Tojo, Hideki << toh joh, hee deh kee >> (1884-1948), was the general who, as prime minister of Japan, led his country into war with the United States in 1941. Tojo first achieved national influence in the late 1930’s as chief of staff of Japan’s Kwantung Army, which had gained control of Manchuria .
Tojo was one of a group of political thinkers called militarists who believed that military interests should overrule democratic development within Japan. By provoking “incidents,” they tried to commit their government to decisive steps in expanding its authority in and beyond Japan. They had engineered the Manchurian Incident, or Mukden Incident, an explosion on a Japanese-run railway in Manchuria in 1931. The militarists blamed the Chinese for the explosion and used it as an excuse to occupy Manchuria. The incident was the first of a series of aggressive acts that led to an undeclared conflict called the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945 .
The United States applied economic pressure to halt the Japanese aggression. Tojo and other militarists became convinced that Japan would have to fight the United States to secure access to Southeast Asia’s natural resources—particularly oil—needed for the war with China. By 1936, military leaders had firm control of Japan’s government.
In 1940, Tojo became minister of war. He helped negotiate the Tripartite Pact, a 1940 treaty with Germany and Italy that made Japan a member of the alliance called the Axis . As American embargoes on oil to Japan began to strain the Japanese economy, Tojo insisted that if an agreement with the United States could not be reached, Japan would have to fight. In October 1941, Tojo was appointed prime minister. When talks with the United States proved unsuccessful, Tojo ordered the bombing of the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor , Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941.
Tojo’s popularity in Japan was high after the early victories of World War II , but his influence waned as American victories began to turn the tide. He was forced to resign as prime minister in 1944 after the United States captured the Pacific island of Saipan . He was arrested and convicted as a war criminal after Japan’s surrender and was hanged on Dec. 23, 1948.
Tojo was born on Dec. 30, 1884,in Tokyo to a family with a military background.
