Eighty years ago this week General Tojo fails to cheat the hangman

 

 

Japan's wartime leader General Tojo attempted to kill himself when US troops came to arrest him for his war crimes. He had no time to perform seppuku as would have been traditional and shot himself in the chest, but missed the heart. He survived and did not cheat the hangman.

The Academie Francaise took steps against four members who had been convicted of collaboration with the Nazi occupiers but there was a curious imbalance in how they were treated. The two most prominent, Marshal Petain and Charles Maurras, were struck off but their seats would remain vacant whilst they were still alive; they remained half immortal. Abel Hermant and Abel Bonnard were fully expelled and new occupants sought for their seats.

For the first time since the early days of the war the Brigade of Guards mounted the "Bank Picket" when a detachment of troops marched from Wellington Barracks to the Bank of England to protect it from a repetition of the attack during the Gordon Riots. In a concesssion to more difficult times they wore khaki battledress rather than ceremonial scarlet.