Tojo Resigns: Japan's War Machine Crumbles
Hideki Tojo resigned as Prime Minister of Japan on July 18, 1944, after the fall of Saipan brought American bombers within striking range of the Japanese home islands. Tojo had led Japan into war as the principal architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the invasion of Southeast Asia. His resignation reflected the military reality that Japan was losing on every front: the navy had been crippled at Midway and the Philippine Sea, Burma was slipping away, and island garrisons were being systematically destroyed. His successor, General Kuniaki Koiso, inherited a war that was already lost. Tojo attempted suicide when American forces arrested him in 1945, failed, and was executed as a war criminal in 1948.
July 18, 1944
82 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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