War Story: US Vet Who Caught Japan's Tojo Speaks

[Modbert]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/201...-Captor-Anniversary.html?_r=2&ref=global-home

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. (AP) -- John J. Wilpers Jr. went decades without publicly revealing details about his international headline-making exploits at the end of World War II, a string of silence befitting a former Army intelligence officer-turned-career CIA employee.

It took the belated awarding of a Bronze Star to the upstate New York native to finally loosen the lips of the man credited with preventing former Japanese prime minister Hideki Tojo from committing suicide on Sept. 11, 1945, nine days after Japan officially surrendered. Tojo was eventually put on trial for war crimes and executed in 1948.

''The best way of finding Tojo was to find our own U.S. newspaper people, because they were there well ahead of us,'' Wilpers recalled.

Through an interpreter, Tojo was told he was being taken into custody by the Americans. After appearing at a window, Tojo ducked back inside. Soon after, a gunshot was heard. Wilpers kicked open the door to Tojo's room and found him lying on a small couch, blood splattered on his white shirt and a pistol still clutched in his right hand.

''I was trying to keep one eye on him and one on the pistol,'' Wilpers said.

This is only a small part of a article that anyone interested in not only World War II history but American history should read. Definitely worth reading.