Hideki Tojo (December 30, 1884 - December 23, 1948) was a general of the Imperial Japanese Army, the leader of the Imperial Rule Assistance Association, and the 40th Prime Minister of Japan during most of World War II, from October 17, 1941 to July 22, 1944. As Prime Minister, he was directly responsible for the attack on Pearl Harbor, which initiated war between Japan and the United States, although planning for it had begun before he entered office. After the end of the war, Tojo was arrested, sentenced to death for Japanese war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, and was hanged on December 23, 1948, a week before his 64th birthday. This study of Japan's wartime Prime Minister is divided into three main parts: an introductory section on Tojo's early life and prewar career, a second part concerned with the critical period before Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, and four concluding chapters dealing with Japan's defeat and the war crimes trials in Tokyo. The Times-Literary Supplement said, "A model both of readability and scholarship...An excellent book."