Soldiers, murder weapons also. Macroscopically, all wars are "civil wars" because all mankind is actually fellow citizens. However, throughout human history, there have always been some militants who have waged wars of aggression for their own selfish interests. Of course, history has also proved that such people will eventually be punished as they deserve, and there will be no good end.
This includes Hideki Tojo, a Japanese Class A war criminal in World War II, whose history not only records the entire process of his hanging, but also his ashes were finally thrown into the sea.
Hideki Tojo was an important representative of Japanese militarism and the main brainer who launched the Pacific War and the War of Aggression against China. In Japan, he could basically correspond to hitler and Mussolini's position in Europe, and he was a notorious fascist leader.
Hideki Tojo was then Prime Minister of Japan and Prime Minister, known in the Kwantung Army as a Razor General, and acted in a brutal and vicious manner, arbitrarily and arbitrarily. Hideki Tojo came from a military family, and "belligerence" can be said to be their family tradition. His father, Hideyoshi Tojo, was a first-term graduate of the Army University and fought in the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War.
He specially invited someone to teach Hideki Tojo swordsmanship at home, and cultivated his spirit of Bushido from an early age. In this family atmosphere, Hideki Tojo established his own ambition early on, to conquer the north and south, to make meritorious achievements, and to serve the emperor.
He underwent rigorous militarization training from an early age, and was admitted all the way from the local military academy to the non-commissioned officer school, full of fanatical war dreams of aggression and expansion and loyalty to the emperor. During his school days, Hideki Tojo's grades were not very good, but he was known for fighting fiercely, and even in the face of opponents with huge physical strength and height, he did not show weakness and never accepted defeat, and was known as the "King of Fighting".
After the September 18 Incident, Hideki Tojo became the commander of the gendarmerie of the Kwantung Army, brutally suppressing the resistance struggle of the Chinese people in northeast China. In 1941, Hideki Tojo became Prime Minister of Japan and was commissioned by the Emperor to form a cabinet, at a time when he was comparable to the shogunate during the Meiji Restoration, and he was in a position of power.
In his inaugural statement, Hideki Tojo, who had reached the pinnacle of his life, could not wait to "complete the Indochina Incident", "establish the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere", and "spread the glory of the emperor to all parts of the world through jihad".
But if there is more help for the righteous and less help, justice will triumph over evil. The war situation took a sharp turn for the worse, and Japan was dragged on by the internal attrition of the war and was on the verge of political bankruptcy. The defeat of a series of battles intensified the downfall of opposition forces in Japan, and Hideki Tojo gradually lost the trust and support of the emperor.
On July 22, 1945, on the eve of Japan's unconditional surrender, Hideki Tojo officially announced his resignation as Prime Minister. In September of the same year, Hideki Tojo was included in the first wanted list of Class A war criminals.
However, at this time, Hideki Tojo, who was afraid of death, had fled to the countryside with his family and relatives to hide, in an attempt to evade trial and sanctions by a military tribunal. However, the U.S. military discovered his whereabouts. At about 4 p.m. on September 11, the Allied commander, Major Klaus, led the gendarmes to Hideki Tojo's residence with a warrant of arrest signed by MacArthur himself.
Hideki Tojo, the number one war criminal who had been fanatically pursuing war and killing others all his life, actually flinched at this moment. He was afraid to face judgment, and even more afraid to face death. So he lied that he was going to go into the study alone with some belongings, and then a gunshot rang out from the room—he shot himself in the heart, fearing for suicide. However, perhaps because of the tension, the bullet was deflected and just passed through the lungs. This murderous war demon, who did not blink, actually lost his hand when he committed suicide. Major Klaus kicked the door open and took Hideki Tojo, who had collapsed in a pool of blood, to the hospital for treatment, and three months later, Hideki Tojo, who had recovered from health, was taken to Sugamo Prison pending trial by the International Court of Justice.
When word spread about Hideki Tojo's suicide attempt, it became a joke among others. The Americans described him as "the last disgrace this fellow has lost his credibility and been abandoned by the Japanese, but he is looking for himself"; and in Japanese Bushido culture, he should commit suicide by cutting his stomach, not using a gun like a coward.
While in Sugamo Prison, the other war criminals looked down on Hideki Tojo and didn't even speak to him. After the trial of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, Hideki Tojo's crimes were innumerable, and among the fifty-five crimes listed by the court, Hideki Tojo alone accounted for fifty-four, which can be said to be full of evil.
However, Hideki Tojo did not admit guilt and tried his best to avoid responsibility in order to escape punishment.
He argues that the decision to go to war is not his decision, but the cabinet of the government; and brazenly argues that it is not aggression but liberation, that wars are induced by the aggressor countries; and that Japan is not provoking war but acting in self-defense; and that the greater East Asia policy of co-prosperity is not Japan's militarism, but the common will of all East Asian countries.
He also said, "Japan is like an adult young adult, wearing the clothes of a ten-year-old child." Too small to find ways to expand", this ridiculous remark. At the same time, Hiroshi Hirota and Ken Doihara, who were also tried, also entrusted lawyers to appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States on their behalf, in an attempt to obtain the opportunity to change the verdict in the third instance and prolong their lives in the world.
These war criminals are arrogant and almost crazy in the war, but when they face trial, they are clever, cowardly, and afraid of death. In Japan, the general public has long recognized the true ugly face of Hideki Tojo, and many Japanese veterans also believe that war criminals, including Hideki Tojo, should be responsible and apologize for this war that "destroys the homes of their own people and cuts off the way to life.".
The evidence of the crime of aggression is overwhelming, and these war criminals must not be allowed to talk about it. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately refused to accept the war criminals' appeals, and the military tribunal eventually convicted Hideki Tojo of waging war and invading other countries and sentenced him to death by hanging.
While waiting for the death penalty, the U.S. military placed Hideki Tojo in a separate detention room, strictly supervised 24 hours a day. Hideki Tojo knew that time was running out and that he lacked the skills to return to heaven. He lost a sharp amount of food, lost his weight rapidly, and muttered to himself all day long, reading the haiku poem "The earthly mountains are rising from the beginning, and no one is afraid and no one is worried."
He left a brief suicide note to his loved ones, asking them to remain silent after his death to protect themselves; he also encouraged his wife to live bravely and live like a warrior. Before the execution, Hideki Tojo made two demands, one was to eat a traditional Japanese dish, and the other was to see the famous Buddhist master Hanayama Nobukatsu again.
The U.S. military passed it. But for him, it was always time to come. The person in charge of the execution site was U.S. Army Major Luthor Frison, who left behind a file detailing the entire process of Hideki Tojo's hanging at that time.
On December 22, 1948, the U.S. military provided the last meal of Japanese cuisine for Hideki Tojo and other war criminals. He also arranged for Hanayama Nobukatsu to pray for his chanting.
At 00:00 that night, Hideki Tojo and seven others were hanged. The execution required the signature of a war criminal, and Hideki Tojo, who had been trained in Bushido since childhood and had prided himself on being tough all his life, actually trembled with his hands and feet because he did not listen to the call, and his name was written in a crooked and twisted manner. Duck Nest Prison has a special hanging execution room, and there are thirteen steps to the gallows.
Hideki Tojo was one of the first war criminals to be executed, and when the time came, he was verified and ascended 13 steps, covered with a black cloth over his head and a noose around his neck. Under the supervision of Soviet, American, British, and Chinese representatives, the executioner issued an order to carry out the hanging.
The trapdoor of the execution table "slammed" open, and the body of the war criminal fell with it, and the noose straightened at once. With the violent vibration of the noose, there were miserable and desperate groans and cries. After a few minutes, both the noose and the air returned to tranquility.
The United States and the Soviet Union each sent a forensic doctor with a stethoscope to examine the war criminals, and then came out and whispered a report to an American colonel. The colonel turned and shouted to the firing officer in a scrambling posture that "the criminal has been confirmed to have been killed!" The noose of execution was then cut and the body was lifted out.
After the relevant personnel removed the black cloth on Hideshi Tojo's head, they found that he was actually full of tears. I wonder what Hideki Tojo was thinking when he walked the last thirteen steps of his life? Is it because of fear of imminent death? Or repentance for your sins?
After the hanging was completed, at about 2:10 a.m., the truck carrying the bodies of war criminals drove out of the prison, and after an hour and a half of driving to the U.S. Military Quartermaster Office cemetery in Yokohama to register, the truck set off again to the Kuboyama Crematorium.
After the cremation, the U.S. military carefully cleaned up the incinerator to ensure that every ashes was placed in the jar prepared in advance. The purpose of this is to completely eliminate these war criminals, so as to prevent certain ultra-nationalist elements in Japan from taking advantage of the theme to play again, resurrect from the ashes, and erect monuments to worship.
The columbarium was then transported to the military airfield, where it was personally escorted by Luthor Frieson. The plane circled over the Pacific Ocean, 50 kilometers east of Yokohama, before the ashes were thrown out to sea by U.S. forces.
During his tenure as Prime Minister of Japan, Hideki Tojo deliberately launched the Pacific War and the War of Aggression against China, attacked Pearl Harbor, frantically invaded other countries, and trampled on the lives of innocent people. Evil is full of evil, and sin is unforgivable. No matter how brazen Hideki Tojo's pretentious arguments and reckless nonsense before his death, the truth will always belong to the righteous side.
Because of the fear of death, he accidentally died twice; all his life he flaunted the spirit of Bushido, but he secretly gave birth to a secret. Hideki Tojo's shamelessness is destined to be nailed to the pillar of shame in world history. In the end, he was hanged and crushed, which was also deserved.
History should not be forgotten, and the truth will never tolerate distortion. No excuse is enough to justify glorifying aggression. Humanity should never forget the bloody and dark historical memory, which is the nature and conscience of all peoples. Remember history, my generation self-reliance.