General (Tojo)'s heir fights for his memory

Aljazeera English Web Site ^ | Thursday 28 July 2005, 0:48 Makka Time, 21:48 GMT | Julian Ryall, Yuko Tojo

[LibertarianInExile]

Tojo says her grandfather, General Hideki Tojo, has become unfairly associated with war crimes trials that, she says, were simply victors' justice..."The tribunals after the war went against international law because it is clear that any independent country has the right to defend itself through military means," says Yuko Tojo, 66, who is married but retains the family name. "It was a war of self-defence," she says. "Japan was being held back by the ABCD line of America, Britain, China and the Dutch, who had together imposed an economic embargo, so there was no choice.

This is his GRANDAUGHTER. But there are plenty of folks here who allege that Japan is completely free of this kind of thinking and any such beliefs are merely a noisy minority of old men waiting to die.

Yet Koizumi keeps going to the Yazukuni shrine every year. And the national museum next to it still claims WWII was a war of defense, and that the Rape of Nanking was 'defending the city.' Is he doing this to make a few old men happy, or a significant number of Japanese voters?

I'm sorry, but every time I hear someone here say we should give the Japanese their own defense and give them the bomb, I shudder, considering what they did at their worst. Even the Nazis didn't treat EVERY prisoner who came under their control as a subhuman. That doesn't make the Nazis fine people, but geez, at least the Nazis are still vilified on TV and in movies every day...while Tom Cruise makes movies about the Last Samurai as if the "last samurais" didn't go off and decapitate and disembowel American POWs, and we see nothing but Karate Kid and Anime when it comes to pop culture references about Japan.

I worry about China, too, but a rearmed Japan will be just as unpredictable and probably just as dangerous as China is today.

[SevenofNine]

OMG you met Emperor Hitrito hey AIT what he really like in person really like at that time he must be doting grandpa LOL!

[KimmyJaye]

Ping.

Leatherneck: Article mentions Peleliu. If ya can post a pic or two I sent ya, that would be great. I don't have the capacity to do it.

My son went to Peleliu last year for the 60th anniversary and Ms. Tojo was there too. She spoke breifly. What surprised my son was how some of the vets who managed to leave the island of Peleliu in 1944 alive, held no hard feelings against her grandfather. Odd.

[Age of Reason]

Let's worry about China.

Indeed let's worry about China.

The recently industrialized Japan attacked Pearl Harbor when we got in the way of Japan getting oil.

In a few more years China's huge population will be needing an awful lot of oil.

[Age of Reason]

Japan was being held back by the ABCD line of America, Britain, China and the Dutch, who had together imposed an economic embargo, so there was no choice.

Held back from what--attack and conquest of their neighboring countries?

Everyone (especially free traders) should remember that Japan was a medieval country that didn't cause any trouble until we got them to trade with us.

[Polybius]

Naziism, Facism and Communism are all movements of the left. They disagree on little but methodology.

And, most importantly, which one of them was going to be the top dog.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Well, actually...Never 'met' the man, just saw him--fairly close--several times at Imperial Palace events in Tokyo, etc. Very frail old man. Lots of sins to account for no doubt.

[SevenofNine]

Yeah at end of his life Emperor Hiterio look very frial he has lots to answer for