“Death on the gallows was decreed today for Hideki Tojo, the cold, calculating Japanese who led his country to fight in the world’s bloodiest war….” Stories about the International Military Tribunal’s death sentence for Tojo, who was a general of the Imperial Japanese Army and Prime Minister during much of World War II, appeared across the planet on November 12, 1948 (this particular version comes from the Ironwood [Mich.] Daily Globe). Yet while Tojo’s sentence was the front page, it wasn’t the top story. Instead, the main headline was “Marshall Hits Red Propaganda,” about Secretary of State George C. Marshall’s critique of a “propaganda peace offensive” by the Soviet Union. By late 1948, it had been more than three years since Japan’s surrender. WWII certainly wasn’t forgotten, but there were more pressing matters to address.
Tojo’s trial had gone on so long that it’s easy to see why public interest might have waned. The Nuremberg trials of Nazi regime officials resolved themselves in less than 11 months: They began on November 20, 1945 and 10 convicted Nazis were hanged on October 16, 1946. By contrast, the military tribunal convened to judge Japanese war officials started on May 3, 1946 and then lasted more than two years, long enough that two of the original 28 defendants died before sentencing. Ultimately, 25 of the remaining 26 were convicted—one was ruled insane thanks largely to a bizarre courtroom incident involving Tojo. (More on this shortly.)
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