Hideki Tojo After Suicide Attempt

Doctor Tamejmitsu Ebara and Kempetai Officer (and neighbor) Hatakeyama attend to former Prime Minister, Imperial Japanese Army Major General Hideki Tojo just after he shot himself near the heart. American correspondents Russell Brines and another man look on. Brines, the first American reporter into Tokyo, interviewed Tojo the day before his suicide attempt. "I cannot answer questions about politics or the war. I am just a farmer now. But I believe Japan's war was a just one although I know your country would not accept that. History will decide who is right. As for me, I accept full responsibility for the war." The next day, when military police came to arrest him, he attempted suicide. A large number of Japanese and American reporters came. The military police told them, "We want this bastard to live." Supreme Command Allied Powers (SCAP) wanted Tojo, one of the few Japanese militarists known to the American public, to deflect responsibility for the war from Emperor Hirohito onto himself.