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What did Winston Churchill do during World War II?

What was Winston Churchill's family background?

Where was Winston Churchill educated?

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Winston Churchill, in full Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, (born November 30, 1874, Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, England-died January 24, 1965, London), British statesman, orator, and author who as prime minister (1940-45, 1951-55) rallied the British people during World War II and led his country from the brink of defeat to victory.

After a sensational rise to prominence in national politics before World War I, Churchill acquired a reputation for erratic judgment in the war itself and in the decade that followed. Politically suspect in consequence, he was a lonely figure until his response to Adolf Hitler's challenge brought him to leadership of a national coalition in 1940. With Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin he then shaped Allied strategy in World War II, and after the breakdown of the alliance he alerted the West to the expansionist threat of the Soviet Union. He led the Conservative Party back to office in 1951 and remained prime minister until 1955, when ill health forced his resignation.

In Churchill's veins ran the blood of both of the English-speaking peoples whose unity, in peace and war, it was to be a constant purpose of his to promote. Through his father, Lord Randolph Churchill, the meteoric Tory politician, he was directly descended from John Churchill, 1st duke of Marlborough, the hero of the wars against Louis XIV of France in the early 18th century. His mother, Jennie Jerome, a noted beauty, was the daughter of a New York financier and horse racing enthusiast, Leonard W. Jerome.

The young Churchill passed an unhappy and sadly neglected childhood, redeemed only by the affection of Mrs. Everest, his devoted nurse. At Harrow his conspicuously poor academic record seemingly justified his father's decision to enter him into an army career. It was only at the third attempt that he managed to pass the entrance examination to the Royal Military College, now Academy, Sandhurst, but, once there, he applied himself seriously and passed out (graduated) 20th in a class of 130. In 1895, the year of his father's tragic death, he entered the 4th Hussars. Initially the only prospect of action was in Cuba, where he spent a couple of months of leave reporting the Cuban war of independence from Spain for the Daily Graphic (London). In 1896 his regiment went to India, where he saw service as both soldier and journalist on the North-West Frontier (1897). Expanded as The Story of the Malakand Field Force (1898), his dispatches attracted such wide attention as to launch him on the career of authorship that he intermittently pursued throughout his life. In 1897-98 he wrote Savrola (1900), a Ruritanian romance, and got himself attached to Lord Kitchener's Nile expeditionary force in the same dual role of soldier and correspondent. The River War (1899) brilliantly describes the campaign.

Political career before 1939

The five years after Sandhurst saw Churchill's interests expand and mature. He relieved the tedium of army life in India by a program of reading designed to repair the deficiencies of Harrow and Sandhurst, and in 1899 he resigned his commission to enter politics and make a living by his pen. He first stood as a Conservative at Oldham, where he lost a by-election by a narrow margin, but found quick solace in reporting the South African War for The Morning Post ( London). Within a month after his arrival in South Africa he had won fame for his part in rescuing an armoured train ambushed by Boers, though at the price of himself being taken prisoner. But this fame was redoubled when less than a month later he escaped from military prison. Returning to Britain a military hero, he laid siege again to Oldham in the election of 1900. Churchill succeeded in winning by a margin as narrow as that of his previous failure. But he was now in Parliament and, fortified by the £10,000 his writings and lecture tours had earned for him, was in a position to make his own way in politics.

A self-assurance redeemed from arrogance only by a kind of boyish charm made Churchill from the first a notable House of Commons figure, but a speech defect, which he never wholly lost, combined with a certain psychological inhibition to prevent him from immediately becoming a master of debate. He excelled in the set speech, on which he always spent enormous pains, rather than in the impromptu; Lord Balfour, the Conservative leader, said of him that he carried "heavy but not very mobile guns." In matter as in style he modeled himself on his father, as his admirable biography, Lord Randolph Churchill (1906; revised edition 1952), makes evident, and from the first he wore his Toryism with a difference, advocating a fair, negotiated peace for the Boers and deploring military mismanagement and extravagance.

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As Liberal minister

In 1904 the Conservative government found itself impaled on a dilemma by Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain's open advocacy of a tariff. Churchill, a convinced free trader, helped to found the Free Food League. He was disavowed by his constituents and became increasingly alienated from his party. In 1904 he joined the Liberals and won renown for the audacity of his attacks on Chamberlain and Balfour. The radical elements in his political makeup came to the surface under the influence of two colleagues in particular, John Morley, a political legatee of W.E. Gladstone, and David Lloyd George, the rising Welsh orator and firebrand. In the ensuing general election in 1906 he secured a notable victory in Manchester and began his ministerial career in the new Liberal government as undersecretary of state for the colonies. He soon gained credit for his able defense of the policy of conciliation and self-government in South Africa. When the ministry was reconstructed under Prime Minister Herbert H. Asquith in 1908, Churchill was promoted to president of the Board of Trade, with a seat in the cabinet. Defeated at the ensuing by-election in Manchester, he won an election at Dundee. In the same year he married the beautiful Clementine Hozier; it was a marriage of unbroken affection that provided a secure and happy background for his turbulent career.

At the Board of Trade, Churchill emerged as a leader in the movement of Liberalism away from laissez-faire toward social reform. He completed the work begun by his predecessor, Lloyd George, on the bill imposing an eight-hour maximum day for miners. He himself was responsible for attacking the evils of "sweated" labour by setting up trade boards with power to fix minimum wages and for combating unemployment by instituting state-run labour exchanges.

When this Liberal program necessitated high taxation, which in turn provoked the House of Lords to the revolutionary step of rejecting the budget of 1909, Churchill was Lloyd George's closest ally in developing the provocative strategy designed to clip the wings of the upper chamber. Churchill became president of the Budget League, and his oratorical broadsides at the House of Lords were as lively and devastating as Lloyd George's own. Indeed Churchill, as an alleged traitor to his class, earned the lion's share of Tory animosity. His campaigning in the two general elections of 1910 and in the House of Commons during the passage of the Parliament Act of 1911, which curbed the House of Lords' powers, won him wide popular acclaim. In the cabinet his reward was promotion to the office of home secretary. Here, despite substantial achievements in prison reform, he had to devote himself principally to coping with a sweeping wave of industrial unrest and violent strikes. Upon occasion his relish for dramatic action led him beyond the limits of his proper role as the guarantor of public order. For this he paid a heavy price in incurring the long-standing suspicion of organized labour.

In 1911 the provocative German action in sending a gunboat to Agadir, the Moroccan port to which France had claims, convinced Churchill that in any major Franco-German conflict Britain would have to be at France's side. When transferred to the Admiralty in October 1911, he went to work with a conviction of the need to bring the navy to a pitch of instant readiness. His first task was the creation of a naval war staff. To help Britain's lead over steadily mounting German naval power, Churchill successfully campaigned in the cabinet for the largest naval expenditure in British history. Despite his inherited Tory views on Ireland, he wholeheartedly embraced the Liberal policy of Home Rule, moving the second reading of the Irish Home Rule Bill of 1912 and campaigning for it in the teeth of Unionist opposition. Although, through his friendship with F.E. Smith (later 1st earl of Birkenhead) and Austen Chamberlain, he did much to arrange the compromise by which Ulster was to be excluded from the immediate effect of the bill, no member of the government was more bitterly abused-by Tories as a renegade and by extreme Home Rulers as a defector.

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Winston Churchill | Biography, World War II, Quotes, Books, & Facts

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Winston Churchill, in full Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, (born November 30, 1874, Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, England-died January 24, 1965, London), British statesman, orator, and author who as prime minister (1940-45, 1951-55) rallied the British people during World War II and led his country from the brink of defeat to victory.

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Elected as prime minister of Great Britain

Led Great Britain through the battle of Britian

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#1: Was defeated as Prime Minister in 1945 but was elected again in 1950

#2: Outspoken about Hitler and appeasement before the outbreak of war

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British Prime Minister

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President Of The United States Of America

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#1: Did not enter WWII until after Pearl Harbor

#2: Encacted the lend lease act

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Roosevelt propelled the nation into action and the U.S became a global military super Power

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Assuming the Presidency at the depth of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt helped the American people regain faith in themselves. He brought hope as he promised prompt, vigorous action, and asserted in his Inaugural Address, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

Born in 1882 at Hyde Park, New York-now a national historic site-he attended Harvard University and Columbia Law School. On St. Patrick's Day, 1905, he married Eleanor Roosevelt.

Following the example of his fifth cousin, President Theodore Roosevelt, whom he greatly admired, Franklin D. Roosevelt entered public service through politics, but as a Democrat. He won election to the New York Senate in 1910. President Wilson appointed him Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and he was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 1920.

In the summer of 1921, when he was 39, disaster hit-he was stricken with poliomyelitis. Demonstrating indomitable courage, he fought to regain the use of his legs, particularly through swimming. At the 1924 Democratic Convention he dramatically appeared on crutches to nominate Alfred E. Smith as "the Happy Warrior." In 1928 Roosevelt became Governor of New York.

He was elected President in November 1932, to the first of four terms. By March there were 13,000,000 unemployed, and almost every bank was closed. In his first "hundred days," he proposed, and Congress enacted, a sweeping program to bring recovery to business and agriculture, relief to the unemployed and to those in danger of losing farms and homes, and reform, especially through the establishment of the Tennessee Valley Authority.

By 1935 the Nation had achieved some measure of recovery, but businessmen and bankers were turning more and more against Roosevelt's New Deal program. They feared his experiments, were appalled because he had taken the Nation off the gold standard and allowed deficits in the budget, and disliked the concessions to labor. Roosevelt responded with a new program of reform: Social Security, heavier taxes on the wealthy, new controls over banks and public utilities, and an enormous work relief program for the unemployed.

In 1936 he was re-elected by a top-heavy margin. Feeling he was armed with a popular mandate, he sought legislation to enlarge the Supreme Court, which had been invalidating key New Deal measures. Roosevelt lost the Supreme Court battle, but a revolution in constitutional law took place. Thereafter the Government could legally regulate the economy.

Roosevelt had pledged the United States to the "good neighbor" policy, transforming the Monroe Doctrine from a unilateral American manifesto into arrangements for mutual action against aggressors. He also sought through neutrality legislation to keep the United States out of the war in Europe, yet at the same time to strengthen nations threatened or attacked. When France fell and England came under siege in 1940, he began to send Great Britain all possible aid short of actual military involvement.

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Roosevelt directed organization of the Nation's manpower and resources for global war.

Feeling that the future peace of the world would depend upon relations between the United States and Russia, he devoted much thought to the planning of a United Nations, in which, he hoped, international difficulties could be settled.

As the war drew to a close, Roosevelt's health deteriorated, and on April 12, 1945, while at Warm Springs, Georgia, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

For more information about President Roosevelt, please visit Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum

Learn more about Franklin D. Roosevelt's spouse, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

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Assuming the Presidency at the depth of the Great Depression as our 32nd President (1933-1945), Franklin D. Roosevelt helped the American people regain faith in themselves.

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Leader Of Communist Russia

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#1:Switched sides when Hitler attacked Russia

#2: Stalin was a harsh leader and killed around a million people during his dictatorship

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Was allies with Hitler, and signed a non-aggression act, the two split up the country of Poland after invading it

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Fascist Dictator of Italy

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#1: Friends with NAZI Germany and Adolf Hitler

#2: Was removed from power in 1943, and was later killed by his own citizens

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Signed the pact of Steel with Hitler agreeing to provide support if war breaks out

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Leader Of The Nazi Party

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Early life

Mussolini was the first child of the local blacksmith. In later years he expressed pride in his humble origins and often spoke of himself as a "man of the people." The Mussolini family was, in fact, less humble than he claimed-his father, a part-time socialist journalist as well as a blacksmith, was the son of a lieutenant in the National Guard, and his mother was a schoolteacher-but the Mussolinis were certainly poor. They lived in two crowded rooms on the second floor of a small, decrepit palazzo; and, because Mussolini's father spent much of his time discussing politics in taverns and most of his money on his mistress, the meals that his three children ate were often meagre.

A restless child, Mussolini was disobedient, unruly, and aggressive. He was a bully at school and moody at home. Because the teachers at the village school could not control him, he was sent to board with the strict Salesian order at Faenza, where he proved himself more troublesome than ever, stabbing a fellow pupil with a penknife and attacking one of the Salesians who had attempted to beat him. He was expelled and sent to the Giosuè Carducci School at Forlimpopoli, from which he was also expelled after assaulting yet another pupil with his penknife.

He was also intelligent, and he passed his final examinations without difficulty. He obtained a teaching diploma and for a time worked as a schoolmaster but soon realized that he was totally unsuited for such work. At the age of 19, a short, pale young man with a powerful jaw and enormous, dark, piercing eyes, he left Italy for Switzerland with a nickel medallion of Karl Marx in his otherwise empty pockets. For the next few months, according to his own account, he lived from day to day, jumping from job to job.

At the same time, however, he was gaining a reputation as a young man of strange magnetism and remarkable rhetorical talents. He read widely and voraciously, if not deeply, plunging into the philosophers and theorists Immanuel Kant, Benedict de Spinoza, Peter Kropotkin, Friedrich Nietzsche, G.W.F. Hegel, Karl Kautsky, and Georges Sorel, picking out what appealed to him and discarding the rest, forming no coherent political philosophy of his own yet impressing his companions as a potential revolutionary of uncommon personality and striking presence. While earning a reputation as a political journalist and public speaker, he produced propaganda for a trade union, proposing a strike and advocating violence as a means of enforcing demands. Repeatedly, he called for a day of vengeance. More than once he was arrested and imprisoned. When he returned to Italy in 1904, even the Roman newspapers had started to mention his name.

For some time after his return little was heard of him. He once more became a schoolmaster, this time in the Venetian Alps, north of Udine, where he lived, so he confessed, a life of "moral deterioration." But soon tiring of so wasteful a life, he returned to trade-union work, to journalism, and to extreme politics, which led yet again to arrest and imprisonment.

During a period of freedom in 1909, he fell in love with 16-year-old Rachele Guidi, the younger of the two daughters of his father's widowed mistress; she went to live with him in a damp, cramped apartment in Forlì and later married him. Soon after the marriage, Mussolini was imprisoned for the fifth time; but by then Comrade Mussolini had become recognized as one of the most gifted and dangerous of Italy's younger socialists. After writing in a wide variety of socialist papers, he founded a newspaper of his own, La Lotta di Classe ("The Class Struggle"). So successful was this paper that in 1912 he was appointed editor of the official Socialist newspaper, Avanti! ("Forward!"), whose circulation he soon doubled; and as its antimilitarist, antinationalist, and anti-imperialist editor, he thunderously opposed Italy's intervention in World War I.

Soon, however, he changed his mind about intervention. Swayed by Karl Marx's aphorism that social revolution usually follows war and persuaded that "the defeat of France would be a deathblow to liberty in Europe," he began writing articles and making speeches as violently in favour of war as those in which he previously had condemned it. He resigned from Avanti! and was expelled from the Socialist Party. Financed by the French government and Italian industrialists, both of whom favoured war against Austria, he assumed the editorship of Il Popolo d'Italia ("The People of Italy"), in which he unequivocally stated his new philosophy: "From today onward we are all Italians and nothing but Italians. Now that steel has met steel, one single cry comes from our hearts- Viva l'Italia! [Long live Italy!]" It was the birth cry of fascism. Mussolini went to fight in the war.

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Benito Mussolini | Biography, Definition, Facts, Rise, & Death

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Benito Mussolini, the controversial Italian dictator and founder of fascism, rose to power through his charismatic leadership but ultimately led Italy into disastrous alliances during World War II.

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#1: Died in Fuhrer bunker in Berlin

#2: Ordered the mass execution of at least 6 million Jewish men, women, and children

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Hitler was part of a political party, where he would later be persuaded and convinced about antisemitic beliefs and would form the NAZI party where he would later be elected chancellor.

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Hitler is perhaps one of the most reviled historical figures of the 20th century. After he became Chancellor of Germany in 1933 parliamentary democracy came to an end. A timeline of these events in Germany can be found here.

Before the outbreak of the Second World War, in the period 1935-38, Hitler acted against the terms of the Treaty of Versailles by re-arming and re-building the German army through conscription (1935). He also moved troops into the di-militarised Rhineland (1936). He also tried to unite Germany and Austria with the 'Anschluss' (1938). Later that year he demanded the Sudetenland, the German speaking part of Czechoslovakia. Throughout this time he made passionate speeches about expanding German territory. These words and deeds worried foreign observers.

Use the sources in this lesson to find out how he was viewed by some of these commentators. Was he to be regarded as a 'passionate lunatic' who would take over Europe? Or an odd eccentric who was rebuilding Germany?

Tasks

Background

When Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933 some people regarded him as a strong leader merely getting back German territory and restoring Germany's national pride. They thought he would stop once he had reversed the terms the Treaty of Versailles which limited the power and strength of Germany. Others feared that this was only the beginning of a far more aggressive foreign policy. They were to be proved right by Hitler's decision to takeover of the whole of Czechoslovakia in 1939 after annexing the Sudetenland in 1938. Germany then invaded Poland, bringing about the beginning of the Second World War.

How the British government dealt with Hitler in the run up to the outbreak of the Second World War has come under close scrutiny. Of course at the time, Winston Churchill, no longer in Government from the early 1930s, was a significant critic of the Munich Agreement which allowed Germany to take over Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia an attempt to prevent a war. Churchill continued to criticize Hitler and call for Britain to rearm. When war was declared with Germany in 1939 he returned to power as First Lord of the Admiralty and later became wartime Prime Minister of a national government on 10 May 1940.

Appeasement was the name given to Britain's policy in the 1930s which permitted Hitler to expand German territory unchecked and did little to stop him in his early moves against the Treaty of Versailles. It was closely linked to the Prime Minister at the time, Neville Chamberlain and was popular although is now regarded as a policy of weakness.

Appeasement found support with the British public who wanted to avoid the huge losses of the First World War. There was a strong anti-war or pacifist sentiment. Britain could not afford the financial cost of another war, nor could France, the country's main ally.

Of course to have stopped Hitler might have meant declaring war - a massive decision when most countries wanted to avoid war at all costs. Britain kept a close watch on developments in Germany. In particular the government was very interested in Hitler's personality. They wanted to find out what he was like, what he wanted to achieve for Germany, what kind of leader he was and, strangely enough, if he was sane.

Teachers' notes

The purpose of this lesson is to encourage students to handle conflicting evidence on the character and personality of Hitler and assess their reliability. The first source is an extract from a report by Mr. Law, a British businessman, who worked in Germany provided to the Foreign Office. The second is an extract from an account given by Johann Heinrich Count von Bernstorff, a founding member of the German Democratic Party and a supporter of the League of Nations. He left Germany in 1933 when the Nazis came to power. Both sources present a very unfavourable view of Hitler.

Students later examine a drawing which presents him differently. Why is this the case? The final source offers yet another angle. It is a short description of Hitler prepared by the British Embassy in Berlin. Students are required to contrast this to the earlier sources and consider what factors make a 'reliable' source. Does this impact on the value of a source or not?

All sources are provided with transcripts. Students could work on the sources individually or pairs and report back to the group with their findings.

The lesson can also be used as an introduction to a wider enquiry into appeasement and the decisions made by the British Government and others before the outbreak of the war in 1939. Students could use the background notes as a starting point for researching the wider context of appeasement and follow up by attempting the linked lessons on the German re-occupation of the Rhineland and Chamberlain and the Munich Crisis in Related Resources.

Sources

Illustration : INF 2/31 Hitler caught between British and Russian military might

Source 1 - FO371/20733 Report by Mr Law, a British businessman who worked in Germany (1937)

Source 2 - FO371/20733 Report on a conversation with Count Bernstorff (1937)

Source 3 - INF 3/1298: Drawing by Richard Ziegler entitled "Unhappy-looking uniformed Hitler", 1944-1945.

Source 4 - FO 408/67 A short description of Hitler prepared by the British Embassy in Berlin (January 1937)

External links

Illustrated timeline of events from United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
https://www.ushmm.org/learn/timeline-of-events/1933-1938

BBC history of Nazi Germany
https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/adolf-hitler-man-and-monster/zbrx8xs

Connections to curriculum

Key stage 3
Challenges for Britain, Europe and the wider world 1901 to the present day: the inter-war years: the Great Depression and the rise of dictators

Key stage 4
AQA GCSE History: Germany, 1890-1945: Democracy and dictatorship
Edexcel GCSE History: c1900-present: Warfare and British society in modern era
OCR GCSE History: War and British Society c.790 to c.2010; attitudes and responses to war

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Hitler is perhaps one of the most reviled historical figures of the 20th century. After he became Chancellor of Germany in 1933 parliamentary democracy came to an end. A timeline of these events in Germany can be found here. Before the outbreak of the Second World War, in the period 1935-38, Hitler acted against the [...]

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General And Prime Minister Of Japan

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#1: Commited various war crimes against POW's and citizens

#2: Was sentenced to death after the Tokyo trials

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Ordered the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec, 7th 1941

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HISTORY CRUNCH - History Articles, Biographies, Infographics, Resources and More

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Hideki Tojo was the head of Japan's government during most of World War II. This position made him the general of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) and the Prime Minister of Japan. As such, historians refer to Hideki Tojo as the 'Military Leader' of Japan during World War II. This is because some authority in Japan also rested with Emperor Hirohito. For instance, the Emperor of Japan was the official head of state of the country and viewed as a living god. Despite this, Hideki Tojo was responsible for the military actions carried out by Japan. For instance, Hideki Tojo was responsible for one of the most significant events of World War II - the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor.
​

Hideki Tojo was born on December 30th 1884 in Tokyo, Japan. His father, Hidenori Tojo, was a lieutenant general in the Imperial Japanese Army. As a child, Hideki Tojo received an education that focused heavily on military training. This was common in Japan at the time, as the country promoted the importance of warriors who were loyal to the Emperor. In fact, Japanese boys were always taught to fight for the honor of the Emperor. As stated above, the Emperor was viewed as a living god, and Japanese soldiers were expected to die for the honor of the Emperor.​

Historians have noted that Tojo was known to be stubborn as a child and worked tirelessly towards goals that he hoped to achieve. As such, he was known to be very competitive and work extremely hard. For instance, Tojo has been quoted as saying "I am just an ordinary man possessing no shining talents. Anything I have achieved I owe to my capacity for hard work and never giving up".​

​Tojo furthered his military training in 1899 when he began training at the Army Cadet School. He graduated from the school six years later in 1905 and immediately was positioned as a second lieutenant in the infantry of the Imperial Japanese Army.

​Tojo married Katsuko Ito in 1909 and the couple had three children (all boys) together. His role in the Imperial Japanese Army allowed him to travel, including trips to Germany and the United States. Tojo travelled to Germany in the 1920s, where he was impressed by Germany military advances. Japan had modelled its own military after the German military since the 19th century. Around the same time, Tojo took a trip to the United States where he witnessed American society. This was important, because based on this trip Tojo formed an opinion that Americans were weak and undisciplined. This was likely due to Tojo's own tremendous work ethic, which was an important part of his personality. This attention to detail and strong work ethic proved positive for Tojo as he advanced in his military career.

​Throughout the 1930s, Tojo worked his way up in the Imperial Japanese Army. For instance, he was promoted to the position of major general in 1934. With this position he was also given command of the 24th Infantry Brigade of the Imperial Japanese Army. As well, Tojo was known for being a supporter of strong expression of nationalism for Japan. This was common among Japanese military leaders at the time. Furthermore, Tojo supported a militaristic viewpoint, in which Japan could obtain its goals and expand its territory through militaristic expansion.

​Tojo furthered his rise to power in 1935 when he was given command over the Kwantung Army in Manchuria, which was a region in northeastern China. This position allowed him to use his militaristic insights to expand Japanese influence in China. He was later promoted to the position of Chief of Staff of the Kwantung Army in 1937. He returned to Japan in 1938 and continued to gain influence in the Japanese military.

​In July of 1940, Tojo was appointed as Army Minister for Japanese Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe. This was significant because Tojo's military successes had also gained him political influence in the Japanese government. Konoe had chosen Tojo because he believed that Tojo was a strong-minded commander who would promote honor and devotion to the Emperor. Furthermore, Tojo was known to be a strong ultranationalist, which aligned with Konoe's own personal views. Ultranationalism is an extreme form of nationalism that promotes total loyalty to the nation, even if it means promoting hatred and violence against others.

​Under Tojo's guidance as Army Minister, Japan aligned itself militarily with Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. For instance, the three countries agreed to a defensive military alliance in September of 1940, referred to as the Tripartite Pact. At the same time, Tojo was tasked with seeking a form of peace with the Allied Powers of World War II and the United States. However, the growing tensions from the start of World War II made this unlikely. This proved important, as Prime Minister Konoe came under increased pressure due to the growing likelihood of a war with the Allied Powers. As a result, Konoe resigned as Prime Minister in October of 1940 and was replaced by Hideki Tojo after he was chosen by Emperor Hirohito.

​Hideki Tojo ruled Japan as a militaristic dictator. Tojo's leadership over Japan was based on several key principles. First, Tojo expressed, and demanded, extreme loyalty to Emperor Hirohito. For Tojo, as with most Japanese people at the time, the Emperor was a living god and deserved the utmost respect. For instance, Tojo would have expected his soldiers to die before being captured as a sign of respect for the Emperor. Tojo, and other government officials, promoted this to the Japanese soldiers through powerful propaganda. Tojo also supported the long-held belief of 'bushido'. In short, 'bushido' translates to 'the way of the warrior' and refers to a set of expectations for Japanese soldiers. For instance, it was expected that soldiers would die before dishonoring their Emperor.

​As such, the Japanese bushido code of honor, coupled with effective propaganda which portrayed American soldiers as ruthless animals, prevented surrender for many Japanese soldiers. Instead of surrendering, many Japanese soldiers would kill themselves. For example, Japanese soldiers were known to charge at the American defensive lines even when they were outnumbered and lacked weapons. They were essentially running to their deaths as the American soldiers shot and killed them. Also, Japanese soldiers were known to kill themselves by ritual suicide. This would involve them either carrying out seppuku (which involved them thrusting a samurai sword into their own abdomen) or they would kill themselves by pulling the pin of a grenade and holding it until it exploded. This extreme loyalty can also be viewed as a form of ultranationalism, since the Japanese soldiers were expressing extreme loyalty to their nation.

​Tojo's leadership was also centered on his own control over several aspects of Japanese society. For instance, while he was Prime Minister, Tojo also served as his own minister in several different ministries, including: Foreign Affairs, Education and Commerce. This displays Tojo's controlling nature since he preferred to hold power over the society than have it shared with other influential members of his government.

​Another example of his nationalistic nature can be seen in how he organized the education of Japanese youth during his years as Prime Minister. For example, Tojo carried out indoctrination in the education system by promoting Japanese militaristic values. He did this as a measure of gaining widespread support for the war on the home front and as a means of preparing young people for war.

​Finally, Tojo was also known to support the policies of eugenics, which were famously practised by Nazi Germany. In short, eugenics is the practise of promoting certain genetic traits in a society by preventing some people from reproducing. The Nazi's promoted eugenics in their society with the events of the Holocaust. For his part, Tojo supported the sterilization of people he deemed to be 'mentally unfit'. As such, Tojo was hoping to produce a stronger country by not allowing some people to reproduce and have children. The practise of eugenics has been widely denounced across the world as a prejudice and cruel action. However, it highlights Tojo's nationalistic and totalitarian rule.

​Hideki Tojo was chosen to be the next Prime Minister due to his expressions of loyalty to the Emperor and because of his pro-war stance against the United States. As a result, when Tojo became the Prime Minister he began preparations for Japan's entrance into World War II. For instance, Japan entered the fighting of World War II on December 7th, 1941 with the Attack on Pearl Harbor. Tojo oversaw the operations of the attack due to his role as Prime Minister. The Attack on Pearl Harbor was a vitally important event as it set the stage for the war in the Pacific Theatre while also causing the United States to enter World war II on the side of the Allies. With that said, while Japan had achieved the element of surprise at Pearl Harbor, it failed to knock out the American Pacific Fleet.

​Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese enjoyed a series of victories. For instance, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) famously sank two British Royal Navy ships on December 10th of 1941 - the HMS Prince of Wales and the HMS Repulse. Furthermore, in 1942, the Imperial Japanese Navy carried out a series of successful attacks against Australian targets, including the Sydney Harbor. These victories created a feeling within Tojo's government that Japan was undefeatable. However, 1942 also proved to be a difficult year for Japan, as it suffered a major defeat at the Battle of Midway. The Battle of Midway was a terrible loss for Japan, as it was never able to recover following it. As such, historians often refer to the Battle of Midway as a 'turning point' in the Pacific Theatre, because it shifted the power of the war from Japan to the United States.

​The loss at the Battle of Midway in June of 1942 was not only a massive loss militarily for Japan but it was also a difficult loss for Tojo and his leadership over the country. Several influential people in Tojo's government began to question his authority and his ability to deal with the growing uncertainty about the war. This caused Tojo to push harder for what he believed was necessary for Japan to win the war. Regardless, throughout the remaining years of the war (1943 to 1945) Japan suffered a series of major losses. For instance, at its height Japan had controlled large areas of the South Pacific, but the United States successfully pushed through these regions and forced Japan back to its home islands. The United States famously used a strategy called 'island-hopping', which saw its forces only capture main islands on its way to the Japanese homeland. In response to these losses, Tojo ordered his forces back to guard the homeland and protect the Emperor. In fact, he ordered home millions of Japanese soldiers who were stationed in China to help in the defense. Tojo had hoped that these returning soldiers would help the Japanese forces push back the Americans and force their retreat. However, following a series of major losses, Tojo realized that Japan was all but lost the war. For instance, the Battle of Saipan took place from June 15th to July 9th in 1944 and was a major loss for Japan. This loss proved to be too much for Tojo's continued leadership and just days later on July 18th Emperor Hirohito forced him to resign as Prime Minister. Admiral Mitsumasa Yonai replaced Tojo as Prime Minister.

​Japan finally surrendered to the United States in 1945 following the atomic bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Following the end of the war, Hideki Tojo was arrested by American forces on the orders of United States General Douglas MacArthur. Tojo actually tried to commit suicide when he was arrested by shooting himself in the chest, but he survived.

​Tojo had been arrested for war crimes. The term 'war crimes' is when a person or group of people commit extreme acts during a time of war that are considered to be beyond what is acceptable. For his part, Tojo was tried and convicted of several different war crimes, including: starting a war of aggression, unprovoked war against other nations, and ordering the inhumane treatment of prisoners of war. He was tried before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, which had been set up to hold Japanese war criminals accountable. In fact, historians estimate that millions of people died as a result of Hideki Tojo's decisions.

​Ultimately, Tojo accepted responsibility for his actions in the war and asked the Americans to help Japan recover following the two atomic bombings in the country. For instance, he famously stated the following:

​ "It is natural that I should bear entire responsibility for the war in general, and, needless to say, I am prepared to do so. Consequently, now that the war has been lost, it is presumably necessary that I be judged so that the circumstances of the time can be clarified and the future peace of the world be assured. Therefore, with respect to my trial, it is my intention to speak frankly, according to my recollection, even though when the vanquished stands before the victor, who has over him the power of life and death, he may be apt to toady and flatter. I mean to pay considerable attention to this in my actions, and say to the end that what is true is true and what is false is false. To shade one's words in flattery to the point of untruthfulness would falsify the trial and do incalculable harm to the nation, and great care must be taken to avoid this."

​In the end, Hideki Tojo was sentenced to death for his role in war crimes and was executed on December 23rd in 1948 by hanging. Today, Tojo is remembered as an ultranationalist who ruled over Japan with a devout loyalty to the Emperor. However, he also led Japan into a major conflict that they ultimately could not win.

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Hideki Tojo was the head of Japan's government during most of World War II. This position made him the general of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) and the Prime Minister of Japan. As such, historians refer to Hideki Tojo as the 'Military Leader' of Japan during World War II.