WWII Through the Eyes of Hideki Tojo's Great-Grandson

For many, the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII is an exercise in remembrance. Recalling dates, paging through black-and-white photographs, or watching grainy footage in history documentaries. Surviving combat veterans, Holocaust survivors, and others who lived through the 1940s mark the day with a weight few of us can fully grasp.

For the descendants of wartime leaders, however, the anniversary carries a different burden — what one might call an imposed representation. Born long after the guns fell silent, they inherit not the actions, but the legacies, of those in power. The challenge is to transcend inherited enmity and help build a better world from the rubble of history.

Hidetoshi Tojo, great-grandson of wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, knows this struggle well. Speaking to JAPAN Forward ahead of the August 15 anniversary, he reflected on his journey from keeping silent about his family history to confronting it openly.

Breaking the Silence

"It was difficult for the Tojo family after the war," he recalled. "Even though I knew from a young age that the man in the history books wearing that uniform was my great-grandfather, I kept quiet for a long time."

That changed in 2015, during the 70th anniversary of the war's end. Tojo agreed to a series of interviews, including one for Insight, a talk show on Australia's SBS network. 

The program brought together an unlikely group: the son of an Australian POW, Josef Stalin's great-grandson, Harry Truman's grandson, a Polish couple who had survived Auschwitz, and Niklas Frank, son of Nazi official Hans Frank.

Moral Weight of War

The filming took place before a live audience under hot studio lights. "Truman's grandson couldn't be there in person, but we spoke remotely," Tojo recalled. 

"It was important for me to meet one of President Truman's descendants," he said. "I found him to be a man of great understanding. He has visited the sites of the atomic bombings, met survivors, and you could feel in him a kind of pang of conscience over their suffering."

That encounter shaped Tojo's view of history. "Of course, the United States was a victor in World War II. But when you think about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and sense in someone like Truman's grandson the moral weight of that, then you realize there were no real winners in that war."

Over the years, his exchanges with other descendants of wartime leaders gave him a broader perspective. "In many ways, not much has changed since then," he reflected. "The cast of characters is different, but the structural exploitation from the colonial period has simply been repackaged as global capital. That's neo-colonialism."

Moment of Affirmation

While he values studying history, Tojo believes the future must take priority. "History is important, but the world hasn't moved much beyond eighty years ago. I've decided to leave the fine details to the professional historians. As citizens, our role is to move forward."

Part of that forward motion came from unexpected affirmation. During the Insight taping, Tojo mentioned two acts by his great-grandfather that he views positively.

The first was the 1943 Declaration for Greater East Asian Co-operation, issued at the Greater East Asia Conference in Tokyo. Framed as a call for Asian self-rule free from Western colonial domination, it was promoted as a vision of mutual prosperity among Asian nations.

The second was the Otpor Incident of 1938–1940, when Lieutenant General Kiichiro Higuchi, supported by then-Kwantung Army commander Hideki Tojo, helped thousands of Jewish refugees escape Nazi persecution by allowing them safe transit through Japanese-occupied territories.

"After the filming, the Polish Auschwitz survivors told me, with tears in their eyes, that my great-grandfather had done a wonderful thing in helping to save Jews," Tojo said. "That moment began to change my relationship with my family's past."

Handshake of Peace

His reflections are also shaped by the work of Shinsho Hanayama, a philosopher and Buddhist priest who served as chaplain at Sugamo Prison and was present at Hideki Tojo's execution in December 1948.

Hanayama recounted to younger Tojo that his great-grandfather shook hands with prison guards before being led to the gallows. It's a gesture the priest saw as "a handshake of friendship between former enemies, a symbol of peace to be told to future generations."

For Hidetoshi Tojo, Hanayama's message was clear: reconciliation is not a passive state but a deliberate choice, even in the most bitter of circumstances.

Carrying a Contested Legacy

Carrying the Tojo name in modern Japan has not been without challenges. Some people regard him with skepticism, assuming he must defend every action of his great-grandfather. Others avoid the topic altogether. 

Yet Tojo insists that descendants must be allowed to engage with history in their own way. 

Today, his focus is on cultural preservation. He is involved in a project to connect people with Japan's Shinto heritage, including an online platform that helps users locate local shrines. 

For him, reconnecting with cultural roots is not about nostalgia but about grounding society in values that can endure beyond political conflict.

RELATED:

• Japan's War: The Other Side of the Story is Waiting to Be Told
• 80 Years After the Atomic Bombings, Reconciling Idealism and Reality 
• New Statue to Celebrate Kiichiro Higuchi and His Legacy of Leadership and Compassion

Author: Jason Morgan, Kenji Yoshida