Hideki Tojo called himself an ordinary man with only a capacity for work
People who knew the young Hideki Tojo judged him of average intelligence, and he agreed, crediting stubborn hard work for everything. That grinding persistence carried him from a poor samurai family to Japan's premiership in October 1941, weeks before Pearl Harbor. His government's wartime atrocities led to his conviction at the Tokyo Trials and execution in 1948.
Tojo was born in Tokyo's Kōjimachi district on 30 December 1884, third son of an army lieutenant general. His family were low-ranking samurai, respectable but short of money. A combative, humourless boy, he idolised the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, entered the Army Cadet School in 1899 and graduated tenth of 363 from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1905.
Several experiences hardened his outlook toward the West. He shared the national fury at the 1905 Treaty of Portsmouth, which many Japanese believed had cheated them of their gains against Russia. After serving as military attaché in Germany from 1919 to 1922, where he absorbed the idea of a totalitarian defence state, he crossed the United States by train and came away thinking Americans soft and money-obsessed. The 1924 American law barring Asian immigration left him bitter, convinced Japan had to be strong to survive.
Nicknamed Razor for his quick, legalistic mind, Tojo belonged to the Control Faction, which preferred reshaping the state from within over the rival Imperial Way faction's call for a coup. In 1934 he contributed to an Army Ministry book urging Japan to become a totally mobilised national defence state. He led the Kwantung Army's military police in Manchuria from 1935, was its chief of staff during the 1937 invasion of China, and as Army Minister from 1940 pushed for alliance with Germany and Italy.
Emperor Hirohito appointed him prime minister in October 1941. His cabinet oversaw the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, imposed censorship, used the Kempeitai against dissent and promoted the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere as cover for expansion. After defeat at Midway in June 1942 the war turned, and the fall of Saipan forced his resignation on 18 July 1944. Following Japan's surrender the Allied tribunal in Tokyo found him guilty over crimes committed under his government, including mass killings of prisoners and civilians, and hanged on 23 December 1948.
Source: Hideki Tojo
