Hirohito Memoir on Japan's WWII Entry Auctioned

Japan's Emperor Hirohito's memoir on Japan's World War II entry was auctioned to a Japanese surgeon who has been accused of denying the Holocaust and the Nanjing massacre, according to the BBC News.

Dr. Katsuya Takasu purchased the memoir for $275,000 at a recent New York auction, the broadcaster reported. The handwritten notes made by an aide to the emperor were done at the request of the United States after the war.

The memoir that was auctioned was a handwritten copy of the document written by one of those aides, diplomat Terasaki Hidenari, the BBC News said. Hidenari had worked as interpreter for the emperor.

According to the British auction house Bonhams, the two notebooks are the only full record of the emperor's spoken memoirs, "and constitute a key resource" for understanding Japanese history. Hirohito wrote that he had no choice but to agree with cabinet decision to go to work, fearing internal conflict, the BBC News wrote.

Japan invaded China to initiate the war in the Pacific on July 7, 1937, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website. Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, drew the U.S. into World War II, noted History.com.

Japan surrendered to Allied forces in 1945 after the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Soviet Union declared war on the country.

"I really wanted to see the original because the published text could have been edited," Takasu told the Japan Times, noting that the document is the only known copy of the memoir. "On top that, I slightly felt something like indignation because it was sold in an overseas auction. I believe what belongs to Japan should be kept in Japan."

Takasu is a controversial figure in Japan, once saying that deaths of Jews in the Nazi death camps Auschwitz and the massacre in the Chinese city of Nanjing in 1937 by Japanese troops were "fabrications," according to the BBC News.

Takasu attempted to clarify his past statements to the Japan Times Thursday, saying that he believes the number of victims in the Nanking Massacre had been exaggerated. He also told the publication that while he accepts Nazis killed people, he does not believe "toxic gas" was used in Auschwitz.

"I'm not a sympathizer of Nazism and don’t agree with their ideology, either," Takasu told the Japan Times.

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