[A_Former_Democrat]

They should’ve dropped a third bomb on his ass then asked if he wanted to surrender.

[TASMANIANRED]

The world would be a radically different place had not the Japanese bombed Pearl.

[ClearCase_guy]

Two cities vaporized, and Tojo still wanted to fight. If we hadn't destroyed those cities, think how many Japanese leaders would have pushed for a fight to the end.

I have always considered the bombing of Horoshima and Nagasaki to be among the greatest humanitarian events of the 20th century. Probably saved a million lives.

[sinanju]

I remember as a teen flipping through bound volumes of “Stars and Stripes: Pacific” from the era and reading the story of the team sent to arrest Tojo. He tried to shoot himself in the heart because he didn’t want to mess up his profile. He missed and was tried and went to the noose.

The Imperial Japanese had two full weeks between Hirohito’s announcement of surrender and the landing of Occupation Forces to destroy documents and evidence.

[Cousin Eddie]

“accusing surrender proponents of being “frightened,”

Let’s see...two vaporized cities...something that was incomprehensible in those days.

“Your right, Tojo. I’m frightened. And your point is.......?”

[atomic conspiracy]

For the sake of clarity it should be noted that Tojo was out of power and living in seclusion by the time of the atomic bombings. He had been forced to resign as prime minister after the fall of Saipan in July 1944. One may speculate though that he hoped to redeem himself and return to power leading a last-ditch national suicide stand against the allies.

[mkjessup]

All the more reason for us to hang the sonuvabitch, back in the day when actions (like Pearl Harbor) had consequences (like Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the hangman’s noose).

[fso301]

They should’ve dropped a third bomb on his ass then asked if he wanted to surrender.

Give the guy a measure of credit for not being a hypocrite. Unlike so many of "leaders" in the mideast, Tojo did try to avoid capture by committing suicide but he bungled the attempt, US medics brought him back to good health, he was tried and hanged.

[Bender2]

My Father had been in the Army since 1940... having fought in three invasions and six campaigns all over North Africa and Europe, so at the beginning of August, 1945, he was getting ready to ship out to the Pacific for the invasion of Japan.

Years later... he told me he had no doubt the A-bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved his life. He felt his number was up after all he been through from 1940-45.

If the truth be told, those bombings saved my Father's life and millions of Japanese lives also!

[Eye of Unk]

Personally I think future warfare should be technologically aimed at removing the absolute top tiers of leadership instead of a mass conflict of armies, be it sanctions, or kidnapping I am sure it can be done, just imagine what it could be if Hitler was shot dead by a sniper before the invasion of Poland, or Stalin.If it was never possible to build a Star Trek type of transporter a laser from space could replace an assassins bullet.

[FrdmLvr]

This diary of Tojo’s certainly takes the wind out of one of the left’s favorite lies, that Japan was in the initial stages of surrender when we dropped the bomb. An inconvenient diary?

[RayChuang88]

I think Hirohito's decision to override the Japanese military and surrender was perhaps one of the most humanitarian acts of the 20th Century. Otherwise, the combination of Operations Olympic (the invasion of Kyushu Island) and Coronet (the invasion of the Kanto Plain area that included Tokyo) could have cost 1 million American casualties and maybe 12-14 times that in Japanese casualties!

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

And then we hanged the sonofabitch!

[dfwgator]

But....but.....I thought the Japs were just about to surrender before we bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

[Billthedrill]

Allow me a gentle dissent. Tojo took one for his Emperor. It should have been Hirohito who was hung. Despite postwar revisionism Hirohito participated personally in the prewar planning - my source here is Bergamini's Japan's Imperialist Conspiracy. Tojo, who was busy in China, did not, and in fact had expressed reservations about declaring war on America. When he was summoned to the Emperor he thought he was going to be fired for it. Instead, he was placed in the position of promoting the war.

This is decidedly not the conventional view but I offer it for consideration. Certainly Tojo had a good deal to atone for. A very great deal, actually, including possibly 8 million deaths in China and a connection with the hideous Japanese medical experiments on prisoners. But not for declaring the war.

He was forcibly retired following the fall of Saipan in 1944 and so his opinion concerning the defense of the homeland was little more than that, an opinion. I won't say I'm sorry we hanged him, but I will say there were a lot of equally guilty people who got off scot-free. IMHO, of course.

[SunkenCiv]

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[wildbill]

This ought to fire up their nationalists.

Do I hear calls for a Greater Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere?

[Law is not justice but process]

“died-in-the-wool”?

Come on AP, you’re better than that!

[Repeal The 17th]

I’ve been puzzling over this all day and had to wait
until I got home to ask this question...
How (by what method) did the japs signal their surrender?
How did we know they were giving up?
How did we know it was not just a trick or stalling tactic?

[gaijin]

A propos of nothing:

1. During his pre-execution captivity in Tokyo's Sugamo Prison, Tojo's US Navy dentist drilled into his patient's dentures, "Remember Pearl Harbor" in Morse Code. Tojo was hanged wearing these same dentures.

2. Tojo was a really great dad (just throwing that in there).

3. J Army pilots took off and engaged US aircraft in combat after hearing the Emperor's "let's surrender" broadcast.

4. There were several very desperate firefights (a couple on the very grounds of the Imperial Castle) to try and intercept the surrender recording (it was not live); militants were claiming that the Emperor had been kidnapped and was forced into the broadcast.