A Yank Magazine reporter recalls the day that the American Army authorities came to arrest the former Prime Minister of Imperial Japan, General Hideko Tojo (1884 - 1948). Tojo served as Japan's Prime Minister between 1941 and 1944 and is remembered for having ordered the attack on the American naval installation at Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941), as well as the invasions of many other Western outposts in the Pacific. He was removed from office by Emperor Hirohito (1901 — 1989) in the summer of 1944 for his incompetence. The article describes the efforts of Lt. Jack Wilpers who is credited for prolonging the life of Tojo after his amateur suicide attempt and seeing to it that the man kept his date with the hangman. Nominated for the Bronze Star, he was decorated in 2010: read The WashingtonPost article.
Click here to read about his war crimes trial.
The morning after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt stood before the microphones in the well of the U.S. Capitol asking Congress to declare war against Japan; click here to hear about the reactions of the American public during his broadcast...
Four years after the Pearl Harbor attack, a Japanese newspaper editorial expressed deep regret for Japan's aggressiveness in the Second World War, click here to read about it...
Articles about the daily hardships in post-war Germany can be read by clicking here.
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