Records of an interview given by Emperor Hirohito immediately after Japan’s surrender in World War II show him naming wartime military leader Hideki Tojo as responsible for the sneak 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.
Records of an interview given by Emperor Hirohito immediately after Japan’s surrender in World War II show him naming wartime military leader Hideki Tojo as responsible for the sneak 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.
Historians had long speculated about who actually gave the order for the attack on the U.S. naval base in Hawaii that brought U.S. forces into World War II. Until now, no documents had been found in Japan that named Tojo, the wartime prime minister, as responsible.
Records of the Sept. 25, 1945, interview by Hugh Baillie, president of the then United Press wire service, and Frank Kluckhohn, Pacific bureau chief for The New York Times, were found in the Archives and Mausolea Department of the Imperial Household Agency.
The interview marked the first time that Hirohito, known posthumously as Emperor Showa, had been interviewed by any media organizations.
The interview was recorded by officials of the household agency’s Board of the Ceremonies.
Analysts said aides to Hirohito clearly wanted the interview to stave off international moves to pursue the question of the emperor’s responsibility for Japan’s actions during the war.
The document includes responses to questions that were submitted to the emperor beforehand.
One crucial question posed by Kluckhohn centered on the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor. The emperor was asked whether he had intended to withhold Japan’s declaration of war on the United States until after the attack, which is what Tojo did.
The emperor replied that it had never been his intention for the declaration of war to be issued to American officials hours after Japanese aircraft bombed Pearl Harbor. He said that decision was made by Tojo, a Class-A war criminal who was later hanged.
A draft of the interview compiled by former Prime Minister Kijuro Shidehara avoided directly naming any individual for the decision to attack Pearl Harbor. Instead, it said only that “details of war strategy were left up to the highest commanders in the (Imperial Japanese) army and navy.”
In the Page One story that ran in the Sept. 25, 1945, edition of The New York Times, Kluckhohn wrote that the emperor placed responsibility on Tojo for the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor.
Because the contents of that report differed from the draft put together by Shidehara, researchers had long pondered the accuracy of The New York Times report.
The discovery of the records settles once and for all any question about the emperor’s response to the question on Pearl Harbor.
Tojo ordered strike on Pearl Harbor according to Hirohito interview
ReplyDeleteAsahi Herald Tribune
July 26, 2006
Records of an interview given by Emperor Hirohito immediately after Japan’s surrender in World War II show him naming wartime military leader Hideki Tojo as responsible for the sneak 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.
ReplyDeleteHistorians had long speculated about who actually gave the order for the attack on the U.S. naval base in Hawaii that brought U.S. forces into World War II. Until now, no documents had been found in Japan that named Tojo, the wartime prime minister, as responsible.
Records of the Sept. 25, 1945, interview by Hugh Baillie, president of the then United Press wire service, and Frank Kluckhohn, Pacific bureau chief for The New York Times, were found in the Archives and Mausolea Department of the Imperial Household Agency.
The interview marked the first time that Hirohito, known posthumously as Emperor Showa, had been interviewed by any media organizations.
The interview was recorded by officials of the household agency’s Board of the Ceremonies.
Analysts said aides to Hirohito clearly wanted the interview to stave off international moves to pursue the question of the emperor’s responsibility for Japan’s actions during the war.
The document includes responses to questions that were submitted to the emperor beforehand.
One crucial question posed by Kluckhohn centered on the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor. The emperor was asked whether he had intended to withhold Japan’s declaration of war on the United States until after the attack, which is what Tojo did.
The emperor replied that it had never been his intention for the declaration of war to be issued to American officials hours after Japanese aircraft bombed Pearl Harbor. He said that decision was made by Tojo, a Class-A war criminal who was later hanged.
A draft of the interview compiled by former Prime Minister Kijuro Shidehara avoided directly naming any individual for the decision to attack Pearl Harbor. Instead, it said only that “details of war strategy were left up to the highest commanders in the (Imperial Japanese) army and navy.”
In the Page One story that ran in the Sept. 25, 1945, edition of The New York Times, Kluckhohn wrote that the emperor placed responsibility on Tojo for the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor.
Because the contents of that report differed from the draft put together by Shidehara, researchers had long pondered the accuracy of The New York Times report.
The discovery of the records settles once and for all any question about the emperor’s response to the question on Pearl Harbor.