military late in the war, would kill themselves rather than receive aid by Americans
Thanks. I still hope to see Togo Heihachiro!
My mother was a teenager during the war and she remembers broadcasts about Japan. Here in the Midwest ToJo was a bigger villain than Hitler. They didn’t know about the Holocaust until later.
In the end, he got smacked in his shiny bald head by someone sitting behind him who had had enough light reflecting off his shiny bald head into that someone's eyes during the trial of execution by USAmerica.
the man is okawa syumei
Rank them accordingly too
The satsuma rebellion, they wanted Jaffas!
And Mandarins!
Very well-presented documentary. Pura Vida, YahuSeph
How about producing a doc on all the evil leaders of Japan?
Brutal and ruthless war leader or loyal servant of the Emperor who was treated as a convenient sacrifice to deflect blame from Hirohito? How about both?
There was no doubt as to his ruthlessness and at least cooperation with crimes against humanity, but also no doubt as to his devotion and was very willing to be hung if it meant saving the Emperor. He was a true believer in that respect, though he was no doubt much chagrined that his suicide attempt failed, thus forcing him to commit the unpardonable crime of being taken prisoner. An ironic twist of fate, considering how he failed to protect prisoners of war and refused to allow Japanese soldiers to surrender.
One thing is clear, it was neither easy nor safe to be prime minister of Japan in 30's and 40's. I for sure wouldn't have taken that job with the IJA and the IJN more or less doing what they wanted, and fanatics from both factions being ready to murder you if you tried to restrain either.
Great documentary.
Emperor Showa threw Tojo under the bus and made him take the fall for WW2.
He is just doing what the emperor wants
Better introduce it with the Perry's black ship invasion of 1853. Everything would be more clear to everyone.
As Prof. Robert Higgs pointed out, “U.S. economic warfare provoked Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor.
I strongly believe the concentration of the US fleet at Pearl Harbor and another concentration of B17 bombers in the Philippines posed a great threat upon the security of Japan (as Cuban Crisis the US experienced much later).
At the Imperial Conference, held on September 6, 1941, Nagano Osami, Navy Chief of Staff said to the Emperor Hirohito, “If we do not fight, we will be perished, even if we fight, we will be perished. However, if we don’t, that defeat means the true defeat losing the spirit of our nation. I we fight, our children and descendants will rise up again.”
As a Japanese, I cry every time when I read the Nagano’s statement. All the Japanese historians know that the Hull Note, issued on November 27, 1941, triggered the Pearl Harbor Attack. Japanese top leaders took it as an ultimatum and the FDR administration had no intention of negotiating the peace talks.
By destroying Japan, the Far East lost the bulwark that defended the expansion of Soviet Union. The Soviet Union invaded Manchukuo and mainland China fell into the hands of Mao’s communist China. As the result. The Korean War ensued.
The Pearl Harbour base meant shit. The threat of US intercepting transports from the "Southern Resource Area" read Indonesia, which Japan intended and did exploit mercilessly, was much bigger. What triggered the Pearl Harbour attack was the Japanese government hellbent on an aggressive war of exploitation, seeking to nip any US interference in the bud by a first strike (advocated most strongly by its chief architect Yamamoto Isoroku). And no, Japan was not a bulwark against communism. That is like saying a bullet to the head is a cure for brain cancer.
@@TomFynn
If the U.S. did not take blockade tactics to cut off the supply of resources (iron, rubber, oil, etc.) to Japan, there was no Pearl Harbor Attack. This siege strategy was called ABCD (America, Britain, China, Dutch Indies) Blockade, meaning the U.S. encouraged other European Colonial Powers in Asia not to supply such resources to Japan.
Just before the Pearl Harbor Attack, the U.S. Pacific fleet was concentrated in Pearl Harbor, and more than 30 B-17 bombers were stationed in the Philippines (Taiwan, then part of Japan, was within the bombing range).
It was like suffocating a person with a cotton towel at point of a knife. Japan was like a mouse cornered by a cat. Surprisingly, the cornered mouse jumped to bite the nose of the cat. After the war, in 1951, General MacArthur testified in the hearing held by the Congress, “Their (Japan's) purpose, therefore, in going to war was largely dictated by security.”
What the U.S./U.K. did in the WWII? At the 1945 Yalta Conference, they encouraged the Soviet Union to invade Manchuria. As the result, Manchuria was occupied by the Soviet Union, then Mainland China fell into the hands of Mao’s communist China. About a quarter of all humankind was placed under the communist rule and their dictatorship, BECAUSE FDR DESTROYED JAPAN AND GERMANY, a staunch bulwark to fend off bolshevism. I strongly believe FDR and Churchill are responsible for the human misery committed under the communist rule thereafter in East Europe and Far East (particularly, North Korea and China).
In addition to the above, I have more to say. Manchukuo, one of the highest civilizations at the time enjoyed by many Mongolians, Manchurians, Chinese, Koreans and Japanese was annihilated in the process. Manchukuo’s flourished prosperity was devoured and scavenged by greedy Russians and the Chinese. The U.S. and the U.K. became grave diggers of Manchukuo. The act of destroying the civilization is a serious crime in human history.
@@danpeitange2471 "enjoyed by many Mongolians, Manchurians, Chinese, Koreans and Japanese" And if you believe that, I have a bridge to sell to you.
@@TomFynn
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