TOJO’S LAST MESSAGE TO WORLD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26963, 24 December 1948, Page 7

TOJO’S LAST MESSAGE TO WORLD

NZPA—Reuter—Copyright Rec. 10 p.m. TOKIO, Dec. 23. Tojo, in his last message to the world, handed to the Buddnist priest, Nobukatsu Hanayama, made a final plea for Pan-Asianisra. Hanayama said Tojo, in a written message, asked “ right-thinking people of the world ” to have sympathy and. a truer understanding for the peoples of Asia. Tojo said that only comparatively few Japanese Army and Navy officers were responsible for the war atrocities. He was most anxious that the peoples of the world should not interpret those atrocities as representing the nature of the Japanese race. The Japanese people were not cruel. Tojo asked fehe world to sympathise with the families of the Japanese war dead. Tojo said he was sorry he could not have shouldered the entire responsibility for the war himself without involving others. He was glad the Emperor was exonerated. Tojo added that he hoped the Russians would speedily repatriate several hundred thousand Japanese still held as prisoners of war. To jo's last gifts to his wife were his horn-rimmed glasses, his false ffieth and his Buddhist 'rosary. Tojo obtained a promise from Nobukatsu Hanayama, the Buddhist priest, that he would take the momentos to Mrs Tojo after the executions.