Former Residence of Hideki Tojo

The former residence of Hideki Tojo (東條英機, 1884–1948) stood in the quiet residential neighborhood of Yoga, Setagaya Ward, Tokyo. Tojo served as Prime Minister of Japan from October 18, 1941 to July 22, 1944, presiding over Japan's entry into the Pacific War with the attack on Pearl Harbor. After his forced resignation in 1944 as the war turned decisively against Japan, Tojo retired to this modest private home, where he reportedly spent his days tending a small garden.

Following Japan's unconditional surrender on August 15, 1945, General Douglas MacArthur's Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP/GHQ) issued orders for the arrest of about forty suspected war criminals (43 by one count), with Tojo's name at the top of the list. On the afternoon of September 11, 1945, a detachment of American military police led by Major Paul Kraus of the Counter Intelligence Corps arrived at the Yoga residence. A large contingent of American and international journalists, photographers, and newsreel cameramen had been tipped off and gathered outside, anticipating a dramatic arrest.

When informed that American soldiers were at his gate, Tojo retreated to his study. Major Kraus called out to him through a window, demanding his surrender. Tojo spoke briefly through the window, then closed it. At approximately 4:17 PM, a single muffled gunshot was heard from inside the house. Major Kraus and Lieutenant Jack Wilpers Jr. rushed the front door, which they found barricaded. After forcing entry, they discovered Tojo slumped in a chair in his study, bleeding profusely from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest. He had used a .32 caliber Colt automatic pistol, but the bullet — despite being aimed at a spot marked with charcoal by his personal physician to indicate his heart — passed through his chest without striking the heart, lodging instead in his back.

As American soldiers and medics attended to Tojo, he remained conscious and spoke to Japanese reporters present: "I am very sorry it is taking me so long to die. The Greater East Asia War was justified and righteous. I am very sorry for the nation and all the races of the Greater Asiatic powers. I did not wish to be judged before a conqueror's court. I wait for the righteous judgment of history." Photographers captured the scene in vivid detail — Tojo slumped and bleeding, surrounded by American soldiers and Japanese civilians. These photographs were transmitted worldwide and appeared on front pages across the globe, becoming defining images of Japan's defeat and the beginning of the Allied occupation.

American military doctors administered emergency blood transfusions — using blood donated by American GIs — and Tojo was transported to the U.S. Army's 98th Evacuation Hospital in Yokohama. The irony of American blood saving the life of the man who had ordered the attack on Pearl Harbor was widely noted in the press. After six weeks of recovery, Tojo was transferred to Sugamo Prison in Ikebukuro, Tokyo.

During the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (Tokyo Trials, 1946–1948), Tojo initially accepted full responsibility for Japan's war actions but was pressed by his own defense counsel and by Chief Prosecutor Joseph Keenan to modify his testimony. On November 12, 1948, Tojo was found guilty of crimes against peace and conventional war crimes and sentenced to death (no defendant at the Tokyo Trials was convicted of crimes against humanity). He was hanged at Sugamo Prison on December 23, 1948, along with six other Class-A war criminals.

The Yoga residence was demolished at an unknown date after the war. The site is now occupied by a building belonging to Rissho Kosei-kai (立正佼成会), a lay Buddhist organization. A modest stone monument inscribed "東條英機邸跡" (Site of Hideki Tojo's Residence) stands at the roadside beside the property; according to a 2025 newspaper report it was set up by a citizens' group some forty years ago. The marker is located approximately seven minutes' walk south of Yoga Station on the Tokyu Den-en-toshi Line. No other memorial or interpretive signage exists at the site; the neighborhood has been entirely transformed into a modern residential area with no visible traces of the historic events that took place here on that September afternoon in 1945.