In fact, the defendants’ loyalist mission was not yet complete. Defense and prosecution alike labored to keep the emperor invisible for the next several years. On the part of the defendants, this vigilance faltered on only one occasion—December 31, 1947—when Tōjō frankly testified that it was inconceivable for him or any subject to have taken action contrary to the emperor’s wishes. In response to this unintentionally candid and damaging observation, Keenan immediately arranged, through the emperor’s own close advisers, that Kido be contacted in prison and urged to tell his fellow defendant to
...more