After the Japanese surrender, Gen. MacArthur ordered the arrest of numerous Japanese generals and politicians for war crimes. When G.I.s surrounded his house, Hideki Tojo shot himself in the chest. But he missed his heart. When the soldiers, with reporters, broke into the house, Tojo was lying on the floor. A photographer put the gun back in his hand for a more dramatic picture. “I am sorry it is taking me so long to die.” But he didn’t die. American doctors kept him alive for his trial. He was taken with the others to Sugamo Prison. (There he was given a new pair of dentures with “Remember Pearl Harbor” inscribed in Morse code.) The trials began in April, 1946. Tojo and others were accused of waging wars of aggression, war in violation of international law, unprovoked war, and inhumane treatment of prisoners. Tojo accepted responsibility. He and six others were sentenced to death on November 12, 1948. They were hanged on December 23. He certainly deserved it, but you have to wonder why Ishii Shiro, the head of the bacterial and chemical warfare unit, was not even arrested. He and his subordinates conducted experiments like injecting American prisoners with bubonic plague. He “cooperated” with Americans like Werner Braun and Nazi rocket scientists cooperated.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hideki_Tojo#Arrest,_trial,_and_execution
https://www.historytoday.com/archive/tojo-hideki-executed
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