Remembrances of Tojo

To Americans at war, Hideki Tojo epitomized all that was evil in Japan's ruling military clique. As the commander of the Imperial Army and Prime Minister (1941-43), he personally ordered the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor that provoked U.S. entry into World War II. This week, as Japan prepares to mark the 25th anniversary of its unconditional surrender in that war, the memory of Tojo has all but faded to most Americans and even to many Japanese.

In contrast to Hitler or Mussolini, Tojo's countrymen place no special blame on him for the start of Japan's most catastrophic military adventure. If an opinion poll were taken today in Japan, most people, if they remembered him at all, would probably regard him with either neutral or sympathetic feelings. As one recent Japanese textbook improbably insisted, Japan was left with no other choice except to go to war with the Allies, and Tojo was simply the man who pushed the button.

Blissful Obedience. The memory of Tojo is still keenly alive for his widow, who talked recently with TIME's S. Chang. "He is still watching over us," insisted Mrs. Tojo, who keeps his full-length portrait on the wall of the modest Tokyo home that they shared for many years. At 79, she is shrunken with age. Nonetheless, she readily recalls her life of blissful obedience to Tojo, whose keen mind and demanding ways won him the nickname "the Razor" from his subordinates.

During his years in power, Tojo never deigned to discuss affairs of state with his wife; she learned of the attack on Pearl Harbor on the radio. But on the day of Japan's surrender her husband was more communicative. By then, because of military setbacks, he had been dismissed as Premier, had lost his general's rank and had been ousted from other government posts. They listened together to the radio announcement by Emperor Hirohito. As she remembers, Tojo received the news calmly and took another cup of coffee and a cigarette, his only luxuries, to help him to formulate his thoughts.

Then he told her: "Time has come for all of us to start reconstructing peace around the world." He added: "Remember, to live is sometimes even harder than to die." And what did she have to say to this lordly bit of Tojoism? "I responded as I had to all of his utterances ever since I became his wife at the age of 18. I bowed low to him and said Hai [yes]," she recalled with a captivating smile.

For the first month of the U.S. occupation, Tojo and his wife lived undisturbed in their Tokyo home. But one day in mid-September a group of foreign correspondents burst into his home unexpectedly. At the sight of the newsmen, who were dressed in Army uniforms, Tojo immediately told his wife to flee out the back door. After exhaling another Hai, she did. Then Tojo, perhaps to save his honor, tried to commit suicide with a revolver but he only managed to wound himself. Mrs. Tojo, disobeying the command of her husband for the first time in her life, crept back to the house to watch as American MPs came to carry her bleeding husband away.

Faith in the Future. She saw Tojo for the last time in a Tokyo prison on Dec. 18, 1948, only four days before his execution for war crimes. As they spoke together, he dismissed the handcuffs on his wrists. "These things are of no importance because nothing can put a yoke on my mind, and my mind remains as free as ever," he told her. He kept repeating, she recalls, that Japan was a great nation and that everything would work all right for the country.

Tojo's own family are a case in point. His eldest surviving son, who is one of Japan's leading aeronautical engineers, drafted the twin-engine YS-11 transport, which has re-established Japan in the international aircraft business. The other surviving son is a Japanese air force colonel. Tojo's three daughters are all married and comfortable. His youngest daughter, Kimie, who studied international relations at the University of Michigan, is married to an American consulting engineer based in Tokyo.

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