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I heard it to and had to rewind, thought I heard 1992, but I thought there is no way this is the Man in the High Castle and inter-dimensional travel was involved 🤣
Tojo is mostly regarded by top Japanese military personals as an incompetent man with too much of ambition. As matter of fact the person who is likely the one responsible, Kanji Ishiwara, for the invasion of Manchuria never prosecuted for any war crimes because of how much he hated Tojo. (Ishiwara actually even admitted his action in court and pretty much asking to be prosecuted but never got his wish.)
Ishiwara was one of those idealists who genuinely believed in that "co-prosperity sphere" BS and was genuinely astonished (and enraged) to discover that the higher-ups were content with occupation. He spoke out against the invasion of China, arguing that the two nations should form some kind of partnership. He was... odd.
@M S Das Right! 🤙 And they're so humbe too. It's hard to find them. My friend's dad was in the 442nd and never said anything. We only found out after he passed away. They didn't brag or show off their medals. They found his medals at the bottom of his sock drawer. They just wanted to serve their country. Amazing stories if you can find them.
@@sharonk808 While most of our Heroes from the Greatest Generation didn't brag, but those who were not white men had extra reasons to be quite: My Prussian Jewish Grandfather was a US Army Field Surgeon and I had to ask intelligent questions to get him to talk about it when I was a teenager. He was the only physician of the original eight of his unit to survive the war, thought one of his fellow doctors would have survived had he not put a 1911 in his mouth after realizing that he could never un-see the things he saw at their second Concentration Camp Liberation. My grandfather wrote the medical protocols for treating concentration camp victims and needless to say, drank a fifth of rye every night before bed for three years after the war... Considering that my grandfather had been brought into the US using false papers by his parents and because of the level of antisemitism of the time, he kept a low profile. Similar circumstances were common with Japanese Americans. Before Pearl Harbor was attacked there was the German American Bund a Pro Nazi organization This may help explain the quite loyalty of Japanese Americans who while members of Greatest Generation, as they had good reason to despise Hirohito & his vile government just as my grandfather despised the Third Reich. But they couldn't show it, without the Blatant Racism of White People rearing it's ugly head...
Would love to see a video on Smedley Butler. One of the most decorated and accomplished marines in US history. He served in the Span-Am war, the hunt for Pancho Villa, and witnessed most of the the Banana Wars, on top of being awarded 2 Medals of Honor. He also helped thwart a conspiracy to remove FDR and install a fascist government in the 1930s.
Love the video, as always. You should consider doing a Biographics video on South Korean president Park Chung-hee. Prior to being president he fought for the Manchukuo Army in WWII, seizing power through a coup in 1961. He was instrumental in rapidly developing South Korea into one of the richest countries in East Asia. He became even more authoritarian through the creation of the Yushin Constitution in 1972 and was assassinated by his own intelligence chief in 1979 under very bizarre circumstances.
Thanks for this video, Simon! It was great to learn more about Tojo's beginnings. My grandfather was military police for the US Army during WWII and was charged with being one of the men that had to sit guard and watch Tojo while he was being held on trial. Tojo knew he was going to be convicted and gave all his military medals/pins to the second guard that sat alongside my grandfather.
@@pioneerxx I think Tojo and the military had so much power and influence at the time that Hirohito just let them do whatever they wanted because he was scared of confrontation. Idk if Hirohito was really that bad a guy but he was pathetic to stand by while all those atrocities were going on and so many of his people were dying. Only chimed in when the bombs were getting close to the palace
@@Geojr815 if it’s true than it was incredibly silly of him to be afraid of confrontation since the nation literally worshipped him as a god and would do anything he said. Even in letters of imprisoned Japanese soldiers they were asking for forgiveness of the emperor for being captured.
@@pioneerxxu are all idiot. Emperor really is control after the meiji restoration. It ia just that mcarthur decided to let tojo took all the blamed cuz he needed the emperor status for the post war restoration of japan
It's an interesting question whether the emperor would have been tried regardless of Tojo's actions at his trial. Some U. S. leaders reasoned that removing the emperor would result in such chaos as to make Japan essentially ungovernable, at least without massive bloodshed.
@@itsapittie Tojo has to go anyway, the emperor need a human sacrifice to pacify the anger of ally armies who lost their family members fighting Japan.
Germany: 'Hey Japan, can you send us some military help in Europe? It's getting a big difficult to defend our country.' Japan: 'Can't, we are busy defending our own country after attacking the Pearl Harbour.' Germany: 'YOU WHAT!?'
This video makes me think of my grandfather. He was a China marine in the 1930s then captured in the Philippines by the Japanese and put on a Hell ship to work in the coal mines until the end of WWII.
Shinzo Abe would be my suggestion. His work as prime minister, and why that lead to someone murdering him. I mean, his term had already ended, and some lunatic still held a grudge... I really don't know much about his work and policies, and why someone wanted to kill him. Please tell us the story!
@@kepanoid I agree! I'd like to know that story. The channels I watch from people living in Japan very understandably don't wish to talk about politics, except for maybe one person I watch. But otherwise, I'm not certain on what his policies were. Could look it up, but I'd rather the experience of seeing it in a video.
Kim Yo-jong? This must be a fake account... Regardless, how about N and S Korea unify under democracy before any more apologies and reparations from Japan about what they did 80 years ago during their occupation and other war crimes? In other words, fix your own problems and stop forcing them on others to pacify an aging and dwindling group of people!
@Corsuwey honestly I don't care about the past it's more of a south korean thing they only use the confort woman issues for money In the 80s japan actually apologised and gave money but the south korean government used the money on themselves
Tojo visited the US and Learned all of the wrong lessons. He bought into his own propaganda believing only warrior spirit could overcome a huge industrial disadvantage Japan had. Yamamoto had more of a open mind.
Though, if we are being fair , that fanatical warrior spirit on the whole, almost allowed them to overcome that huge disadvantage Sometimes it led to irrational decisions, even poor management of resources, but Japan really achieved a lot in the war
@@dream1430 Japan was never going to win though. They simply couldn't hold the required islands and resources they needed to effectively fight the war. They didn't have the men, materials, vehicles or manufacturing capacity to maintain the war even at the start.
@@oldleatherhandsfriends4053 Japan's biggest mistake was going to war with America in the first place. They could never beat the United States, no matter how how many decisive victories they won in the early phases of conflict.
Could you possibly do one on Robert McNamara? The guy has been mentioned in quite a few videos over on MegaProjects and seems like a good candidate for a video here.
Head slap? Nah, that was more of an evisceration. Japanese culture was essentially gutted and literally burned. Say what you will about our reasoning for firebombing and nuking them, but it can't be denied that we essentially deleted their nobility and a significant portion of their traditional culture. We haven't resorted to those measures since for very good reason. We inflicted a horror on them that needs not be revisited for any reason. Hopefully history and our nuclear arsenal remain a sufficient deterrent for those who think about utilizing such weaponry.
@@SkunkApe407 What happened with the United States nuking Japan was terrible and no country should ever have to have to be nuked ever again, but it was done to try to end the war. The horrors the Japanese inflicted on the populations of China and Korea and the horrible treatment of Allied POWs were done out of sadistic cruelty. So how about we stop trying to make Japan out as if they were the biggest victims of World War II.
His hoarding of many government positions and feuds with other officials pretty much reflects Japan's erratic and irrational 'strategy' during the war along with the infamous rivalry between the Imperial army and navy. His downfall sure was his own.
The Japanese Navy had a lot of competent leadership and would have probably done much better fighting America had people like Tojo not been in the way.
@@oldleatherhandsfriends4053 The IJN generally had more competent officers than the IJA but the Japanese military in WW2 suffered as a whole from tactical and strategic inflexibility; with too much emphasis on courage, discipline and will, as well as crippling inter-service rivalry from the Army and Navy.
Tojo catastrophically underestimated the USA. And it ended up costing him everything in the end. He might have been a good military administrator. But he was a poor war leader.
I don't know how Babish does it. He just put out a Basics video earlier and now he's doing Biographics?! How they got all the dishes done in time to get the studio set up like this is beyond me. Great job Andrew!
Tojo's commemorating tomb is located in a shrine in Hazu, Aichi (now Nishio, Aichi), and he is one of those enshrined at the controversial Yasukuni Shrine. A number of his descendants survived, including his granddaughter, Yuko Tojo, who was a political hopeful who claimed Japan's war was one of self-defense and that it was unfair that her grandfather was judged a Class-A war criminal. Tojo's second son, Teruo Tojo, who designed fighter and passenger aircraft during and after the war, eventually served as an executive at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. In a 1997 survey of university students in China asking "When somebody talks about Japanese people, what person do you think of?", the answer that most gave was Hideki Tojo, reflecting a lingering sense of hurt in China about Japan's wartime aggression. In the Japanese 1998 film Pride, Tojo was portrayed as a national hero, forced into war by the West and then executed after a rigged trial.
The US government absolutely knew it was going to happen. I would say they even helped make it happen but didn't think the Japanese would destroy so much of the fleet. The US put so many sanctions on Japan it really did have no choice but to attack the US in one place or another. The US nearly cut off all of Japans Oil supply.
@@oldleatherhandsfriends4053 The Japanese had the opportunity to stop brutalizing China, but obviously they weren’t going to do that. The Americans had every right to embargo Japan for its actions in China. Also, Hawaii was viewed as one of the least likely American Territories in the Pacific to be attacked by Japan. The Philippines, Guam, and the Alaskan Aleutian Islands are far closer to Japan.
When I was a kid - all of 8 or 9, my uncle and I would always watch The History Channel (back when they produced actual content), and I asked him, “Who’s Deki and why do they keep saying Hi to him?”
When tojo was asked to not kill himself in order to save the emperor, he tried to kill himself. Guess you really saw the true colors of a selfish power hungry man who didn't quite worship his emperor as devotedly as they thought he would.
@@merafirewing6591 I’m not sure, but I once heard a different story about him. Being PM of Japan at that time was more of a demotion than promotion, because the real authority was in the Military’s hands. Becoming PM means he has no say over anything military and politics, just focused on nation building. According to that theory, the Emperor was just a figurehead too. Again, Im not sure.
Simon you said one of the dates wrong! You said when toju crossed his train across America in 1992! Other than that brilliant as always my friend! I love your sense of humor man you f ing hilarious!
What are the chances, I just did a massive informative speech about operation downfall and the enemy of Japan during the time. You guys have amazing timing
I shall illuminate this matter, Hideki Tojo was a monster yes, but Hirohito and the entire Imperial Family are also to blame for some of the worst crimes against civilization in Human History from 1905-1945 alongside Tojo and the entirety of the Japanese Military High Command, Japanese Government, the Japanese Affluent Elite, and the Zaibatsus.
@@honda-akari No, Japan just invaded dozens of countries, plundered their resources, and r@p3d and murdered countless innocents. Totally not the behavior of a monster. 🙄
@@honda-akari Really? The United States of America is the Monster and Japan isn’t because Japan didn’t use Atomic Bombs? Okay first off that is clearly extremist nonsense as History is never so simple as that here are some facts and comparisons for you to convey why Japan really was as bad as I am telling it was in WW2 and to present even making the Nazi, the Russians, and the Chinese look tame by comparison at times. Japan deployed Chemical and Biological weapons of mass destruction in WW2 that killed 580,000 persons twice as many persons killed by the two Atomic strategic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Honshu and Kyushu. There was also Japan’s response to the Doolittle Raid that deliberately killed around 250,000 Civilian persons in Mainland East Asia only 30,000 persons less than the 280,000 persons killed by the Atomic Bombs which that figure includes persons in the Japanese military which in all likelihood means the genocidal retaliation by Japan in the aftermath of the Doolittle Raid killed more civilian persons than the two Atomic Bombs. There is also the millions killed by Japan in various genocidal acts like the Rape of Nanking, the Hell Ships, Unit 731, and the 40 year long genocide of the Korean Peoples by Japan from 1905-1945. There is also the Matter of Three Mile Island and the Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Power Plants. If you look at the facts Three Mile Island should be rated as a Level 1 anomaly on the Nuclear Disaster Rating have killed no one and released extremely little radiation yet it is suspiciously rated a 5 which Fukushima a true nuclear disaster one worse than Chernobyl was initially rated as until the INEC decided to not be so obvious in their bias and corruption and change it to the appropriate Level 7. Go cry me a river Fundamentalist Hypocrite because as I say better at Hiroshima in August 9th of 45 than in the Tokyo Subway in the Morning of March 20th of 95, for it is better Nuked than Sarin.
You wonder what kind of nerve this man had LYING HIS A** OFF to the war crimes court that Japan was innocent and defending herself and that they treated POW's fairly.
Not sure if it's in the video but I like the stories that he inspected the trash of people and if he found wasted food there would be consequences. And with "wasted" I mean anything that can be used somehow. Edit: You got the name of his wife wrong. It's Katsuko.
I would absolutely love to see biographics become a podcast like decoding or criminalist are. I usually listen to these while getting ready for bed and I love the fact that I’m still learning even after being out of school for almost 6 years
You should do a Biographica on Yukio Mishima. Writer, nationaliat, poet, model and a guy who tried to unsuccessfuly organize a coup and than commited sepuku. In short :)
Hi Simon can you please do a video Sir Nicholas George Winton MBE was named a British Hero of the Holocaust by the British Government. Winton was awarded the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, Fourth Class, by the Czech President Václav Havel in 1998. he was a British humanitarian who helped to rescue jewish children who were at risk from Nazi Germany just months before the start of World War II he saved 669 children all of them would’ve probably have been killed by the Nazis if he hadn’t got them out please do a video on this man thank you Paul.
Outta curiosity can anyone tell me why Japan stopped at pear harbor and didn’t push further? Sure they wouldn’t have the same element of surprise but they still had all their forces right?
It was a quick attack to takeout the US Pacific Fleet. There was no military plan to bomb cities in California because that had nothing to do with the objective.
They did push further, they went undefeated for the majority of their first year against the US, they started losing, that's why they stopped. The american military dwarfed the japanese in resources, there is no world where japan could have won.
They would have needed to take more Pacific islands for that. The attack on Pearl Harbour was an extreme challenge and overly not very successful. The carriers were badly needed elsewhere afterwards so that Japan could take (most of) South East Asia. But they never could resupply them fully and gradually lost them.
They did plan an invasion of midway, which could have resulted in an invasion of Hawaii and some Alaskan islands, but they didn’t really intend to go further than creating a barrier island chain as they had land to invade in Asia and Indonesia that was closer and easier to support. Sustaining a war across the pacific would have stretched their logistics capacity too far, if they had been able to consolidate in Asia for a few years (probably decades) than who knows.
At his trial, Tojo initially tried to implicate the Emperor but recanted those statements in follow-up questioning. I wonder what would have happened if he had doubled down in trying to hold Hirohito responsible.
Hirohito got lucky as compared to German and Italian counterpart. But I doubt that he was involved in war crimes. If he was a war criminal, then so was U.S. However, during the last years of his life he was in anguish and felt deeply sorry for his role in WWII. His diaries tell that he didn't want to live anymore.
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What a stupid war propaganda. After 77 years.... I am amazed how people do not learn.
Just imagine if the IJN had NordVPN instead of JN-25!!
Please do Spinoza!!
I'm hoping for eventual videos about Nicolae Ceausescu, Enver Hoxha, and Manuel Noriega.
“Tojo crossed the United States by train in 1992” 3:09 that’s gotta be the best slip-up that you’ve done in a while.
I had to double-take as I too heard '1992'
Ok glad it wasn’t just me lol
Tojo: "I'm going to time-travel 70 years into the future just to cross the United States by train."
Lol yup, I had to go back and double triple check too.
I heard it to and had to rewind, thought I heard 1992, but I thought there is no way this is the Man in the High Castle and inter-dimensional travel was involved 🤣
“Tojo machine gun took my shins in WW2!” - Cotton Hill
"I killed fiddy men!" -Col. Cotton Hill
Lol this is funny...
"Climbing up the top sails, i lost my leg."-Dropkick Murphys
😂😂😂
"When I woke up, they were sewing my feet to my knees!"
1:10 - Chapter 1 - A razor is forged
4:55 - Chapter 2 - Rise of the razor
7:45 - Chapter 3 - Slash of the razor
9:45 - Mid roll ads
11:25 - Chapter 4 - Reign of the razor
15:15 - Chapter 5 - Days of infamy
16:55 - Chapter 6 - An absolute ruler ?
20:55 - Chapter 7 - A blunted razor
You forgot his time traveling at 3:08 🤣😂🤣
You are so consistent bro
Tojo is mostly regarded by top Japanese military personals as an incompetent man with too much of ambition. As matter of fact the person who is likely the one responsible, Kanji Ishiwara, for the invasion of Manchuria never prosecuted for any war crimes because of how much he hated Tojo. (Ishiwara actually even admitted his action in court and pretty much asking to be prosecuted but never got his wish.)
Better to get one monster than to let them all run free.
@@tygonmaster Ishiwara's reaction was more like: "Why do you put this CLOWN on trial? I should be the one on trial!" sort of.
Least he had a conscience… at least I guess?
@@c0nvict_pleb174 Ishiwara? He was kind of weird tbh. Very smart but also very weird.
Ishiwara was one of those idealists who genuinely believed in that "co-prosperity sphere" BS and was genuinely astonished (and enraged) to discover that the higher-ups were content with occupation. He spoke out against the invasion of China, arguing that the two nations should form some kind of partnership.
He was... odd.
You should do one on the 442nd regiment, the all Japanese American military unit, which is the most decorated unit in US military history.
"Go for broke!"
@M S Das Right! 🤙 And they're so humbe too. It's hard to find them. My friend's dad was in the 442nd and never said anything. We only found out after he passed away. They didn't brag or show off their medals. They found his medals at the bottom of his sock drawer. They just wanted to serve their country. Amazing stories if you can find them.
@@sharonk808 i call bs
@@sharonk808 While most of our Heroes from the Greatest Generation didn't brag, but those who were not white men had extra reasons to be quite:
My Prussian Jewish Grandfather was a US Army Field Surgeon and I had to ask intelligent questions to get him to talk about it when I was a teenager. He was the only physician of the original eight of his unit to survive the war, thought one of his fellow doctors would have survived had he not put a 1911 in his mouth after realizing that he could never un-see the things he saw at their second Concentration Camp Liberation. My grandfather wrote the medical protocols for treating concentration camp victims and needless to say, drank a fifth of rye every night before bed for three years after the war...
Considering that my grandfather had been brought into the US using false papers by his parents and because of the level of antisemitism of the time, he kept a low profile. Similar circumstances were common with Japanese Americans. Before Pearl Harbor was attacked there was the German American Bund a Pro Nazi organization This may help explain the quite loyalty of Japanese Americans who while members of Greatest Generation, as they had good reason to despise Hirohito & his vile government just as my grandfather despised the Third Reich. But they couldn't show it, without the Blatant Racism of White People rearing it's ugly head...
@@MistaTwista_ you can call it all you want, they are the most decorated. There’s nothing you can do to change that fact… period.
Would love to see a video on Smedley Butler. One of the most decorated and accomplished marines in US history. He served in the Span-Am war, the hunt for Pancho Villa, and witnessed most of the the Banana Wars, on top of being awarded 2 Medals of Honor. He also helped thwart a conspiracy to remove FDR and install a fascist government in the 1930s.
Simon has covered him on one of his other channels.
“War is a racket”
That man (Smedley Butler) like Huey Long and Harry Truman are true American Heroes to me
@YourOldPalVictor one of the greatest books of all time. It's nearly 90 years old and just as true today as it was then
@@InquisitorXarius are we the same person, I respect all them so much too 😂
Love the video, as always. You should consider doing a Biographics video on South Korean president Park Chung-hee. Prior to being president he fought for the Manchukuo Army in WWII, seizing power through a coup in 1961. He was instrumental in rapidly developing South Korea into one of the richest countries in East Asia. He became even more authoritarian through the creation of the Yushin Constitution in 1972 and was assassinated by his own intelligence chief in 1979 under very bizarre circumstances.
I’m literally teaching about this guy this week in my class. Good time to watch he video
You have been extremely clear and helpful for my research paper. Infinite thanks from Uruguay!
I remember meeting Tojo when he was here back in 1992....
That man lived a very long life
3:10 he did that in 1992? damn he's immortal!
Or a time traveler.
Came to the comments to see who noticed 🤣
Thanks for this video, Simon!
It was great to learn more about Tojo's beginnings. My grandfather was military police for the US Army during WWII and was charged with being one of the men that had to sit guard and watch Tojo while he was being held on trial. Tojo knew he was going to be convicted and gave all his military medals/pins to the second guard that sat alongside my grandfather.
No way! I searched for a Biographics video on Tojo last week and now it exists
Pretty sure I commented on the last Biographics video asking when are they going to cover Hideki Tojo.
@@GrievousReborn It will take longer than that to make a Biographic video, there is writing , editing discussion and all before going into production
Simon works in mysterious ways 😉
This man is the face of the evil Imperial Japan. Not Hirohito. Not that Hirohito was a good person but he simply stood by while Tojo ran things
Except Hirohito held absolute power and could’ve prevented Tojo’s actions at any moment. “Emperor good, servants bad”. Hirohito should’ve been hanged
@@pioneerxx I think Tojo and the military had so much power and influence at the time that Hirohito just let them do whatever they wanted because he was scared of confrontation. Idk if Hirohito was really that bad a guy but he was pathetic to stand by while all those atrocities were going on and so many of his people were dying. Only chimed in when the bombs were getting close to the palace
@@Geojr815 if it’s true than it was incredibly silly of him to be afraid of confrontation since the nation literally worshipped him as a god and would do anything he said. Even in letters of imprisoned Japanese soldiers they were asking for forgiveness of the emperor for being captured.
@@pioneerxxu are all idiot. Emperor really is control after the meiji restoration. It ia just that mcarthur decided to let tojo took all the blamed cuz he needed the emperor status for the post war restoration of japan
@@pioneerxxhe was literally about to be assassinated by the military when he wanted to surrender
It's an interesting question whether the emperor would have been tried regardless of Tojo's actions at his trial. Some U. S. leaders reasoned that removing the emperor would result in such chaos as to make Japan essentially ungovernable, at least without massive bloodshed.
Without their emperor, japanese at the time would probably fight to their last one against oppression
They decided to keep the war criminal Emperor around to better govern Japan and suppress communism ideals in post war Japan
@@53darkknight53 There is always the option to more nukes
@@hkchan1339 Yes, which is why I suspect he might not have been prosecuted regardless of what Tojo did at his own trial.
@@itsapittie Tojo has to go anyway, the emperor need a human sacrifice to pacify the anger of ally armies who lost their family members fighting Japan.
Germany: 'Hey Japan, can you send us some military help in Europe? It's getting a big difficult to defend our country.'
Japan: 'Can't, we are busy defending our own country after attacking the Pearl Harbour.'
Germany: 'YOU WHAT!?'
Italy: Least it wasn’t me this time-
Germany: Shut up!
They didn’t do that. Hitler was enthusiastic about war with the US and declared war on them by their own accord.
This video makes me think of my grandfather. He was a China marine in the 1930s then captured in the Philippines by the Japanese and put on a Hell ship to work in the coal mines until the end of WWII.
Very interesting video, as always! I’m learning so much about WWII, stuff we weren’t taught in school. Well done Simon and team!
👏🏻👏🏻🔥🔥🙌🏻🙌🏻
I'm surprised you haven't made this one already! Please make more japanese prime ministers
Shinzo Abe would be my suggestion. His work as prime minister, and why that lead to someone murdering him. I mean, his term had already ended, and some lunatic still held a grudge...
I really don't know much about his work and policies, and why someone wanted to kill him. Please tell us the story!
@@kepanoid I agree! I'd like to know that story. The channels I watch from people living in Japan very understandably don't wish to talk about politics, except for maybe one person I watch. But otherwise, I'm not certain on what his policies were. Could look it up, but I'd rather the experience of seeing it in a video.
Kim Yo-jong? This must be a fake account... Regardless, how about N and S Korea unify under democracy before any more apologies and reparations from Japan about what they did 80 years ago during their occupation and other war crimes? In other words, fix your own problems and stop forcing them on others to pacify an aging and dwindling group of people!
@Corsuwey honestly I don't care about the past it's more of a south korean thing they only use the confort woman issues for money
In the 80s japan actually apologised and gave money but the south korean government used the money on themselves
@@kepanoid he wasn't a lunatic the man who killed him was completely right for what he did abe was a cultist
Tojo visited the US and Learned all of the wrong lessons. He bought into his own propaganda believing only warrior spirit could overcome a huge industrial disadvantage Japan had. Yamamoto had more of a open mind.
Though, if we are being fair , that fanatical warrior spirit on the whole, almost allowed them to overcome that huge disadvantage
Sometimes it led to irrational decisions, even poor management of resources, but Japan really achieved a lot in the war
@@dream1430 Japan was never going to win though. They simply couldn't hold the required islands and resources they needed to effectively fight the war. They didn't have the men, materials, vehicles or manufacturing capacity to maintain the war even at the start.
@@oldleatherhandsfriends4053 Japan's biggest mistake was going to war with America in the first place. They could never beat the United States, no matter how how many decisive victories they won in the early phases of conflict.
Could you possibly do one on Robert McNamara? The guy has been mentioned in quite a few videos over on MegaProjects and seems like a good candidate for a video here.
Wait did did we have another date screw up or did Tojo briefly end up in early 90’s USA?
Yeah, 1992? I wonder what year it really was?
@@WildWestRosie 1922 he visited for a bit after having been in Germany for some years.
@@WildWestRosie I wonder how he would react to that.
I was just thinking I wanted to know more about Tojo and here’s the info. Thanks!
So he was worried about Russia and instead of helping Germany by pinning Russians in Manchuria, he brings another power into the war, genius
Finally a video on Hideki Tojo
PLZ do a biographics on the 39th battalion and their defense on the Kakoda track. it is something that should be spoken about and yet rarely is
In 1945, Tojo got the head slap heard round the world 🌍🤚
If you watch the video it looks like he's smiling after he got hit on the head
i like your cut T
Head slap? Nah, that was more of an evisceration. Japanese culture was essentially gutted and literally burned. Say what you will about our reasoning for firebombing and nuking them, but it can't be denied that we essentially deleted their nobility and a significant portion of their traditional culture. We haven't resorted to those measures since for very good reason. We inflicted a horror on them that needs not be revisited for any reason. Hopefully history and our nuclear arsenal remain a sufficient deterrent for those who think about utilizing such weaponry.
@@SkunkApe407 What happened with the United States nuking Japan was terrible and no country should ever have to have to be nuked ever again, but it was done to try to end the war. The horrors the Japanese inflicted on the populations of China and Korea and the horrible treatment of Allied POWs were done out of sadistic cruelty. So how about we stop trying to make Japan out as if they were the biggest victims of World War II.
@@SkunkApe407 oh boo hoo their culture was gutted and eviscerated they did the exact same thing to the Chinese and the Koreans
His hoarding of many government positions and feuds with other officials pretty much reflects Japan's erratic and irrational 'strategy' during the war along with the infamous rivalry between the Imperial army and navy. His downfall sure was his own.
The Japanese Navy had a lot of competent leadership and would have probably done much better fighting America had people like Tojo not been in the way.
@@oldleatherhandsfriends4053 The IJN generally had more competent officers than the IJA but the Japanese military in WW2 suffered as a whole from tactical and strategic inflexibility; with too much emphasis on courage, discipline and will, as well as crippling inter-service rivalry from the Army and Navy.
Editors, please mix Simon's audio louder, he is very hard to hear without headphones
I have not the greatest hearing and I can very clearly hear him, stinks that you’re having trouble, hopefully they can adjust it for you.
Have you considered turning up the volume? I can hear it just fine.
My volume is at max and I also have a hard time hearing him without my headphones sadly mine are broken now 😭
👍
While your at it, explain to Simon there is no need to add an "r" to a word that has no "r"
Thanks for this videos simon!
Tojo catastrophically underestimated the USA. And it ended up costing him everything in the end.
He might have been a good military administrator. But he was a poor war leader.
Japan had no illusions about the USA's military and industrial capacity. What they did underestimate was the USA's willingness to fight.
And they should've heeded Isoroku Yamamoto's warning.
The first time I ever heard the name 'Tojo" was from Cotton Hill in King of the Hill 😅
They took his shins. 😂
And so the American education system again reveals its inadequaciesl
Crossed America in 1992 he's some man
I don't know how Babish does it. He just put out a Basics video earlier and now he's doing Biographics?! How they got all the dishes done in time to get the studio set up like this is beyond me. Great job Andrew!
Pretty sure he also does a trivia channel as Vsauce
@account old oh damn, I'm pretty sure you're right!
Tojo's commemorating tomb is located in a shrine in Hazu, Aichi (now Nishio, Aichi), and he is one of those enshrined at the controversial Yasukuni Shrine.
A number of his descendants survived, including his granddaughter, Yuko Tojo, who was a political hopeful who claimed Japan's war was one of self-defense and that it was unfair that her grandfather was judged a Class-A war criminal. Tojo's second son, Teruo Tojo, who designed fighter and passenger aircraft during and after the war, eventually served as an executive at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
In a 1997 survey of university students in China asking "When somebody talks about Japanese people, what person do you think of?", the answer that most gave was Hideki Tojo, reflecting a lingering sense of hurt in China about Japan's wartime aggression.
In the Japanese 1998 film Pride, Tojo was portrayed as a national hero, forced into war by the West and then executed after a rigged trial.
And people wonder why Anti Japanese sentiment is still strong in the countries attacked by Japanese Imperialists who were no better than the Nazis.
He had a house in Huntington Beach, he was skating with Hesher: 3:09
My grandfather was at pearl harbor. He HATED the Japanese after that and he was convinced Roosevelt knew it was coming (with good reason).
America should have fallen.
The US government absolutely knew it was going to happen. I would say they even helped make it happen but didn't think the Japanese would destroy so much of the fleet. The US put so many sanctions on Japan it really did have no choice but to attack the US in one place or another. The US nearly cut off all of Japans Oil supply.
It’s a known fact that the US knew an attack was imminent- they just couldn’t get an accurate date.
@@oldleatherhandsfriends4053
The Japanese had the opportunity to stop brutalizing China, but obviously they weren’t going to do that.
The Americans had every right to embargo Japan for its actions in China.
Also, Hawaii was viewed as one of the least likely American Territories in the Pacific to be attacked by Japan. The Philippines, Guam, and the Alaskan Aleutian Islands are far closer to Japan.
George Norris would be a great addition to the Biographics catalog.
When I was a kid - all of 8 or 9, my uncle and I would always watch The History Channel (back when they produced actual content), and I asked him, “Who’s Deki and why do they keep saying Hi to him?”
When tojo was asked to not kill himself in order to save the emperor, he tried to kill himself.
Guess you really saw the true colors of a selfish power hungry man who didn't quite worship his emperor as devotedly as they thought he would.
Makes me wonder how did he get that job as a prime minister if he isn't loyal to the Emperor?
Sooner or later the Emperor would have been disposed. That would have been great, one unnecessary monarch less.
@@merafirewing6591 I’m not sure, but I once heard a different story about him. Being PM of Japan at that time was more of a demotion than promotion, because the real authority was in the Military’s hands. Becoming PM means he has no say over anything military and politics, just focused on nation building. According to that theory, the Emperor was just a figurehead too. Again, Im not sure.
Can you do one about King Edgar the Peaceful? The most peaceful King of England during a time of conflicts. He is someone who is very underrated.
The only Prime Minister whose slap is more comedic than Boris Ivanovich's hair and Liz Quitter's epic tenure. 🤣🤣🤣
Oh Simon, I dig the beard 💪🏾 I missed these
Tojo attempt to shoot himself in the heart but missed
As a wise man of Joseph Stalin Once said,"he couldn't even shoot straight "
Another awesome episode! I've been learning so much from the Whistleverse videos about WW2.
Keep up the fantastic work Blazement "guests"!
Why is the recurring theme of all dictators the idea that a lightning fast victory will mean everyone else just gives up?
Still waiting on Andrew Jackson. Almost criminal that we don’t have a biography about him yet.
At 3:10
It's quite impressive that he made a return through the US in 1992. I'm assuming he had a DeLorean?
Don't know if i heard it wrong, but did Tojo travel by train in the U.S in 1992?
22 probably
Love bios. Love to see a bio on Michael Collins Irish rebellion leader 1920
Simon you said one of the dates wrong! You said when toju crossed his train across America in 1992! Other than that brilliant as always my friend! I love your sense of humor man you f ing hilarious!
What are the chances, I just did a massive informative speech about operation downfall and the enemy of Japan during the time. You guys have amazing timing
I shall illuminate this matter, Hideki Tojo was a monster yes, but Hirohito and the entire Imperial Family are also to blame for some of the worst crimes against civilization in Human History from 1905-1945 alongside Tojo and the entirety of the Japanese Military High Command, Japanese Government, the Japanese Affluent Elite, and the Zaibatsus.
Study what British and other westerners have done for hundreds years before wwii. That's way worse.
@@amandaaugust4803 So what? Doesn't make Japanese transgressions in WWII any less horrendous.
Clown.
America is the monster. Japan didn't use nuclear bombs.
@@honda-akari No, Japan just invaded dozens of countries, plundered their resources, and r@p3d and murdered countless innocents. Totally not the behavior of a monster. 🙄
@@honda-akari Really? The United States of America is the Monster and Japan isn’t because Japan didn’t use Atomic Bombs?
Okay first off that is clearly extremist nonsense as History is never so simple as that here are some facts and comparisons for you to convey why Japan really was as bad as I am telling it was in WW2 and to present even making the Nazi, the Russians, and the Chinese look tame by comparison at times.
Japan deployed Chemical and Biological weapons of mass destruction in WW2 that killed 580,000 persons twice as many persons killed by the two Atomic strategic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Honshu and Kyushu.
There was also Japan’s response to the Doolittle Raid that deliberately killed around 250,000 Civilian persons in Mainland East Asia only 30,000 persons less than the 280,000 persons killed by the Atomic Bombs which that figure includes persons in the Japanese military which in all likelihood means the genocidal retaliation by Japan in the aftermath of the Doolittle Raid killed more civilian persons than the two Atomic Bombs.
There is also the millions killed by Japan in various genocidal acts like the Rape of Nanking, the Hell Ships, Unit 731, and the 40 year long genocide of the Korean Peoples by Japan from 1905-1945.
There is also the Matter of Three Mile Island and the Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Power Plants.
If you look at the facts Three Mile Island should be rated as a Level 1 anomaly on the Nuclear Disaster Rating have killed no one and released extremely little radiation yet it is suspiciously rated a 5 which Fukushima a true nuclear disaster one worse than Chernobyl was initially rated as until the INEC decided to not be so obvious in their bias and corruption and change it to the appropriate Level 7.
Go cry me a river Fundamentalist Hypocrite because as I say better at Hiroshima in August 9th of 45 than in the Tokyo Subway in the Morning of March 20th of 95, for it is better Nuked than Sarin.
3:08 “On his long way back to Japan, he crossed the United States in 1992.” So he could time travel?
1922
You could almost say that Tojo basically became a dictator with the emperor's blessing and support.
He was not THE dictator he was a high ranking member of the military dictatorship tho
.....like a Shogun.
“Support”
Nice vid, please make more content about Japanese in WW2
At this point I think Simon should sell merch with poor audio related jokes on them.. it’s as much of the brand as anything.
Very well done, Biographics.
Great video... I was benching Roman emperors before this and I noticed, you didnt do Gallienus? Could you do video about him aslo?
You wonder what kind of nerve this man had LYING HIS A** OFF to the war crimes court that Japan was innocent and defending herself and that they treated POW's fairly.
Not sure if it's in the video but I like the stories that he inspected the trash of people and if he found wasted food there would be consequences. And with "wasted" I mean anything that can be used somehow.
Edit: You got the name of his wife wrong. It's Katsuko.
At 3:08 you say "Tojo crossed the USA by train in 1992".I think you mean 1922.
Maybe he time traveled
I'd love for one of these about Yukio Mishima.
Love the shows on RUclips but you guys now longer on podcast?
I would absolutely love to see biographics become a podcast like decoding or criminalist are. I usually listen to these while getting ready for bed and I love the fact that I’m still learning even after being out of school for almost 6 years
He's sometimes portrayed as a scapegoat, to protect the Japanese emperor. But I think he shares part of the blame, if not all.
Thanks
Can you do video for Jean Bedel Bokkasa next please?
3:09 He crossed America by train in 1992 the same year I was born? damn was he a time traveler?
Same year I was born too.
Can you please do a video on Wang JingWei?
China's Quisling.
You should do a Biographica on Yukio Mishima. Writer, nationaliat, poet, model and a guy who tried to unsuccessfuly organize a coup and than commited sepuku. In short :)
And maybe you could do Leopold von Sacher-Masoch?
Another subject would be why the Japanese Army and Navy hated each other nearly as much as the Allies.
I love your videos but you speak very fast and it's hard to understand when I'm laying in bed haha. Keep the great work
Hi Simon can you please do a video Sir Nicholas George Winton MBE was named a British Hero of the Holocaust by the British Government. Winton was awarded the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, Fourth Class, by the Czech President Václav Havel in 1998. he was a British humanitarian who helped to rescue jewish children who were at risk from Nazi Germany just months before the start of World War II he saved 669 children all of them would’ve probably have been killed by the Nazis if he hadn’t got them out please do a video on this man thank you Paul.
Finally Tojo!
"These aren't war crimes?! We just treat everyone like crap, our people too!"
Tojo came back from the dead and crossed the US during the same year I was born!
Outta curiosity can anyone tell me why Japan stopped at pear harbor and didn’t push further? Sure they wouldn’t have the same element of surprise but they still had all their forces right?
It was a quick attack to takeout the US Pacific Fleet. There was no military plan to bomb cities in California because that had nothing to do with the objective.
They did push further, they went undefeated for the majority of their first year against the US, they started losing, that's why they stopped. The american military dwarfed the japanese in resources, there is no world where japan could have won.
They would have needed to take more Pacific islands for that. The attack on Pearl Harbour was an extreme challenge and overly not very successful. The carriers were badly needed elsewhere afterwards so that Japan could take (most of) South East Asia. But they never could resupply them fully and gradually lost them.
They did plan an invasion of midway, which could have resulted in an invasion of Hawaii and some Alaskan islands, but they didn’t really intend to go further than creating a barrier island chain as they had land to invade in Asia and Indonesia that was closer and easier to support. Sustaining a war across the pacific would have stretched their logistics capacity too far, if they had been able to consolidate in Asia for a few years (probably decades) than who knows.
Push further where? East? Not enough fuel
A great book I'd recommend to anyone interested in Japan is The Knights of Boshido
@3:10 hideki tojo came back from the dead in 1992 just to take a train through the USA for old times sake
This should be blowing up! Maybe a different thumbnail? Great job.
Please make a video on 'Maratha Light Infantry'...
3:11 Is it just me, or did he say 1992? Shouldn’t he have said 1922? Not to say his content is bad.
lmao had a doctor mark his heart and still missed
"He couldn't even shoot straight." - Stalin on his son's failed suicide
Should have gone the traditional way and use a sword and an adjutant who finishes the job by beheading.
At his trial, Tojo initially tried to implicate the Emperor but recanted those statements in follow-up questioning. I wonder what would have happened if he had doubled down in trying to hold Hirohito responsible.
Probably nothing.
The US had vested interest in getting Hirohito off with no charges as it made the occupation of Japan easier.
Just a reminder, Cotton Hill killed 50 men while fighting in WW2
So this highly placed military man had a doctor mark his heart, aimed his pistol at contact range...and _missed?_
Wow.
Did Tojo have a flux capacitor to travel to 1992? How did generate the 1.21 gigawatts of energy?
Hirohito got lucky as compared to German and Italian counterpart. But I doubt that he was involved in war crimes. If he was a war criminal, then so was U.S.
However, during the last years of his life he was in anguish and felt deeply sorry for his role in WWII. His diaries tell that he didn't want to live anymore.
Sounds a lot like Sozin from Avatar: The Last Airbender
Video idea: George Archibald - The man who performed mating rituals to save a crane species.
That 1992 Tojo train ride must have been out of his world
scattered ashes, likely by his wish, as a mariner. good vid.
On his way back to Japan in 1992. So we are dealing with a time traveler here.
Great Narration
3:13 it’s 1892 not 1992. I’m not a hater or anything I just enjoy little slip ups 😊
you wouldnt believe this but this vid actually popped up in my notifications... how it did so even though its about ww2 is a mystery to me :D
The Japanese were warhammer 40k levels of fanatical
How is Mr tojo so unheard of?