Tojo Thought Japanese Were "Spiritless"

[Mulboyne]

[floatl][/floatl]Asahi: Tojo, in wartime notes, blamed Japan's WWII defeat on weakness of leaders and people
Notes penned by wartime leader Hideki Tojo in the closing days of World War II show that he thought government leaders and the population were spineless for supporting unconditional surrender to the allied forces. He also thought the imperial system should be preserved at all costs, and that if this was not acceptable to the allies, Japan should continue fighting to the last man. Tojo, who was executed for war crimes on Dec. 23, 1948, feared a public backlash against the imperial forces if Japan agreed to unconditional surrender. Were that to happen, he wrote that "the Japanese people will curse the military forces (of imperial Japan)"...more...

[Midwinter]

What a bastard. Of course, the fact that they lost had nothing to do with the near impossibility of maintaining supply lines and the general bad assery of Allied forces. That's right, bad assery!

[Takechanpoo]

As is the case with postwar's J-prime ministers, Tojo was just a prime minister by chance when WW2 happend. He was no more than a ordinary bureaucrat.

[Behan]

As is the case with postwar's J-prime ministers, Tojo was just a prime minister by chance when WW2 happend. He was no more than a ordinary bureaucrat.

No, he wasn't. He was a career military man from a military family.

Do you just make things up? An advantage of being a troll, I guess.

[blackcat]

" Tojo was just a prime minister by chance when WW2 happend. He was no more than a ordinary bureaucrat."

That would mean the same for several Nazis then...LOL fuckwit

[Choeki]

Not so sure about the "spirit" part (since it can be argued that one of the reasons Japan lost is because they relied on spirit more than resources or industrial might...), but he was right about the "cursing the military" thing after the surrender.

Interesting thing I ran into regarding his family lineage though - descendants of Korean collaborators from the occupation seem to be under the impression that Tojo was at least 1/4 ethnic Korean.

[dimwit]

Tojo in modern times would have made a great post office clerk; really interested in who was been stealing the office stationary while utterly ignoring the question of whether the post office in question is evenly economically viable.

[Charles]

..Tojo, who was executed for war crimes on Dec. 23, 1948, feared a public backlash against the imperial forces if Japan agreed to unconditional surrender. Were that to happen, he wrote that "the Japanese people will curse the military forces (of imperial Japan)"...

Now that would be intolerable, a populace overwhelmingly opposed to their government's pursuit of a ruinous war.

I note this "dispirited" theme appears in the occupation. John Dower's book "Embracing Defeat" described an immediate postwar period of total dispiritedness. This was no doubt primed by the assholes like Tojo propagandizing attitudes like the only way to lose the war was if the people fail to live up to the government's aims.

[klimmer]

It's always someone else's fault.

[DrP]

I agree with Tojo - we should have encouraged them to fight to the last man. We still had a few 'fat boys' in the closet, and hey, Japan would be a fairly nice annex -- especially if it was just the women...

[Choeki]

Now that would be intolerable, a populace overwhelmingly opposed to their government's pursuit of a ruinous war.

I note this "dispirited" theme appears in the occupation. John Dower's book "Embracing Defeat" described an immediate postwar period of total dispiritedness. This was no doubt primed by the assholes like Tojo propagandizing attitudes like the only way to lose the war was if the people fail to live up to the government's aims.

I recall that it was spelled out in that very book as the military and government lying up to the bitter end just how poorly they had fared and the surrender coming as a surprise (and for some, a betrayal of their explicit trust). Particularly poignant was that they began calling the military uniform worn by demobilized soldiers after the surrender "loser suits."