Her homeland has lost its soul, its spirit and its pride, Yuko Tojo believes. And the only way for modern-day Japan to recover those assets is for the country to stop apologising for historical events that never happened.
Which is why the granddaughter of the man who led Japan into the second world war announced recently that she is running for parliament in this month's elections.
'Politicians in the post-war years have said Japan committed atrocities, that Japanese troops did terrible things and they have to keep apologising,' Ms Tojo, a sprightly grandmother of 68, told the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan yesterday. 'I say there is no need for us to apologise because our ancestors did not commit the crimes of which they are accused.'
Hideki Tojo was hanged by the Allies in 1948 as a war criminal. He served as prime minister between 1941 and 1944 and his granddaughter wishes to follow in his footsteps and win a parliamentary seat in the July 29 elections.
Once there, she intends to rewrite history as it is generally accepted in circles other than the most hawkish in Tokyo.
Her position on issues such as the 'comfort women', scrapping the constitution, the Rape of Nanking (now known as Nanjing) and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are so extreme that the right-wing Liberal Democratic Party has refused to accept her as a candidate. Ms Tojo is running as an independent in a Tokyo constituency.
'I have decided to run because I want to restore pride, dignity and honour in the Japanese people,' she said. 'After the war, my grandfather was treated as a war criminal, but I believe that restoring the honour of his name will restore the honour of the country as a whole.'