Hideki Tojos Reign and 1984 Similarities

1984 by George Orwell lays out the most important aspects of oppressing a
utopian society and molding it into Big Brothers own image of his land and its people.
Many people could easily see how 1984 maps the way how all dictatorships are ruled.
He ruled with violence, an incredibly powerful government, and a manipulative
education system that only taught what the Big Brother wanted people to know about.
All of this can be seen in Hideki Tojos reign in Japan during WWII as the General of
Japans army. He manipulated Japanese people, he killed and approved for live
surgeries on prisoners of war, and corrupted the Japanese government.

In 1984, the supreme leader, Big Brother controls oceania and is in constant
war with his middle class people and Eurasians. Big Brother must control his people in
an unusual way. He makes his people do daily rituals to manipulate them to always be
in controlled by big brother, limiting their thought so they can no longer think for
themselves. In chapter 5 of 1984, we can see this when Syme says: "Don't you see that
the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make
thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.
Every concept that can ever be needed will be expressed by exactly one word, with its
meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten.". This
easily tells us that the invention of Newspeak was blatantly created to limit thought of
everyone in Oceania so they are not able to question the acts of the government
atrocities. The invention and implementation of Newspeak completely neutralizes

rebellion of people against the government because they do not have the words to
describe what they are experiencing and their unhappiness with the government.
With Hideki Tojo, he manipulated the Japanese people and Emperor Hirohito into
believing whatever Tojo made up to support his efforts in WWII. Hideki Tojo allowed for
thousands of cartoons, movies, and posters of propaganda to convince all Japanese
that their militaristic and asian ways were superior to all other cultures, therefore must
be eliminated. Hideki Tojo convinced Emperor Hirohito into going to war for these exact
reasons. The Americans and their culture must be destroyed. The Japanese accepted
these statements because Tojo got into the minds of millions of Japanese and their way
of thought. He poisoned the people and they accepted his plans for elitism and Shinto
thinking.

In 1984, violence is used everywhere. It is used to punish and it is used to teach

others the way of how to use violence to manipulate children and people to accept
violence is good. Big Brother used violence to torture his criminals. He starved people
and people begged for death because of the horrible conditions the prisoners were in.
Violence in 1984 is used to break peoples spirit and will. To break their spirit and will is
to control their mind and body. Prisoners would do anything to escape the pain and
suffering of the torture chamber of Room 101. The quote in Part 3 Chapter 1
"Do anything to me!" he yelled. "You've been starving me for weeks. Finish it off and let
me die. Shoot me. Hang me. Sentence me to twenty-five years. Is there somebody else
you want me to give away? Just say who it is and Ill tell you anything you want. I don't
care who it is or what you do to them. I've got a wife and three children. The biggest of
them isn't six years old. You can take the whole lot of them and cut their throats in front

of my eyes, and I'll stand by and watch it. But not Room 101!" tells us that prisoners
were broken by the torture and were willing to do anything to stop the suffering, even
sacrificing their children to live without going to Room 101.

Corruption in Japan during Hideki Tojos reign was high. Hideki Tojos rule was
exactly like Adolf Hitlers rule in Germany. They both self promoted themselves to
highest power in their respective countries and ruled with their military might. Hideki
Tojo used the military for all of his power. He controlled the military so well that he could
ask for anything in the world and he could get it. He had a powerful army and the
civilians of Japan feared it. His power was fear. He made officials fear for their lives if
they did not cooperate with Tojo. He was the man in charge of Japan. There was no
government. It was more of a dictatorship with the sticker Government on it. The
corruption destroyed the government politically because people could not do anything to
stop Hideki Tojo and his military reign in Japan. Emperor Hirohito had to support Tojo
because Tojo had convinced the government officials and Hirohito in his plans of WWII.

In 1984, corruption in power is a very real thing. The inner party was an
incredibly wealthy ring of officials in Big Brothers cabinet. The inner party could do
anything they wanted, anything they needed, and have pleasure and things that the
middle class and poor proles could not do. The inner party was all powerful. They were
gods among the public and they could control people to work for them because they
were feared. They could give more food to the public or reduce their food. They
corrupted the minds of the public by making themselves gods and praising the superior
leader, Big Brother. This can be seen in part 1 chapter 1: People simply disappeared,

always during the night. Your name was removed from the registers, every record
of everything you had ever done was wiped out, and your one-time existence
was denied and then forgotten. You were abolished, annihilated: vaporized was
the usual word. This proved that the party killed people for provoke fear and
make their victims be forgotten the the lies that Winston creates everyday.

In conclusion, the book 1984 sets a template for Hideki Tojo to rule his
empire of Japan. 1984 allows for manipulation of the public, using violence as a
way to solve problems, and using fear as a tool to make sure no one rebels
against the system that has put in place to keep power flowing in the hands of
Big Brother and Hideki Tojo equally and respectively.

Reflection
I think that a lot of what is in 1984 is in the American life today. Today we have do
have dictators that follow what 1984 does. I think 1984 basically told the future of what
North Korea will be. The North Korean population barely has enough resources to
survive, no proper education which does not praise Kim Jong Un as a god and such.
They are limited to what they only know. Its like they use Newspeak in North Korea
because they cannot use their words without getting killed. Their thinking is limited
because they have limited education. They must fear their government everyday and
they have to look and feel a certain way to avoid death. Big Brother used telescreens to
monitor people, Kim Jong uses the military to supervise their population to make sure

everything that the people are doing are up to Kim Jong Uns expectations. I think this
also applies to the US. People fear that what they do for pleasure can make themselves
end up in prison which is essentially torture if you really think about it. People cant be
happy without the government saying Hey, thats only acceptable if I say its
acceptable. kinda like with weed. The government controls fear and fear is a tool to
keep the people in check to make sure they are up to the governments expectations.

Sources:

http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/153313-nineteen-eighty-four
http://www.2worldwar2.com/leaders.htm
http://www.shmoop.com/1984/power-quotes-3.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_101
http://www.shmoop.com/1984/violence-quotes.html
http://www.revleft.com/vb/japan-fascism-during-t155091/index.html
http://www.executedtoday.com/2008/12/23/1948-hideki-tojo-and-six-other-japanesewar-criminals/
https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/o/orwell/george/o79n/chapter1.5.html
http://www.shmoop.com/1984/language-communication-quotes.html
http://www.worstworldleaders.com/Hideki_Tojo.htm
http://www.rainymood.com/