Adolf Hitler



Adolf Hitler

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Adolf Hitler, military and political leader of Germany 1933 - 1945, launched World War Two and bears responsibility for the deaths of millions, including six million Jewish people in the Nazi genocide.

Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889 in Braunau on the Austrian-German border. His father was a customs official. Hitler left school at 16 with no qualifications and struggled to make a living as a painter in Vienna. This was where many of his extreme political and racial ideas originated.

In 1913, he moved to Munich and, on the outbreak of World War One, enlisted in the German army, where he was wounded and decorated. In 1919, he joined the fascist German Workers' Party (DAP). He played to the resentments of right-wingers, promising extremist 'remedies' to Germany's post-war problems which he and many others blamed on Jews and Bolsheviks. By 1921 he was the unquestioned leader of what was now the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP or Nazi Party).

In 1923, Hitler attempted an unsuccessful armed uprising in Munich and was imprisoned for nine months, during which time he dictated his book 'Mein Kampf' outlining his political ideology. On his release he began to rebuild the Nazi Party and used new techniques of mass communication, backed up with violence, to get his message across. Against a background of economic depression and political turmoil, the Nazis grew stronger and in the 1932 elections became the largest party in the German parliament. In January 1933, Hitler became chancellor of a coalition government. He quickly took dictatorial powers and began to institute anti-Jewish laws. He also began the process of German militarisation and territorial expansion that would eventually lead to World War Two. He allied with Italy and later Japan to create the Axis.

Hitler's invasion of Poland in September 1939 began World War Two. After military successes in Denmark, Norway and Western Europe, but after failing to subdue Britain in 1941, Hitler ordered the invasion of the Soviet Union. The Jewish populations of the countries conquered by the Nazis were rounded up and killed. Millions of others whom the Nazis considered racially inferior were also killed or worked to death. In December 1941, Hitler declared war on the United States. The war on the eastern front drained Germany's resources and in June 1944, the British and Americans landed in France. With Soviet troops poised to take the German capital, Hitler committed suicide in his bunker in Berlin on

April 30, 1945.

Joseph Goebbels

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Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels was born on October 29, 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism. He played a hand in the Kristallnacht attack on the German Jews, which historians consider to be the beginning of the Final Solution, leading towards the Holocaust.

Goebbels earned a Ph.D. from Heidelberg University in 1921, writing his doctoral thesis on 18th century romantic drama; he then went on to work as a journalist and later a bank clerk and caller on the stock exchange. He also wrote novels and plays, but they were rejected by publishers. Goebbels came into contact with the Nazi Party in 1923 during the French occupation of the Ruhr and became a member in 1924. He was appointed Gauleiter (regional party leader) of Berlin. In this position, he put his propaganda skills to full use, combating the local socialist and communist parties with the help of Nazi papers and the paramilitary Stormtroopers, aka, Brownshirts, SA. By 1928, he had risen in the party ranks to become one of its most prominent members.

Goebbels rose to power in 1933 along with Hitler and the Nazi Party and he was appointed Propaganda Minister. One of his first acts was the burning of books rejected by the Nazis. He exerted totalitarian control over the media, arts and information in Germany.

From the beginning of his tenure, Goebbels organized attacks on German Jews, commencing with the one-day boycott of Jewish businessmen, doctors, and lawyers on April 1, 1933. His attacks on the Jewish population culminated in the Kristallnacht assault of 1938, an open and unrestrained pogrom unleashed by the Nazis all across Germany, in which scores of synagogues were burned and hundreds of Jews were assaulted and murdered. Further, he produced a series of anti-Semitic films (most notably Jud Suss). Goebbels used modern propaganda techniques to psychologically prepare the German people for aggressive warfare.

During World War II, Goebbels increased his power and influence through shifting alliances with other Nazi leaders. By late 1943, the tide of the war was turning against the Axis powers, but this only spurred Goebbels to intensify the propaganda by urging the Germans to accept the idea of total war and mobilization. Goebbels remained with Hitler in Berlin to the end; just hours after Hitler's suicide, Goebbels and his wife, Magda, killed their six young children. Then, they both committed suicide as well.

Hermann Goering

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Hermann Wilhelm Goering was born on 12 January 1893. He was a German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. He was a veteran of the First World War as an ace fighter pilot, and a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite, also known as "The Blue Max". He was the last commander of Jagdgeschwader 1, the fighter wing once led by Manfred von Richthofen, "The Red Baron".

The son of a judge, Goering fought in the air force, and ended WWI as a decorated war hero. This prestige made him a prize recruit to the Nazi Party, and Hitler appointed him to command the SA Brownshirts. In 1923, he took part in the Munich Beer-Hall putsch, but was seriously wounded and forced to flee the country.

After returning in 1927, he was elected as one of the first Nazi party (NSDAP) deputies to the Reichstag. Goering used his contacts with conservatives, big business and army officers to smooth Hitler's road to power.

Goering became President of the Reichstag and, following Hitler's appointment as Chancellor, in 1933, he was awarded high office and became the creator of the secret police. Together with Himmler and Heydrich, he set up the early concentration camps for political opponents. He also implemented decrees that destroyed the last remnants of civil rights in Germany, and purged his rivals from the SA.

In 1935, he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force, and in 1936 gained virtually dictatorial control over the German economy. Goering used his position to indulge in ostentatious luxury, but his drug use, debauches and bribe-taking gradually corrupted his judgment.

In 1938, it was Goering who ordered the elimination of Jews from the German economy, and their exclusion from society. It was also Goering who instructed Heydrich to carry out the ‘general solution’, in July 1941.

As commander of the Luftwaffe, it was Goering who largely misdirected the battle of Britain, and by 1943 he was essentially discredited. His personality somewhat disintegrated and, after misinterpreting one of Hitler’s statements, he was dismissed and arrested.

On 9 May 1945, Goering was captured by the American Army and put on trial at Nuremberg in 1946. Goering was sentenced to death, but committed suicide in his cell in 1946.

Heinrich Himmler

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Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and an architect of Nazi genocide.

Heinrich Himmler was born on 7 October 1900 in Munich, the son of a schoolteacher. He served in the German army at the end of World War One and then had a variety of jobs, including working as a chicken farmer. He became involved with the Nazi party in the early 1920s and took part in the 'beer hall' putsch of 1923. Himmler acted as the Nazi party's propaganda leader between 1926 and 1930. In 1929, he was appointed head of the SS, Adolf Hitler's personal bodyguard, and the following year was elected to the Reichstag.

After the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, Himmler became police president in Munich and head of the political police in Bavaria. He used his position to build a state within a state, expanding the SS and establishing its autonomy within the Nazi party and its dominance in Germany. In 1933, he set up Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp. By 1936, he had manoeuvred himself into a position where he was head of a newly unified national police.

Himmler was obsessed with racial purity in Germany and encouraged Aryan 'breeding programmes'. The outbreak of World War Two allowed Himmler to pursue another racial goal - the elimination of Jews and other so-called 'sub-humans'. After Germany's invasion of Poland, Himmler was given total control of the annexed parts of the country. Within a year more than one million Poles and 300,000 Jews had been forced out to be replaced with German settlers. By June 1941, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Himmler controlled not only the police but the political administration of the occupied territories and, through his control of the SS, the concentration camp system. In 1943, Hitler appointed Himmler minister for the interior. In this post he oversaw the 'Final Solution' - the attempt to exterminate all the Jewish people in Europe - and administered the system of forced labour.

After the failed attempt on Hitler's life in July 1944, Himmler's position was strengthened still further. But as Germany's defeat became imminent, Himmler made attempts to negotiate with the Allies. Hitler was furious and stripped Himmler of all his offices. Following Germany's surrender, Himmler tried to escape under a false identity but was captured by the Allies. On 23 May 1945 he committed suicide in custody.

Benito Mussolini

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Mussolini was the founder of Fascism and leader of Italy from 1922 to 1943. He allied Italy with Nazi Germany and Japan in World War Two.

Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was born on July 29, 1883 in Predappio in northern central Italy. His father was a blacksmith. Employment prospects in the area were poor so in 1902 Mussolini moved to Switzerland, where he became involved in socialist politics. He returned to Italy in 1904, and worked as a journalist in the socialist press, but his support for Italy's entry into World War One led to his break with socialism. He was drafted into the Italian army in September 1915.

In March 1919, Mussolini formed the Fascist Party, galvanising the support of many unemployed war veterans. He organised them into armed squads known as Black Shirts, who terrorised their political opponents. In 1921, the Fascist Party was invited to join the coalition government.

By October 1922, Italy seemed to be slipping into political chaos. The Black Shirts marched on Rome and Mussolini presented himself as the only man capable of restoring order. King Victor Emmanuel invited Mussolini to form a government. Mussolini gradually dismantled the institutions of democratic government and in 1925 made himself dictator, taking the title 'Il Duce'. He set about attempting to re-establish Italy as a great European power. The regime was held together by strong state control and Mussolini's cult of personality.

In 1935, Mussolini invaded Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) and incorporated it into his new Italian Empire. He provided military support to Franco in the Spanish Civil War. Increasing co-operation with Nazi Germany culminated in the 1939 Pact of Steel. Influenced by Hitler, Mussolini began to introduce anti-Jewish legislation in Italy. His declaration of war on Britain and France in June 1940 exposed Italian military weakness and was followed by a series of defeats in North and East Africa and the Balkans.

In July 1943, Allied troops landed in Sicily. Mussolini was overthrown and imprisoned by his former colleagues in the Fascist government. In September, Italy signed an armistice with the Allies. The German army began the occupation of Italy and Mussolini was rescued by German commandos. He was installed as the leader of a new government, but had little power. As the Allies advanced northwards through Italy, Mussolini fled towards Switzerland. He was captured by Italian partisans and shot on 28 April 1945.

Joseph Stalin

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Joseph Stalin was born on Dec. 21, 1879, in Gori, Georgia. The son of a cobbler, he studied at a seminary but was expelled for revolutionary activity in 1899. He joined an underground revolutionary group and sided with the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party in 1903.

A disciple of Vladimir Lenin, he served in minor party posts and was appointed to the first Bolshevik Central Committee (1912). He remained active behind the scenes and in exile (1913–17) until the Russian Revolution of 1917 brought the Bolsheviks to power. Having adopted the name Stalin (from Russian stal, “steel”), he served as commissar for nationalities and for state control in the Bolshevik government (1917–23). He was a member of the Politburo, and in 1922 he became secretary-general of the party's Central Committee.

After Lenin's death (1924), Stalin overcame his rivals and took control of Soviet politics. In 1928 he inaugurated the Five-Year Plans that radically altered Soviet economic and social structures and resulted in the deaths of many millions. In the 1930s he contrived to eliminate threats to his power through the purge trials and through widespread secret executions and persecution. In World War II he signed the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact (1939), attacked Finland (Russo-Finnish War), and annexed parts of Eastern Europe to strengthen his western frontiers.

When Germany invaded Russia (1941), Stalin took control of military operations. He allied Russia with Britain and the U.S.; at the Tehrn, Yalta, and Potsdam conferences, he demonstrated his negotiating skill. After the war he consolidated Soviet power in Eastern Europe and built up the Soviet Union as a world military power. He continued his repressive political measures to control internal dissent; increasingly paranoid; he was preparing to mount another purge after the so-called Doctors' Plot when he died in 1953. Stalin was noted for bringing the Soviet Union into world prominence, at terrible cost to his own people, he left a legacy of repression and fear as well as industrial and military power. In 1956 Stalin and his personality cult were denounced by his successor, Nikita Khrushchev.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

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Eisenhower was the supreme Allied commander in Europe in World War Two and later 34th president of the United States.

Dwight David Eisenhower, nicknamed 'Ike', was born in Denison, Texas on 14 October 1890 and brought up in Kansas. Eisenhower graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point in 1915. He served in the army through the 1920s and 1930s, including a posting to the Philippines in the late 1930s.

Shortly after the United States entered World War Two, Eisenhower went to work in Washington, where he impressed the chief of staff General George C Marshall. In June 1942, he was appointed commanding general in the European theatre. This was later extended to include the Mediterranean and North Africa. In February 1944, he was named the supreme commander of the Allied expeditionary forces in Western Europe. He oversaw the successful Allied assault on the coast of Normandy in June 1944 and the Allied liberation of western Europe. On 7 May 1945 he accepted Germany's surrender and then commanded the US occupation zone in Germany.

In November 1945, Eisenhower returned to the US as army chief of staff. He was made president of Columbia University in 1948, but in December 1950 left to become supreme commander of NATO forces in Europe.

In 1952, the popularity which Eisenhower had gained during the war helped him win the Republican nomination for presidency and then the presidency itself. His time in office was dominated by the Cold War. In July 1953, he agreed to an armistice to end the fighting in Korea. He also guaranteed US protection for South Vietnam. In 1956, Eisenhower surprised Britain and France by refusing to back them in the Suez crisis.

At home, Eisenhower expanded social security provision and instigated the interstate highway system, the largest construction project in history. He was criticised for failing to publicly condemn Senator Joseph McCarthy for his anti-communist 'witch hunt'. However, he worked behind the scenes to erode McCarthy's influence. He signed significant civil rights legislation, but appeared to dislike confronting racial issues.

Eisenhower was re-elected in November 1956. During his last years in office, he hoped to improve US-Soviet relations and negotiate a nuclear test ban treaty. But in May 1960 the Soviets shot down an American U2 spy plane over their territory, which ended any hope of better relations before Eisenhower left office. He retired at the end of his second term in January 1961. He died in Washington DC on 28 March 1969.

Douglas MacArthur

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Douglas MacArthur was born on Jan. 26, 1880 in Little Rock, Ark. and died on April 5, 1964, in Washington, D.C. He was the U.S. general who commanded the Southwest Pacific Theatre in World War II, administered postwar Japan during the Allied occupation that followed, and led United Nations forces during the first nine months of the Korean War.

MacArthur was the third son of Arthur MacArthur, later the army's senior ranking officer, and Mary Hardy MacArthur, an ambitious woman who strongly influenced Douglas. He was graduated from West Point in 1903 with the highest honors in his class and served the next 10 years as an aide and a junior engineering officer, following this with four years on the general staff. He spent several months with the U.S. troops that occupied Veracruz, Mex., in 1914.

On the 42nd Division's staff in 1917–19, MacArthur was variously chief of staff, brigade commander, and divisional commander during combat operations in France during World War I and in the Rhine occupation that followed. During the 1920s he initiated far-reaching reforms while superintendent at West Point, served on William (“Billy”) Mitchell's court-martial, held two commands in the Philippines, commanded two U.S. corps areas, and headed the 1928 American Olympic Committee.

Having advanced in rank to brigadier general in 1918 and to major general seven years later, MacArthur was promoted to general when he was selected as army chief of staff in 1930. His efforts as military head for the next five years were largely directed toward preserving the army's meager strength during the Great Depression. MacArthur was widely criticized in mid-1932 when he sent regular troops to oust the Bonus Army of veterans from Washington. In 1935–41 he served as Philippines military adviser (and field marshal), endeavoring, despite inadequate funds, to build a Filipino defense force. He retired from the U.S. Army in December 1937.

Recalled to active duty in July 1941, MacArthur conducted a valiant delaying action against the Japanese in the Philippines after war erupted in December. He was ordered to Australia in March 1942 to command Allied forces in the Southwest Pacific Theater. He soon launched an offensive in New Guinea that drove the Japanese out of Papua by January 1943.

In a series of operations in 1943–44, MacArthur's troops seized strategic points in New Guinea. MacArthur seriously questioned his superiors' decision to give priority to the European war over the Pacific conflict and to the Central Pacific Theater over his Southwest Pacific area. His largest, costliest operations occurred during the seven-month Luzon campaign in 1945. That spring he also undertook the reconquest of the southern Philippines and Borneo.

He was promoted to General of the Army in December 1944 and was appointed commander of all U.S. army forces in the Pacific four months later. He was in charge of the surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay on Sept. 2, 1945.

As Allied commander of the Japanese occupation in 1945–51, MacArthur effectively if autocratically directed the demobilization of Japanese military forces, the expurgation of militarists, the restoration of the economy, and the drafting of a liberal constitution. Significant reforms were inaugurated in land redistribution, education, labor, public health, and women's rights. While he was in Japan, MacArthur also headed the army's Far East command.

When the Korean War began in 1950, MacArthur was soon selected to command United Nations forces there. After stemming the North Korean advance near Pusan, he carried out a daring landing at Inchon in September and advanced into North Korea in October as the North Korean Army rapidly disintegrated. In November, however, massive Chinese forces attacked MacArthur's divided army above the 38th parallel and forced it to retreat to below Seoul. Two months later MacArthur's troops returned to the offensive, driving into North Korea again.

On April 11, 1951, President Harry S. Truman relieved MacArthur of his commands because of the general's insubordination and unwillingness to conduct a limited war. Returning to the United States for the first time since before World War II, MacArthur at first received widespread popular support; the excitement waned after a publicized Senate investigation of his dismissal.

In 1944, 1948, and 1952, conservative Republican groups tried in vain to obtain MacArthur's nomination for the presidency. MacArthur accepted the board chairmanship of the Remington Rand Corporation in 1952; thereafter, except for these duties and rare public appearances, he lived in seclusion in New York City. He died in Washington, D.C., on April 5, 1964 and was buried at Norfolk, Va.

In personality MacArthur was enigmatic and contradictory. To many he seemed imperious, aloof, egotistical, and pretentious. To others, especially his headquarters staff, he appeared warm, courageous, unostentatious, and even humble. Most authorities agree that he possessed superior intelligence, rare command ability, and zealous dedication to duty, honor, and country.

George Patton

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George S. Patton was born on November 11, 1885 in San Gabriel, California. He was a U.S. Army officer who was an outstanding practitioner of mobile tank warfare in the European and Mediterranean theatres during World War II. His strict discipline, toughness, and self-sacrifice elicited exceptional pride within his ranks, and the general was colorfully referred to as “Old Blood-and-Guts” by his men.

A 1909 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and a descendant of a Virginia family with a long military tradition, Patton became a keen student of the American Civil War (1861–65), especially its great cavalry leaders, an interest that likely contributed to the strategy of bold, highly mobile operations associated with his name. He began his army career as a cavalry lieutenant (1913) and was aide-de-camp to General John J. Pershing in Mexico (1916–17) and in England (1917).

After serving with the U.S. Tank Corps in World War I, Patton became a vigorous proponent of tank warfare. He was made a tank brigade commander in July 1940. On April 4, 1941, he was promoted to major general, and two weeks later he was made commander of the 2nd Armored Division. Soon after the Japanese surprise air attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941), he was made corps commander in charge of both the 1st and 2nd armored divisions and organized the desert training center at Indio, California. Patton was commanding general of the western task force during the U.S. operations in North Africa in November 1942. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General in March 1943 and led the U.S. Seventh Army in Sicily, employing his armor in a rapid drive that captured Palermo in July.

The apex of his career came with the dramatic sweep of his Third Army across northern France in the summer of 1944 in a campaign marked by great initiative, ruthless drive, and disregard of classic military rules. Two months after D-Day his forces had captured Mayenne, Laval, Le Mans, Reims, and Châlons. They did not stop until they hurtled against the strong German defenses at Nancy and Metz in November.

In December his forces played a strategic role in defending Bastogne in the massive Battle of the Bulge. By the end of January 1945, Patton's forces had reached the German frontier; on March 1 they took Trier, and in the next 10 days they cleared the entire region north of the Moselle River, trapping thousands of Germans. They then joined the Seventh Army in sweeping the Saar and the Palatinate, where they took 100,000 prisoners.

Patton's military achievements caused authorities to soften strong civilian criticism of some of his actions, including his widely reported striking of a hospitalized shell-shocked soldier in August 1943. Patton publicly apologized for the incident. His public criticisms of the Allied postwar denazification policy in Germany led to his removal from the command of the Third Army in October 1945. The controversial general died in a Heidelberg hospital after an automobile accident near Mannheim. A film biography directed by Franklin Schaffner, Patton (1970), won seven Academy Awards.

Hideki Tojo

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Hideki Tojo (born Eiku Tojo) was born in Kojimachi District (now Chiyoda), Tokyo, Japan to the Japanese Army infantry Lieutenant (later Lieutenant General) Hidenori Tojo. He followed his father's footsteps and attended the Army Cadet School in 1899 and then the Japanese Military Academy in 1904. In Mar 1905, he completed the courses at the military academy and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the infantry. In 1909, he married Katsuko Ito; they had three sons and four daughters. In 1912, he entered the Army Staff College, completing the program in 1915 and rose to the rank of captain and the commanding officer of the 3rd Imperial Guards Regiment. In Aug 1919, he served in Switzerland as a military attaché. On 10 Aug 1920, he was promoted to the rank of major.

On 1 Aug 1929, he became the commanding officer of the 1st Infantry Regiment; around this time, he became active in militarist politics. In Aug 1931, he became a staff officer with the Army Chief of Staff. On 18 Mar 1933, he was promoted to the rank of major general and served as the Chief of the Personnel Department. In Aug 1934, he became the commanding officer of the 24th Infantry Brigade.

On 21 Sep 1935, Tojo was assigned to the Kwantung Army as the head of its military police. Nicknamed Kamisori, or "Razor", he was known for his decisiveness. On 1 Dec 1935, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general. During the Feb 26 Incident, he stood against the rebels, and emerged the Army's leading political figure. On 1 Mar 1937, he became the chief of staff of the Kwantung Army. He led units of the 1st Independent Mixed Brigade during Operation Chahar in Jul 1937, and deployed his troops to Hobei Province, China after the Second Sino-Japanese War began; with the Kwantung Army, he also played a key role in efficiently utilizing Manchuria's natural resources to feed the hungry Japanese industrial machine.

Returning to Japan in May 1938, he became Vice War Minister and Chief of Army Aviation. As head of the Japanese Army's aviation program, he adopted an aggressive stance in conducting pre-emptive strikes against China and Russia. On 22 Jul 1940, he was appointed War Minister by Prime Minister Konoe. In this role, he expanded the Second Sino-Japanese War and was instrumental in forming the alliance between Japan, Germany, and Italy. Japan's expansionist philosophies, which were heavily influenced by Tojo, eventually led to an economic sanctions and then an oil embargo, conducted by several western powers including the United States and Britain.

On 16 Oct 1941, Konoe resigned from his post as prime minister. On the next day, Emperor Showa summoned Tojo to the Imperial Palace. "I thought I was summoned because the Emperor was angry at my opinion", said Tojo in his diary, but his initial reaction could not be further from the truth. As it would turn out, on the next day, 18 Oct 1941, Tojo was named the 40th Prime Minister of Japan. He and his staff presented war plans to Emperor Showa, who formally approved "war against the United States, England, and Holland" during the Imperial Conference of 1 Dec 1941. The Pacific War began as Japanese aircraft attacked the American naval base of Pearl Harbor on 7 Dec 1941.

Over the course of his tenure as prime minister, Tojo gradually placed himself in direct charge of the army, foreign affairs, commerce, education, and the munitions industry. As Education Minister, he continued militaristic and nationalist indoctrination in the national education system. Although support for his government was high through 1942, starting in early 1943 support gradually waned. In Feb 1944, he assumed the role of the commander-in-chief of the General Staff, effectively gaining dictatorial powers, in order to secure his political position. However, even with absolute power, the loss of Saipan in the Mariana Islands spelled the end of his tenure as prime minister. On 18 Jul 1944, Tojo submitted his resignation to Emperor Showa.

On 8 Sep 1945, after the Japanese surrender, Tojo attempted to commit suicide by shooting himself in the chest with a pistol; he survived as the bullet missed his heart. He was arrested while recovering from the gunshot wound, and moved to the Sugamo Prison after he had recovered. He was tried by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East for war crimes. He was found guilty of count 1 (waging unprovoked wars of aggression and war or wars in violation of international law), count 27 (waging war against China), count 29 (waging aggressive war against the United States), count 31 (waging aggressive war against the British Commonwealth), count 32 (waging aggressive war against the Netherlands), count 33 (waging aggressive war against French Indochina), and count 54 (ordering, authorizing, and permitting inhumane treatment of POWs and others). Accepting his responsibilities as a Class A war criminal, he stated that

It is natural that I should bear entire responsibility for the war in general, and, needless to say, I am prepared to do so. Consequently, now that the war has been lost, it is presumably necessary that I be judged so that the circumstances of the time can be clarified and the future peace of the world be assured.

Tojo was sentenced to death by hanging on 12 Nov 1948, which was carried out on 23 Dec 1948. Before he was hanged, he apologized for atrocities committed by the Japanese Army, though claimed that he was simply following orders from Emperor Showa for the cases where he was implicated with war crimes; he also urged the American occupation to show compassion toward the Japanese people. Tojo is among those enshrined at the Yasukuni Shrine, which continues to stir controversy today.

Isoroku Yamamoto

Isoroku Yamamoto was born Isoroku Takano, in Nagaoka, Niigata Japan, but changed his name after being adopted by the Yamamoto family. His father was a former low-class samurai warrior. He entered the Naval Academy and graduated in 1904, and participated against Russia. He was seriously injured during the Battle of Tsushima in 1905; he recovered though left with many scars. Yamamoto was nicknamed "80 sen" by some of his favorite geisha girls because he lost two fingers from the said battle (at the time, a geisha manicure cost 100 sen, or 1 yen). He was American educated (Harvard University, 1919-1921), and became a junior naval attaché to several nations. In 1924, at age 40, he changed his specialty from gunnery to aviation, recognizing the upcoming trend in naval warfare.

At the start of the war, the US and UK were cutting off critical raw materials from Japan, the island nation's need for raw materials led to her eyeing the resource rich South Pacific. With the Netherlands conquered and Britain busy defending against an expanding Germany, a Japanese expansion into the South Pacific seemed to be without great obstacles. Yamamoto deduced that a Japanese invasion into Britain-held territory would bring the United States into war, therefore before taking British and Dutch territories, the United States must be neutralized. During a private conversation with Prime Minister Prince Konoye, he said that:

"I can guarantee to put up a tough fight for the first six months but I have absolutely no confidence about what would happen if it went on for two or three years.... I hope you will make every effort to avoid war with America. I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant."

Going against his own knowledge that the US was too much a giant to take on for Japan, Yamamoto devised an attack against key military installations in the Pacific, including those of the US - Malaya, Philippines, Guam, Wake, and at the last moment he added Pearl Harbor, the home port of the US Pacific Fleet. Japan declared war on the United States and attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 Dec 1941, drawing the US into the war.

Mere months after the impossibly successful victories, Yamamoto drew up the plan to attack Midway, an atoll northwest of Pearl Harbor, in order to destroy the aircraft carriers that escaped the Pearl Harbor attack. However, poor planning and less than perfect carrier doctrine ultimately led to the demise of four precious fleet carriers, including his former command ship, the Akagi. Naval historian Jonathan Parshall said that "[Yamamoto's] needlessly complex operational scheme at the Battle of Midway dispersed his forces in the face of a still-dangerous foe, and directly led to the disaster there." The fact that Yamamoto accepted to take on an Aleutian campaign at the same time as the Midway invasion reflected his failure, arrogantly underestimate the capability of the American fleet and reducing the overall effectiveness of his stab at central Pacific. The two light carriers and 16 submarines sent to the Aleutians could very well had changed the outcome of the Midway battle.

On 14 Apr 1943, US Navy Fleet Radio Unit Pacific Fleet decoded a intercepted Japanese Navy message, which allowed the US to learn that Yamamoto was planning on an inspection of three front-line bases near Bougainville Island. The message contained specific details regarding Yamamoto's arrival and departure times and locations, as well as the number and types of planes that will transport and accompany him on the journey. When Admiral Nimitz, US's commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet, read the message, he decided to go ahead with striking down Yamamoto en route after deciding that no potential replacement for Yamamoto would be more capable than the brilliant admiral who planned the attacks on Pearl Harbor. His death at enemy hands would also deal a severe blow against Japanese morale, Nimitz concluded. After receiving the approval, Nimitz gave the task to Admiral Halsey, whose forces were in the Solomon Islands area at the time.

Halsey sent a squadron of 18 US Army P-38 Lightning fighters based in Henderson Field on Guadalcanal on 18 Apr 1943 to attack Yamamoto's planes. The date was especially chosen on the one-year anniversary of the Doolittle Raid, partially for revenge as it was just made known to Halsey that three of the captured Doolittle raiders had just been beheaded by the Japanese. Knowing Yamamoto was always punctual, it made Halsey's planning easy. The P-38 fighters were fitted with extra large drop tanks in order to provide the pilots enough fuel for the return trip after the strike. After a series of dogfights, the lead G4M2 bombers (escorted by six Zero fighters) was strafed by machine gun fire and crashed into the jungle below. Not knowing which bomber carried Yamamoto; the second bomber was also attacked, which crashed into the ocean with passenger Vice Admiral Matome Ugaki, who would survive the attack. Yamamoto's body was found by Japanese search and rescue party led by Army engineer Lieutenant Hamasuna the next day in the jungle north of Buin. Yamamoto had been thrown clear of the plane's wreckage, white-gloved hand grasping the hilt of his samurai sword; he was killed by machine gun fire before the plane crashed. According to Lieutenant Hamasuna, Yamamoto was instantly recognizable, sitting perfectly under a tree, head dipped down as deep in thought; however, it was generally thought that Yamamoto's remains were tidied up by the search party out of respect.

The Japanese government did not announce Yamamoto's death until 21 May. To cover up the fact that the Allies were reading Japanese code, American newspapers published a story that civilian coast watchers in the Solomon Islands saw Yamamoto boarding a bomber in the area. The Japanese Navy apparently bought the story and failed to change its code.

Captain Watanabe and his staff cremated Yamamoto's remains at Buin, and the ashes were returned to Tokyo, Japan aboard the battleship Musashi, Yamamoto's last flagship.

Yamamoto was given a full state funeral on 5 Jun, where he received, posthumously, the rank of fleet admiral and was awarded the Order of the Chrysanthemum, First Class. Parts of his ashes were buried in the public cemetery in Tuma in Tokyo and the remainder at his ancestral burial grounds at the Chuko-Ji Temple in Nagaoka City. Tens of thousands of mourners came to Nagaoka City to pay their last respects.

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