How Tojo's trial concentrated postwar responsibility

Tojo's position after Japan's surrender shows how the counterfactual connects with postwar responsibility. An interpreter's account says Brigadier General Bonner Fellers wanted the forthcoming trials to demonstrate Hirohito's blamelessness and make Tojo bear responsibility. That policy made it important for Tojo to survive and appear before the tribunal rather than escape judgment through suicide. The postwar arrangement also reflects an older governing problem: imperial authority depended on ministers accurately informing Hirohito and interpreting his indirect language within accepted court conventions.