Image: General Hideki Tojo lies semiconscious, limp in a chair with a gaping bullet wound just below the heart after a botched attempt to kill himself as American soldiers surround his house. September 11, 1945.

On September 11, 1945, former Japanese Prime Minister General Hideki Tojo attempted suicide as American soldiers arrived at his home to arrest him.

Since his resignation from the position of both Prime Minister and Minister of War on July 18, 1944, Tojo has retreated to his home in the suburbs of Tokyo, 19 km (12 mi) from the city centre.

However, just a week after Japan’s official surrender on September 2, General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, ordered the arrest of forty individuals suspected of war crimes, including Tojo.

On September 9, two journalists, United Press International war correspondent Frank Bartholomew and Toichiro Takamatsu of the Tokyo newspaper Mainichi, arrive at Tojo’s house.

Tojo’s police guard informs them that Tojo is not home, so they decide to wait.

Shortly after that, Tojo returns home. Not long after Tojo’s arrival, Major Paul Kraus of the U.S. Army Counterintelligence Corps arrives carrying orders for his arrest. Five Army Intelligence officers, led by Lt. John J. Wilpers Jr., surround the premises.

Tojo appears in one of the windows, and Kraus demands that he open the door so that he can present his credentials and the arrest orders.

Tojo disappears into the house, and at 4:21 pm, a gunshot is heard inside the home.

Kraus and Wilpers force their way into the house and then into Tojo’s study.

There, they find Tojo still standing. He looked at the officers who had broken into his office, then the gun dropped from his hand and fell to the floor. His knees buckled, and he dropped into a chair behind him. Blood flowed from his wound and spread over his white shirt front. He was soon unconscious, and soon, multiple photographers swarmed the house. Kraus then orders his driver to seek medical assistance.