Classified DOCUMENTS OF THE US MILITARY confirmed for the first time that the ashes of 7 Class-A war criminals, including Hideki Tojo, were raised into the Pacific

According to Japan's Kyodo News Agency on June 7, the archives recording the whereabouts of the ashes of 7 Class-A war criminals of the Japanese army who invaded China, including Hideki Tojo, were recently discovered for the first time. According to the contents of the file, a US major said that "I scattered the ashes in the Pacific", confirming the rumors that the ashes of Class A war criminals such as Hideki Tojo were not returned to their families, but were raised into the Pacific.

The archives were written by the U.S. Eighth Army, which was headquartered in Yokohama during the Allied occupation of Japan. This time, Hiroaki Takasawa, a lecturer at a Japanese university, obtained the archive at the National Archives of the United States. Details of the handling of the ashes are recorded in two top-secret archives that have been declassified, one on December 23, 1948, when seven people were executed, and the other on January 4, 1949. U.S. Army Major Luthor Frison, who was in charge, recorded the process under the title "Detailed Report on the Execution of War Criminals and the Final Disposal of Corpses."

Archives show that after midnight on December 23, 1948, Hideki Tojo and seven other Class-A war criminals were executed at Sugamo Prison in Tokyo, in the presence of Major Frison. The truck carrying the body departed from the prison at 2:10 a.m. and arrived at the U.S. Quartermaster Quartermaster Cemetery Registration Squad in Yokohama City about an hour and a half later. The truck left the squad station at 7:25 a.m. and arrived at the city's crematorium (now Kubo-Sansai Field) after 30 a.m. By 8:05 a.m., the bodies were transported from trucks directly into an incinerator for cremation.

According to records, after the cremation, the ashes of 7 people were loaded into the columbarium and transported to the airfield where the Eighth Army was stationed. Major Frison said: "I flew in a liaison plane over the Pacific Ocean (about 48 kilometers) about 30 miles east of Yokohama and scattered the ashes on a large scale. ”

Siebold, director of foreign affairs at the U.S. Allied Forces General Command (ghq), who was present at the time of the execution, later wrote in his book: "In order not to let the cemetery of Class A war criminals be regarded as sacred in the future, the method of scattering ashes was finally adopted." ”

Kyodo News Agency said there had been rumors or speculations that the ashes of the seven people were scattered in the Pacific, but it had not been able to find the US military files confirming the matter.