He Was Not Just Prime Minister…

On December 8, 1941, Tojo appeared on Japanese radio to declare that Japan had entered into war with the United States, the British Empire, and the Netherlands. He did this by reading from an Imperial Rescript, which was followed by the playing of the popular martial song Umi Yukaba (Across the Sea), which set to music a well-known war poem from the classic collection Manysh, with the lyrics “Across the sea, corpses soaking in the water, Across the mountains corpses, heaped up in”. From October 17, 1941, until July 22, 1944, Tojo served as prime minister while continuing to serve as army minister. One of the interesting facts about Hideki Tojo is beside a primer minister, he concurrently held the positions of home minister from 1941 to 1942, foreign minister beginning in September 1942, minister of education beginning in 1943, and minister of commerce and industry beginning in 1943.

He continued to indoctrinate the national school system with militarism and nationalism while serving as minister of education, reinforcing dictatorial government objectives. He implemented several eugenics policies while Home Minister, including sterilizing those who were deemed “mentally unfit”.