Tojo a scapegoat, granddaughter charges

This article is about the granddaughter of General Tojo Hideki, Japan's war-time Prime Minister, convicted as class-A war criminals and hanged by the Americans in 1945. As the highest ranking politician and military, he was the ultimate responsible for most of Japan's war crimes (if we omit the emperor), and therefore at least the equivalent of Adolf Hitler as head of state of their respective countries (although the Supreme Commanderof Japan was emperor Hirohito, so the responsibility is shared).

Quote Originally Posted by Japan Times
The Tojo family had kept silent for a long time. But not any longer.
...
"Japan didn't fight wars of aggression. Only China now says so," Yuko, president of the Tokyo-based nonprofit organization Environment Solution Institute, claimed during an interview with The Japan Times.
Only China says so ? My understanding was that only (some people in) Japan say so, while the rest of the world knows perfectly well that Japan invaded the whole of East Asia and also started war with the United States and its allies, not the other way round.

She argued that Japan fought a war of self-defense against the United States and other Western powers.

In invading China, Japan only tried to defend interests it won after World War I just as many Western powers were doing in China, she argued.

"You have to start from the Opium War (in the mid-19th century) when you think about this topic," she said.
Again an ignorant ***** that doesn't have the slightest idea about history or wants to distort it to her (country's) profit.

First of all, What does the Opium War between Britain and China in the mid-19th century have to do with Japan attacking the US in the mid-20th century ?

Secondly, it is preposterous to justify Japan's invasion of most of China (already the world's most populous country at the time) to protect a few tiny concessions in such cities as Beijing, Tianjing or Shanghai. It certainly does not justify the invasion of other Asian countries. Even the argument that Japan came to free Asia from the Western powers (if the Japanese really believed it) does not justify their own colonial attitudes in Okinawa, Taiwan and Korea from the late 19th century.

Furthermore, Japan shared concessions in Chinese cities along with Britain, Germany, France, Russia and the US on a similar level. It is very hypocritical to say they were protecting these concessions when they in fact stole other countries concessions and went on to conquer not just the whole of these cities but most of China. It is doubly hypocritical to say that Japan was liberating China from Western power as it benefited from the situations created by Britain after the Opium War by gaining concessions itself !