Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

New Memo Reveals Japanese Leaders' Thoughts on Eve of Pearl Harbor
The Christian Science Monitor ^ | July 30, 2018 | Mari Yamaguchi

Posted on 07/31/2018 11:28:01 AM PDT by Jagermonster

A used bookshop owner in Japan found the memo tucked away in a journal. The document gives the first glimpse into conversation between Emperor Hirohito and Prime Minister Hideki Tojo on the eve of the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Tokyo –– A newly released memo by a wartime Japanese official provides what a historian says is the first look at the thinking of Emperor Hirohito and Prime Minister Hideki Tojo on the eve of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that thrust the United States into World War II.

While far from conclusive, the five-page document lends credence to the view that Hirohito bears at least some responsibility for starting the war.

At 8:30 p.m. in Tokyo, just hours before the attack, Tojo summoned two top aides for a countdown to war briefing. One of them, Vice Interior Minister Michio Yuzawa, wrote an account three hours after the meeting was over.

"The emperor seemed at ease and unshakable once he had made a decision," he quoted Tojo as saying.

To what extent Hirohito was responsible for the war is a sensitive topic in Japan, and the bookseller who discovered the memo kept it under wraps for nearly a decade before releasing it to Japan's Yomiuri newspaper, which published it last week. Hirohito was protected from indictment in the Tokyo war crimes trials during a US occupation that wanted to use him as a symbol to rebuild Japan as a democratic nation. Hirohito died in 1989 at age 87 after 62 years on the throne.

"It took me nine years to come forward, as I was afraid of a backlash," said bookshop owner Takeo Hatano, who handled the document carefully as he showed it to Associated Press journalists. "But now I hope ...

(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government; Japan
KEYWORDS: hirohito; pearlharbor; tojo; ww2; wwii
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-79 next last
To: chajin
The essential point is that Hirohito wasn’t the figurehead-nerd-marine-biologist...

Yep, which would have been a bit hard to believe in any case given Hirohito's occasional public appearance in uniform and on horseback. But it's a reasonable assumption in Japan because nearly all of modern Japanese history (Tokugawa through Meiji) has the Emperor a virtual prisoner of the military. I sort of lean toward Bergamini's picture of a 25-year-old taking over from his father and wanting to assert himself and his country in a new, exciting, industrializing, expansionist world. It's a little hard to accept that Hirohito was either ignorant of or incurious about the invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and of China in 1937. That was a decade of warfare before Pearl Harbor. He wasn't cleaning test tubes all that time.

41 posted on 07/31/2018 12:40:32 PM PDT by Billthedrill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: thesharkboy
That he survived well into my adulthood is one of the major crimes of the 20th century.

Pol Pot killed 25% of his country's population in the 70s but lived until 1998. He committed suicide shortly after hearing the Americans were coming for him to face trial. To his credit the first thing this commie killed was all the lawyers.

42 posted on 07/31/2018 12:45:29 PM PDT by Reeses (A journey of a thousand miles begins with a government pat down.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Billthedrill
I sort of lean toward Bergamini's picture of a 25-year-old taking over from his father and wanting to assert himself and his country in a new, exciting, industrializing, expansionist world. It's a little hard to accept that Hirohito was either ignorant of or incurious about the invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and of China in 1937. That was a decade of warfare before Pearl Harbor.

Exactly my point!
43 posted on 07/31/2018 12:45:36 PM PDT by ExTxMarine (Diversity is tolerance; diverse points of views will not be tolerated!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: Reeses

I figure Pol Pot killed closer to 33% of his country’s population, and he did in in less than four years!!


44 posted on 07/31/2018 12:46:46 PM PDT by ExTxMarine (Diversity is tolerance; diverse points of views will not be tolerated!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: central_va
Two things, their aircraft lacked armor protection and we also broke the IJN code( their “enigma”). Midway was a miracle we should gave lost that battle according to all the computer simulations of the battle.

Other way around. Japanese wargaming of the operation showed the catastrophe that actually occurred.

Their referees just 'raised' the sunk carriers so they could conduct the invasion of the island.

Japanese were outnumbered in aircraft.

Worse, their ships had no radar and a terrible radio in the Zero that rarely worked so it was difficult to coordinate air defense.

Eventually an airstrike was going to get through and cause catastrophic damage.

45 posted on 07/31/2018 12:48:29 PM PDT by Snickering Hound
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: Solidstatechemist

I don’t know the exact number but dawn on Dec. 7th 1941 occurred maybe 18 hours earlier than it did at Pearl Harbor.

Plenty of time for a meeting in japan on that date before the actual strike occurred.


46 posted on 07/31/2018 12:49:26 PM PDT by Rebelbase ( Tagline disabled.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: Buttons12

<<...he says the Dec. 7th date caught his eye. But I thought the go ahead for the attack had to be given somewhat earlier?

Well, the 7th in Hawaii was the 8th in Japan.>>

Right, but the whole operation was planned and ships were launched for the attack well before that.

I just think that a December 7th meeting could possibly be a fait accompli unless Hirohito was already in the loop. Like I said, I don’t know, just wondering about how much you can infer from this memo.


47 posted on 07/31/2018 12:54:00 PM PDT by Solidstatechemist (SolidStateChemist)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: AppyPappy
Two book series about a Jap invasion and occupation of Hawaii.


48 posted on 07/31/2018 12:54:49 PM PDT by Rebelbase ( Tagline disabled.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: Rebelbase

Japan had a history of imperialism , before Pearl Harbor the Japanese had attacked and taken over Korea and were in the process of attacking China. The Emperor was complicit while atrocities were taking place across Asia by his military. So in a sense his direct knowledge of Pearl Harbor was unimportant as he was already tainted by Japan’s treatment of their neighbor countries.


49 posted on 07/31/2018 12:59:56 PM PDT by bboise
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: Snickering Hound
Other way around. Japanese wargaming of the operation showed the catastrophe that actually occurred.

Funny I actually attended the USN war college and spoke to a lot of people that worked on the simulation and the Japs win every time Midway simulation is run. But you know best.....

50 posted on 07/31/2018 1:03:20 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator

The commie party in Japan was very active in the initial occupation years.


51 posted on 07/31/2018 1:06:14 PM PDT by Rebelbase ( Tagline disabled.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: central_va
Funny I actually attended the USN war college and spoke to a lot of people that worked on the simulation and the Japs win every time Midway simulation is run. But you know best.....

When the operation was wargamed in May 42 by the Japanese, they lost their carriers.

Yamamoto stamped his feet and held his breath and insisted he had planning that would stop that from happening so the refs 'raised' the carriers so they could go on with gaming the actual invasion of the island.

You might want to read some more recent books on the battle like 'Shattered Sword' that actually go through Japanese documentation.

The battle wasn't nearly the 'miracle' that a goofy Charlton Heston movie portrays.

52 posted on 07/31/2018 1:15:13 PM PDT by Snickering Hound
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: Mr. K

He knew damned well, LONG before the bombs dropped the war was lost....

The only question was how much it was going to cost both sides...

Midway was the beginning of the end.. Yes, it took many more years for the noose to fully close, but that was the beginning of the end.

Even a blind and delusional man had to know long before the first nuke to the mainland, that their cause was lost.


53 posted on 07/31/2018 1:16:38 PM PDT by HamiltonJay
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Solidstatechemist

And at a word from Hirohito the whole mission would have been called off.

But yes, it was long in the planning. They had war games going back years, looking at a land war with Russia and a naval war with America. We can be certain the Pearl Harbor attack was not a spur of the moment thing.

I’m thinking that once the die was cast, Tojo and his fellows still needed reassurance that the emperor was on board. Hitting America, they’d be all in, do or die. Hirohito’s favor was that of the god and all the ancestors. And every moment spent in the presence of the emperor was of immense historical significance.

In this, records are significant to us as well. This one tells us, no decisions were made that day, but none were changed either — by the one person who could have changed them.


54 posted on 07/31/2018 1:17:52 PM PDT by Buttons12
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47 | View Replies]

To: Snickering Hound

Like I said I actually saw the simulations run and the Japs won.


55 posted on 07/31/2018 1:17:59 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 52 | View Replies]

To: central_va
Like I said I actually saw the simulations run and the Japs won.

Wouldn't exactly be the first time the Naval War College screwed up a simulation.

I can run a simulation of Victoria Secret models bringing me pizza and beer, doesn't mean it's reality.

56 posted on 07/31/2018 1:26:34 PM PDT by Snickering Hound
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 55 | View Replies]

To: tm61
now if I can only find a story with a Big W in it,

Then you'd have hit the Superfecta! The day is young.

57 posted on 07/31/2018 1:27:05 PM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (Get in the Spirit! The Spirit of '76!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: Rebelbase

Blech, I read a few of that guy’s books, and they got old and tired really, really fast. No thanks.


58 posted on 07/31/2018 1:31:49 PM PDT by Kommodor (Terrorist, Journalist or Democrat? I can't tell the difference.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: Kommodor

His books I tend to agree with you, but try Turtledove’s Road Not Taken, good short story/novella, very good and ends before you get tired of some of his style. You can download it online for free.


59 posted on 07/31/2018 1:46:24 PM PDT by nomorelurker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: MeganC

Or what sort of sweet deal did diane frankenswine and her husband get out if it?


60 posted on 07/31/2018 1:52:27 PM PDT by 2CAVTrooper (Democrats... BETRAYING America since 1828.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-79 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson