Hideki Tojo: The Man Who Started a War, Survived His Own Bullet, and Went to the Gallows with "Remember Pearl Harbor" in His Mouth
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Japan's wartime PM Hideki Tojo shot himself to avoid capture, received American blood to survive, and then walked into his war crimes trial with "Remember Pearl Harbor" drilled into his dentures in Morse code.
  • CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    44·
    7 days ago

    A dentist inscribed the message in his teeth. I read that as someone shoved paper in his mouth as he was being hanged.

    The crimes committed under his authority were not abstract. Historian R.J. Rummel estimated that the Empire of Japan was responsible for the deaths of approximately three million civilians and prisoners of war through massacre, human experimentation, starvation, and forced labour, a significant portion of which occurred during Tojo’s time in power.

    Pearl Harbour was an act of war; I’m not sure it’s a war crime. However, the Japanese engaged in acts of considerable brutality throughout the war.

    • TimeNaan@lemmy.world
      18·
      7 days ago

      To be more precise - the message was written in morse code on the inside of dentures that were made for him by the americans.

      When this fact leaked to the press they quickly took his dentures back to the shop and removed the inscription before journalists arrived to verify the claim.

        • Tetsuo@jlai.lu
          51·
          6 days ago

          It killed probably more than 100 000 civilians in an horrific manner.

          And all you got is a “What about it ?” …

          The more I think about it the more I consider the US to be one of the most barbaric and violence normalizing countries.

          Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Abu Ghraib, gun violence, enabling the Israeli genocide of Palestinians, the death penalty. Is there any kind of violence you haven’t mastered yet ?

      • CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        42·
        7 days ago

        Yep. That’s kinda where I was headed. Pearl harbour is one thing. What the Japanese did and the bombing campaigns of the allies were both war crimes. But we haven’t talked about the allied side until fairly recently and then only quietly.

        • Cypher@aussie.zone
          9·
          7 days ago

          The bombing or Hiroshima and Nagasaki have been heavily criticised right from the start, and from the top of the US government at that.