In 1915, the fourth year of Taisho in Japan, Hideki Tojo graduated from the Japanese Army University. Become an elite figure in the Japanese military circles. However, taking a closer look at Hideki Tojo's life, Hideki Tojo is more like a politician than a military elite.

After completing his studies, Hideki Tojo first entered the Japanese War Ministry as an intern, and then was exiled to become a military attache at the Japanese Embassy in Germany. At this time, Hideki Tojo, while studying the Germans, was also thinking about how to rise to the top. The first thing he did was to stand in line.

Although the Japanese imperial family has never changed, it has always been honored by the emperor. However, the real power was not all in the hands of the emperor, who was a puppet during the shogunate period. Of course, there are factions that use the emperor as a puppet, and there will inevitably be factions that support the emperor.

After the death of Emperor Meiji in 1912, the upper echelons of Japan were in turmoil. Emperor Taisho is not in good health, and he is simply a jar of medicine. Nogi Noshinori, who had no energy to take care of state affairs at all, and had absolute prestige in the Japanese military circles, and after the death of Meiji, he and his wife sacrificed themselves in Akasaka's house for Emperor Meiji.

Therefore, the authority of the Japanese imperial family was spied on. Even, when Hirohito was the crown prince, even the big wedding was interfered with by Toyama Manwa Yama Youpeng. When Hirohito was the crown prince, the most interference with the emperor's imperial power was the power of the Nagasu gate lord in the Japanese army.

The Cheung Chau Gate Valve was famous for supporting Emperor Meiji back then. When the authority is too great, there is a contradiction between nature and the imperial power. What Hideki Tojo did was to choose to stand on the side of the crown prince. At this time, it was when Hirohito's men were unavailable. Therefore, Hideki Tojo, a military elite, is very popular with Hirohito.

Although Hirohito only visited Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Italy in 1921, that is, the tenth year of Taisho in Japan, visited only five countries: Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Italy, and did not have Germany, where Hideki Tojo was located, the name of Hideki Tojo. It's already in Hirohito's ears.

It was during this tour that Hirohito received more than a dozen Japanese military attachés stationed in Europe and received an oath of allegiance from young Japanese officers led by Nagata Tetsuyama, Toshiro Obata, and Okamura Ninji. Hideki Tojo is one of them. And Hirohito used these people as a team to carry out an operation to seize power from the elders of the army.

Hideki Tojo's choice of side to swear allegiance to the crown prince was clearly correct. Two months after Hirohito's study tour in Europe, Emperor Taisho of Japan became ill. Hirohito had the power of regent. By the time Emperor Taisho died in 1926, Hirohito had absolute power.

In 1926, Crown Prince Hirohito officially ascended the throne as the 124th Emperor of Japan. Changed to Showa. Subsequently, in Europe, the young Japanese officers who swore allegiance to Hirohito, such as Nagata Tetsuyama, Kohata Toshiro, Okamura Ninji, Tojo Hideki, etc., were all reused and held real power.

In August 1929, Hideki Tojo was appointed Wing Commander of the 1st Infantry Wing of Japan. Subsequently, the promotion process began. In August 1931, Hideki Tojo took office. Chief of the Mobilization Division of the Maintenance Bureau of the General Staff Headquarters. When Japan launched the 918 Incident in the three northeastern provinces of China, he strongly supported the Japanese military department.

In 1933, Hideki Tojo became a major general and in the same year he became head of the Military Investigation Department. By 1935. Hideki Tojo was strongly recommended by his alumnus Harem Jun, who was in the Army's early childhood school, to serve as the commander of the military police of the Japanese Kwantung Army.

Since then, Hideki Tojo finally has the opportunity to cultivate his subordinates and impact on a higher level of Japanese decision-making. Duties of the Japanese military police. It is to supervise the actions of the Japanese army. However, it has always existed in name only. When Hideki Tojo arrived, he was the gendarmerie of the Japanese Kwantung Army. There were only 200 of them. The commander of the Japanese Kwantung Army, in the puppet Manchurian, is simply the emperor.

However, there are also advantages to a small number of people. It is just convenient for Hideki Tojo to build the military police of the Japanese Kwantung Army according to his own ideas. As a result of his long-term involvement in Japanese military circles, Hideki Tojo knew many talented people in Japanese military circles who did not have suitable positions.

After serving as the commander of the military police of the Japanese Kwantung Army, Hideki Tojo quickly found a group of capable generals with his accumulated contacts and joined the Japanese Kwantung Army military police and held important positions. And these people who were appointed by Hideki Tojo will naturally not forget the grace of knowing each other. Since then, he has become a confidant of Hideki Tojo.

When Hideki Tojo took office, it was the time when the Japanese Kwantung Army planned to wipe out the anti-Japanese forces in northeast China. After Hideki Tojo built up the ranks of the gendarmerie under his command, he began to seek his first credit.

Hideki Tojo reported to the Japanese Kwantung Army Command about his two methods of dealing with the Chinese anti-Japanese forces. The first is the establishment of a special agency under the command of the commander of the military police of the Japanese Kwantung Army to supervise the police affairs of the puppet Manchurians. The required funds are managed and disposed of by the commander of the military police of the Kwantung Army.

Although this article can resolve conflicts between Japanese intelligence services and solve the problem of inefficiency. But it is undoubtedly equivalent to bringing all the police power of the puppet Manchurian police into the hands of Hideki Tojo.

The second is to focus on the six provinces of Binjiang, Sanjiang, Jilin, Jiandao, Andong, and Fengtian, as well as the five major cities of Harbin, Qiqihar, Xinjing, Fengtian, and Dalian, to institutionalize the puppet Manchurian Japanese military police. Although this article strengthened the strength of the Japanese in fighting against China's anti-Japanese armed forces, it also greatly strengthened the military police of the Japanese Kwantung Army under the command of Hideki Tojo.

After these two reasonable opinions were agreed by the military police headquarters of the Japanese Kwantung Army, Hideki Tojo's power was greatly enhanced. Become a number one of the puppet Manchurian figures.

1936, early morning of February 26. Fifteen hundred soldiers of the Japanese Imperial Road faction rebelled in Tokyo. After the rebellion, these Imperial soldiers quickly occupied important institutions such as the Prime Minister's Office, the Ministry of the Army, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the General Staff Headquarters, and took control of the Asahi Shimbun Agency.

Japan's top officials, Minister of the Interior Minoru Saito, Army Education Director Watanabe Shotaro, Minister of Finance Takahashi Isaki and others were killed.

The Emperor of Japan, Hirohito, learned the news forty minutes after the rebellion. He immediately changed into a military uniform, summoned the Minister of War, Yoshiyuki Kawashima, and ordered a crackdown. On 27 February, the battleship Nagato, the main battleship of the First Fleet of the Japanese Navy, sailed into Tokyo Bay on the direct orders of Japanese Emperor Hirohito and aimed its main guns at the rebel-occupied Diet.

Because the slogans of the imperial faction were "break the system", "respect the emperor and punish traitors", and "Showa Restoration" and demanded the establishment of a radical fascist state, it won the sympathy of insiders in the Japanese Army. When the news of the rebellion reached the Kwantung Army, Japanese soldiers and officers, who usually claimed to be loyal and patriotic, did not stand up for the emperor in the first place.

Major General Masakawa of the 11th Task Force Brigade stationed in Harbin sent a telegram. claims to support domestic "military advice"; The 16th Division stationed in "Dongmanchuria" has already dispatched itself and rushed to "Xinjing"; There was a riot in the Japanese garrison camp in Jiamusi, which occupied the railway station and intercepted the train.

And the Japanese Army's suppression of the Imperial Road rebels in Tokyo was also slow to act, so angry that Hirohito scolded: "Do you want me to personally take the Guards Division to suppress them?" ”

Under these circumstances, Hideki Tojo decisively stood in the ranks of the ruling faction, supported the emperor, and suppressed the rebellion. Under the orders of Hideki Tojo, the Japanese Kwantung Army military police poured out. Quickly arrest all the high-ranking officers of the Imperial Road Sect of the Puppet Manchurians, or shoot them on the spot.

At the same time, Hideki Tojo sent a telegram to the country in a timely manner to express his merits - "The 'Imperial Road Faction' rebelled against the emperor's important ministers, forced the palace by force, insulted our emperor and disrupted my political program, and caused the world to be outraged. Today, the entire Kwantung Army declares its loyalty to the imperial system of the eternal lineage, and does not hesitate to annihilate any rebellion by force to appease the kingdom of God. Now I swear to rebel. He urged the military department to immediately issue an order for the arrest of scum and the purge of the whole country. If the 'Imperial Sect' rebels surrender as soon as possible, they will be exempted from heavy punishment. Such as stubborn resistance. The Kwantung Army will fight hard and punish heaven on its behalf! ”

On the afternoon of February 29, 1936, the Imperial Daoists surrendered and the rebellion was quelled. Seventeen people, including Kita Ichiki, who was led by the Imperial Road faction, were executed. The rest were dismissed and demoted. After the purge, the Japanese emperor should reward those who have made meritorious contributions to the suppression of the rebellion. Hideki Tojo bore the brunt of the attack.

If the Imperial Dao faction has mastered the puppet Manchurian. Japan, then, is in jeopardy. And the emperor of Japan will also be reduced to a laughing stock. And Tojo Hideki's effectiveness in striking at China's anti-Japanese armed forces in the puppet Manchurians was not bad. It was October 1, 1936. Sasaki led dozens of Japanese military advisers and dispatched 11 brigades of the puppet Manchurians, about 25,000 people, to carry out a major crusade against the puppet Manchurian eastern side of the road.

The anti-Japanese forces in northeastern China suffered heavy losses, while Hideki Tojo was full of meritorious service.

Therefore, on December 1, 1936, Hideki Tojo was promoted to lieutenant general of the Japanese Army. In March 1937, Hideki Tojo replaced Seishiro Itagaki as chief of staff of the Japanese Kwantung Army. Enter the decision-making level in Japan.

This was followed by the July 7 Incident in 1937, when the Japanese invaded China in a full-scale manner. Because Hideki Tojo had performed well in the war, and Motomo Sugiyama, who advocated the occupation of China within three months, was excluded from the Japanese decision-making level, in May 1938, Hideki Tojo replaced Mijiro Umezu as vice minister of the Japanese army.

On July 17, 1940, Fumihiro Konoe formed a cabinet, and Hideki Tojo became Japan's land minister from the vice minister of the Japanese army. This huge quagmire due to the fact that the Japanese were caught in the Chinese battlefield. Japan's domestic supply was fundamentally depleted by the war, and Konoe Fumiro was unable to deal with it. Moreover, the scheming Fumiro Konoe was not optimistic about the outcome of Japan's sneak attack on the United States and the launch of the Pacific War.

Therefore, Konoe Fumiki retreated. The general resignation of the Cabinet was announced on 16 October 1941. On 17 October, the nomination of Hideki Tojo by the Japanese Ministers' Council was approved. On November 17, 1941, Hirohito summoned Hideki Tojo. Promoted Hideki Tojo to general. On November 18, 1941, the Tojo Cabinet was formed.

Hideki Tojo was the Minister of Land, the Interior, the Ministry of Education, Commerce, Industry, and Quartermaster, and became the first person under the Emperor of Japan.

And Hideki Tojo has come this way, although he is a member of the military department and has the rank of general, but he rarely goes to the battlefield. Even if he won a battle on the Chinese battlefield, he was crushed all the way by relying on advanced weapons and a well-trained Japanese army, and he did not encounter any hard battles at all.

Moreover, the key to Hideki Tojo's promotion is not these tailwind battles he fought. Rather, it is speculation again and again. This is what Hideki Tojo is good at.

However, this kind of speculation can only be used in the political field where Hideki Tojo excels, not in the military field. Hideki Tojo has always been very radical and idealistic in military affairs. And it turned out that Hideki Tojo's military speculation was not successful at all.

On November 28, 1938, Tojo declared that Japan would "fight simultaneously against the Soviet Union and China, and at the same time prepare for war with Britain, the United States, and France." All of a sudden, public opinion was in an uproar, and the stock market in Tokyo, Japan, fell sharply.

Subsequently, with the support of Hideki Tojo, the former chief of staff of the Japanese Kwantung Army, the Japanese Kwantung Army sent troops to Nomenkan, but the result was a crushing defeat. It's just that this fiasco has its own other scapegoats, and Hideki Tojo is safe and sound.

After this fiasco, the Japanese's plan to advance north failed, and they had to go south. And if you go south to Southeast Asia, you will have a conflict with Britain, France and the United States. At this time, Hideki Tojo insisted on going to war against the United States. At the Imperial Council on July 22, 1941, under the impetus of the war fanatics of the upper echelons of Japan headed by Hideki Tojo, Japan finally decided on the "Outline of Imperial National Policy to Adapt to Changes in the Situation."

In order to advance southward, Japan did not hesitate to go to war with Britain and the United States. On November 18, 1941, after the formation of the Hideki Tojo cabinet, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in the United States. The attempt to be small and large, the speculation was successful.

However, in the military field, there is a competition for strength. Perhaps on the local battlefield, the weak can be defeated by strategy, but the overall competition is still comprehensive strength. Hideki Tojo's speculation was unlikely to succeed.

As Ishihara Wanji, a political enemy who was feared by Hideki Tojo, said: "If this war requires 10,000 yuan, Britain and the United States actually have 1 million yuan, while Japan only has 1,000 yuan. ”

"Strategically, in addition to looking for the enemy's weaknesses, it is also necessary to recognize the advantages of the conditions, tactics, warriors, specific weapons, and other means of warfare that our side possesses. Only by relying on these advantages can the enemy's weakness be expanded. Now that the first phase of the battle plan has been completed, the military authorities have proposed a war plan for the next stage, which must include the necessary production and enhancement of the quantity and the means and methods of implementation, as well as their possibilities. ”

And in fact, as Ishihara had predicted, Hideki Tojo's speculation ultimately failed. The Americans wiped out the Japanese navy and took possession of the Japanese mainland in the open. And Hideki Tojo became a prisoner. (To be continued.) )