Unlike arlington , however , 14 top war criminals from the second world war ( including hideki tojo , the executed wartime leader ) were also enshrined in 1978 , after yasukuni 's direct links with the state had been severed .
There was a fierce debate intokyo , and a document discovered recently suggests that at a crucial meeting in late july 1944 it was hideki tojo -- whom theunited stateslater hanged for war crimes -- who rejected the proposal to use germ warfare against theunited states .