Tôjô Hideki

Tôjô Hideki (b. 30 Dec. 1884, d. 23 Dec. 1948). Prime Minister of Japan 1941–4 In his early career, Tôjô demonstrated outstanding qualities as an army officer, graduating top of his class at staff college in 1915. Afterwards he held various staff appointments, until being posted to the Guandong Army, where he combined forces with the bureaucrat Kishi Nobusuke and Aikawa Yoshitsuke the industrialist to form the Manchuria faction. He was Chief of Staff of the Guandong Army 1937–8, before becoming Vice-Minister of War (1938–9), and then Minister of War (1940–4). As leader of the ‘Control Faction’ within the Imperial Army, he helped promote the continuing armed engagement of Japanese forces in China. He accelerated the preparations for conflict with the USA, while other leaders sought its de-escalation, and then advocated Japan's unrestrained prosecution of the war. He was a supporter of the alliance with the Axis Powers and worked to ensure cooperation with Vichy France to secure Japanese bases in Indochina, from which Japan's Malayan campaigns were to be launched after Japan's entry into World War II. His political intrigues in October 1941 contributed to the fall of Prime Minister Konoe Fuminaro's government. As Konoe's successor he gave the orders that launched the attack on Pearl Harbor. During 1942 he gradually took increased powers in the government, including responsibility for the military procurement ministry, and became Chief of the General Staff. Once the course of the war turned decisively against Japan in 1944, Tôjô's position was undermined, and his Cabinet resigned in July. After the war he was found guilty at the Tokyo Trials and hanged.