International Military Tribunal for the Far East
Encyclopedia
The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), also known as the Tokyo Trials, the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, or simply the Tribunal, was convened on April 29, 1946, to try
Criminal procedure
Criminal procedure refers to the legal process for adjudicating claims that someone has violated criminal law.-Basic rights:Currently, in many countries with a democratic system and the rule of law, criminal procedure puts the burden of proof on the prosecution – that is, it is up to the...

 the leaders of the Empire of Japan
Empire of Japan
The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...

 for three types of crimes: "Class A" crimes were reserved for those who participated in a joint conspiracy to start and wage war, and were brought against those in the highest decision-making bodies; "Class B" crimes were reserved for those who committed "conventional" atrocities or crimes against humanity; "Class C" crimes were reserved for those in "the planning, ordering, authorization, or failure to prevent such transgressions at higher levels in the command structure."

Twenty-eight Japanese military and political leaders were charged with Class A crimes, and more than 5,700 Japanese nationals were charged with Class B and C crimes, mostly entailing prisoner abuse. China
Republic of China
The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...

 held 13 tribunals of its own, resulting in 504 convictions and 149 executions.

The Japanese Emperor Hirohito and all members of the imperial family such as Prince Asaka
Prince Asaka
of Japan, was the founder of a collateral branch of the Japanese imperial family and a career officer in the Imperial Japanese Army. Son-in-law of Emperor Meiji and uncle by marriage of Emperor Shōwa , Prince Asaka was commander of Japanese forces in the final assault on Nanking , then the capital...

, were not prosecuted for involvement in any the three categories of crimes. Herbert Bix explains that "the Truman administration and General MacArthur both believed the occupation reforms would be implemented smoothly if they used Hirohito to legitimise their changes." As many as 50 suspects, such as Nobusuke Kishi
Nobusuke Kishi
was a Japanese politician and the 56th and 57th Prime Minister of Japan from February 25, 1957 to June 12, 1958 and from then to July 19, 1960. He was often called Shōwa no yōkai .- Early life :...

, who later became Prime Minister, and Yoshisuke Aikawa
Yoshisuke Aikawa
-External links:*...

, head of the zaibatsu
Zaibatsu
is a Japanese term referring to industrial and financial business conglomerates in the Empire of Japan, whose influence and size allowed for control over significant parts of the Japanese economy from the Meiji period until the end of World War II.-Terminology:...

Nissan, and future leader of the Chuseiren, were charged but released without ever being brought to trial in 1947 and 1948. Shiro Ishii
Shiro Ishii
was a Japanese microbiologist and the lieutenant general of Unit 731, a biological warfare unit of the Imperial Japanese Army responsible for human experimentation and war crimes during the Second Sino-Japanese War.-Early years:...

 received immunity in exchange for data gathered from his experiments on live prisoners. The lone dissenting judge to exonerate all indictees was India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n jurist
Jurist
A jurist or jurisconsult is a professional who studies, develops, applies, or otherwise deals with the law. The term is widely used in American English, but in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth countries it has only historical and specialist usage...

 Radhabinod Pal.

The tribunal was adjourned on 12 November 1948.

Background

The Tribunal was established to implement the Cairo Declaration
Cairo Declaration
The Cairo Declaration was the outcome of the Cairo Conference in Cairo, Egypt, on November 27, 1943. President Franklin Roosevelt of the United States, Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the United Kingdom, and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek of the Republic of China were present...

, the Potsdam Declaration
Potsdam Declaration
The Potsdam Declaration or the Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender is a statement calling for the Surrender of Japan in World War II. On July 26, 1945, United States President Harry S...

, the Instrument of Surrender
Japanese Instrument of Surrender
The Japanese Instrument of Surrender was the written agreement that enabled the Surrender of Japan, marking the end of World War II. It was signed by representatives from the Empire of Japan, the United States of America, the Republic of China, the United Kingdom, the Union of Soviet Socialist...

 and the Moscow Conference
Moscow Conference (1945)
The Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers of the United States , the United Kingdom , and the Soviet Union met in December 1945 to discuss the problems of occupation, establishing peace, and other Far East issues.The Communique issued after the Conference on December 27,...

. The Potsdam Declaration had called for trials and purges of those who had "deceived and misled" the Japanese people into war. However, there was major disagreement, both among the Allies
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...

 and within their administrations, about whom to try and how to try them. Despite the lack of consensus, General Douglas MacArthur—the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers
Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers
Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers was the title held by General Douglas MacArthur during the Occupation of Japan following World War II...

—decided to initiate arrests. On September 11, just over a week after the surrender, he ordered the arrest of thirty-nine suspects—most of them members of General Hideki Tōjō
Hideki Tōjō
Hideki Tōjō was a general of the Imperial Japanese Army , the leader of the Taisei Yokusankai, and the 40th Prime Minister of Japan during most of World War II, from 17 October 1941 to 22 July 1944...

's war cabinet. Perhaps caught off guard, Tōjō tried to commit suicide, but was resuscitated with the help of US doctors.

Creation of the court

On 19 January 1946, General MacArthur issued a special proclamation ordering the establishment of an International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE). On the same day he also approved the Charter of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (CIMTFE), which prescribed how it was to be formed, the crimes that it was to consider, and how the tribunal was to function. The charter followed generally the model set by the Nuremberg Trials
Nuremberg Trials
The Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals, held by the victorious Allied forces of World War II, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of the defeated Nazi Germany....

. On 25 April 1946 in accordance with the provisions of Article 7 of the CIMTFE the original Rules of Procedure of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East with amendments were promulgated.

Judges

MacArthur appointed a panel of eleven judges, nine from the nations that signed the Instrument of Surrender.
Country Judge Background Opinion
Australia Sir William Webb  Justice of the High Court of Australia
High Court of Australia
The High Court of Australia is the supreme court in the Australian court hierarchy and the final court of appeal in Australia. It has both original and appellate jurisdiction, has the power of judicial review over laws passed by the Parliament of Australia and the parliaments of the States, and...


President of the Tribunal
Separate
Canada Edward Stuart McDougall
Edward Stuart McDougall
Edward Stuart McDougall was a Canadian politician and judge. He was a judge on the Court of King's Bench of Quebec and the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. In 1936, McDougall was briefly the Quebec minister of finance in the first government of Adélard Godbout.McDougall was born...

 
Justice of the Court of King's Bench of Quebec 
Republic of China
Republic of China
The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...

 
Major-General Mei Ju-ao
Mei Ju-ao
-Education:Mei was a native of Nanchang, Jiangxi province. After graduating from Tsinghua University in 1924, Mei Ju-ao went to the United states to study. In 1926, he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts from Stanford University, and was elected a member of Phi Beta Kappa Society the same year...

 
Attorney and Member of the Legislative Yuan
Legislative Yuan
The Legislative Yuan is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of China .The Legislative Yuan is one of the five branches of government stipulated by the Constitution of the Republic of China, which follows Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles of the People...

 
Provisional Government of the French Republic
Provisional Government of the French Republic
The Provisional Government of the French Republic was an interim government which governed France from 1944 to 1946, following the fall of Vichy France and prior to the Fourth French Republic....

 
Henri Bernard  Avocat-General (Solicitor-General) at Bangui
Chief Prosecutor, First Military Tribunal in Paris 
Dissenting
British India  Radhabinod Pal  Lecturer, University of Calcutta
University of Calcutta
The University of Calcutta is a public university located in the city of Kolkata , India, founded on 24 January 1857...

 Law College
Judge of the Calcutta High Court
Calcutta High Court
The Calcutta High Court is the oldest High Court in India. It was established as the High Court of Judicature at Fort William on 1 July 1862 under the High Courts Act, 1861. It has jurisdiction over the state of West Bengal and the Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The High Court...

 
Dissenting
Netherlands Professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

 Bert Röling 
Professor of Law, Utrecht University
Utrecht University
Utrecht University is a university in Utrecht, Netherlands. It is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands and one of the largest in Europe. Established March 26, 1636, it had an enrollment of 29,082 students in 2008, and employed 8,614 faculty and staff, 570 of which are full professors....

 
Dissenting
New Zealand Erima Harvey Northcroft
Erima Harvey Northcroft
Sir Erima Harvey Northcroft was a New Zealand lawyer, judge, and military leader.Northcroft was born in Hokitika, New Zealand. He attended Auckland University College and began his law practice in Hamilton...

 
Judge of the Supreme Court
High Court of New Zealand
The High Court of New Zealand is a superior court of New Zealand. It was established in 1841 and known as the Supreme Court of New Zealand until 1980....

 of New Zealand; former Judge Advocate General of the New Zealand Army
Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

 
Colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...

 Delfin Jaranilla 
Attorney General
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...


Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines
Supreme Court of the Philippines
The Supreme Court of the Philippines is the Philippines' highest judicial court, as well as the court of last resort. The court consists of 14 Associate Justices and 1 Chief Justice...

 
Separate
UK Hon
The Honourable
The prefix The Honourable or The Honorable is a style used before the names of certain classes of persons. It is considered an honorific styling.-International diplomacy:...

 Lord Patrick
William Donald Patrick
William Donald Patrick was a British judge who represented the United Kingdom at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East following World War II. Born in Dalry, North Ayrshire, Scotland, Patrick served in the Royal Flying Corps and later the Royal Air Force during World War I-References:...

 
Judge (Scottish), Senator of the College of Justice
Senator of the College of Justice
The Senators of the College of Justice are judges of the College of Justice, a set of legal institutions involved in the administration of justice in Scotland. There are three types of Senator: Lords of Session ; Lords Commissioner of Justiciary ; and the Chairman of the Scottish Land Court...

 
USA John P. Higgins  Chief Justice, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

 Superior Court
Superior court
In common law systems, a superior court is a court of general competence which typically has unlimited jurisdiction with regard to civil and criminal legal cases...

 
USA Major-General Myron C. Cramer Judge Advocate General
Judge Advocate General's Corps
Judge Advocate General's Corps, also known as JAG or JAG Corps, refers to the legal branch or specialty of the U.S. Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, and Navy. Officers serving in the JAG Corps are typically called Judge Advocates. The Marine Corps and Coast Guard do not maintain separate JAG Corps...

 of the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

 
Replaced Judge Higgins in July 1946
USSR  Major-General I.M. Zaryanov  Member of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR
Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR
Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR was created in 1924 to the Supreme Court of the USSR as a court for the higher military and political personnel of Red Army and Fleet...

 

Prosecutors

The chief prosecutor, Joseph B. Keenan of the USA, was appointed by President Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...

.
Country Prosecutor Background
Chief Prosecutor (USA) Joseph Keenan  U.S. Asst. Attorney General
United States Assistant Attorney General
Many of the divisions and offices of the United States Department of Justice are headed by an Assistant Attorney General.The President of the United States appoints individuals to the position of Assistant Attorney General with the advice and consent of the Senate...

 
Director of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Dept. of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...

Australia Mr. Justice Alan Mansfield
Alan Mansfield
Sir Alan James Mansfield KCMG, KCVO was Governor of Queensland, Australia between 1966 and 1972.-Family:Sir Alan Mansfield was born in Brisbane and educated in Sydney. The Mansfield family had land in Gumdale. Mansfield lived in the Mount Gravatt area for many years...

 
Senior Puisne Judge
Puisne Justice
A Puisne Justice or Puisne Judge is the title for a regular member of a Court. This is distinguished from the head of the Court who is known as the Chief Justice or Chief Judge. The term is used almost exclusively in common law jurisdictions such as England, Australia, Kenya, Canada, Sri Lanka,...

 of the Supreme Court of Queensland
Supreme Court of Queensland
The Supreme Court of Queensland, which is based at the Law Courts Complex, is the superior court for the Australian State of Queensland and sits around the middle of the Australian court hierarchy...

Canada Brigadier
Brigadier
Brigadier is a senior military rank, the meaning of which is somewhat different in different military services. The brigadier rank is generally superior to the rank of colonel, and subordinate to major general....

 Henry Nolan 
Vice-Judge Advocate General of the Canadian Army
Republic of China Xiang Zhejun
Xiang Zhejun
Xiang Zhejun , native of Ningxiang county in Hunan province. Chinese jurist and prosecutor at International Military Tribunal for the Far East.-Education and early career:...

 (Hsiang Che-chun)
Minister of Justice and Foreign Affairs
Provisional Government of the French Republic Robert L. Oneto 
British India P. Govinda Menon  Crown Prosecutor and Judge, Supreme Court of India
Netherlands W.G. Frederick Borgerhoff-Mulder 
New Zealand Brigadier
Brigadier
Brigadier is a senior military rank, the meaning of which is somewhat different in different military services. The brigadier rank is generally superior to the rank of colonel, and subordinate to major general....

 Ronald Henry Quilliam 
Deputy Adjutant-General of the New Zealand Army
New Zealand Army
The New Zealand Army , is the land component of the New Zealand Defence Force and comprises around 4,500 Regular Force personnel, 2,000 Territorial Force personnel and 500 civilians. Formerly the New Zealand Military Forces, the current name was adopted around 1946...

Philippines Pedro Lopez  Associate Prosecutor of the Philippines
UK Arthur Strettell Comyns Carr
Arthur Strettell Comyns Carr
Arthur Strettell Comyns Carr was a British Liberal politician and lawyer.-Family and education:Comyns Carr was the son of J. Comyns Carr, a dramatist and art critic. His mother, Alice Laura Strettell was a novelist. He was born in Marylebone and educated at Winchester College and Trinity College,...

 
British MP and Barrister
USSR Minister and Judge Sergei Alexandrovich Golunsky 

Defendants

28 defendants were charged, mostly military officers and government officials.

Civilian officials

  • Baron Kōki Hirota
    Koki Hirota
    was a Japanese diplomat, politician and the 32nd Prime Minister of Japan from March 9, 1936 to February 2, 1937.-Early life:Hirota was born in what is now part of Chūō-ku, Fukuoka city, Fukuoka Prefecture. His father was a stonemason, and he was adopted into the Hirota family. After attending...

    , prime minister (1936–1937), foreign Minister (1933–1934, 1937–1938)
  • Baron Kiichirō Hiranuma
    Kiichiro Hiranuma
    Baron was a prominent pre–World War II right-wing Japanese politician and the 35th Prime Minister of Japan from 5 January 1939 to 30 August 1939. The modern Japanese politician, Takeo Hiranuma, is his adopted son.- Early life :...

    , prime minister, President of the Privy Council
  • Naoki Hoshino
    Naoki Hoshino
    was a bureaucrat and politician who served in the Taishō and early Shōwa period Japanese government, and as an official in the Empire of Manchukuo.-Biography:Hoshino was born in Yokohama, where his father was involved in the textile industry...

    , Chief Cabinet Secretary
  • Marquis Kōichi Kido
    Koichi Kido
    Marquis served as Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal from 1940 to 1945, and was the closest advisor to Emperor Showa throughout World War II.Kido was the grandson of Kido Takayoshi, one of the leaders of the Meiji Restoration...

    , Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal
    Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal of Japan
    The was an administrative post not of Cabinet rank in the government of the Empire of Japan. The Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal was responsible for keeping the Privy Seal of Japan and State Seal of Japan....

  • Toshio Shiratori
    Toshio Shiratori
    was the Japanese ambassador to Italy from 1938 to 1940, advisor to the Japanese foreign minister in 1940, and one of the 14 Class-A war criminals enshrined at Yasukuni....

    , ambassador to Italy
  • Shigenori Tōgō
    Shigenori Togo
    was Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Empire of Japan at both the start and the end of the Japanese-American conflict during World War II...

    , foreign minister
  • Mamoru Shigemitsu
    Mamoru Shigemitsu
    was a Japanese diplomat and politician in the Empire of Japan, who served as the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs at the end of World War II.-Biography:...

    , foreign minister
  • Okinori Kaya
    Okinori Kaya
    was the Japanese finance minister between 1941-1944. In 1945, he was captured by the Allies, tried by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment...

    , finance minister
  • Matsuoka Yosuke, foreign Minister (1940–1941)

Military officers

  • General Hideki Tōjō
    Hideki Tōjō
    Hideki Tōjō was a general of the Imperial Japanese Army , the leader of the Taisei Yokusankai, and the 40th Prime Minister of Japan during most of World War II, from 17 October 1941 to 22 July 1944...

    , prime minister (1941–1944), war minister, commander of the Kwantung Army
  • General Seishirō Itagaki, war minister
  • General Sadao Araki
    Sadao Araki
    Baron was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army before World War II. A charismatic leader and one of the principal nationalist right-wing political theorists in the late Japanese Empire, he was regarded as the leader of the radical faction within the politicized Japanese Army and served as...

    , war minister
  • Field Marshal Shunroku Hata, war minister
  • Admiral Shigetarō Shimada
    Shigetaro Shimada
    was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. He also served as Navy Minister-Biography:A native of Tokyo, Shimada graduated from the 32nd class of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in 1904...

    , naval minister
  • General Kenryō Satō, chief of the Military Affairs Bureau
  • General Kuniaki Koiso
    Kuniaki Koiso
    - Notes :...

    , prime minister (1944–1945), governor-general of Korea
  • Admiral Takazumi Oka, chief of the Bureau of Naval Affairs
  • General Hiroshi Ōshima
    Hiroshi Ōshima
    Baron was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army, Japanese ambassador to Nazi Germany before and during World War II — and unknowingly a major source of communications intelligence for the Allies. His role was perhaps best summed up by General George C...

    , ambassador to Germany
  • Admiral Nagano Osami, navy minister, Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff
    Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff
    The was the highest organ within the Imperial Japanese Navy. In charge of planning and operations, it was headed by an Admiral headquartered in Tokyo.-History:...

     (April 1941 to February 1944)
  • General Jirō Minami
    Jiro Minami
    - Notes :...

    , war minister, commander of the Kwantung Army, governor-general of Korea
  • General Kenji Doihara
    Kenji Doihara
    was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II. He was instrumental in the Japanese invasion of Manchuria for which he earned fame taking the nickname 'Lawrence of Manchuria', a reference to the Lawrence of Arabia....

    , Chief of the intelligence service in Manchukuo, later Air Force commander
  • General Heitarō Kimura, commander of the Burma Expeditionary Force
  • General Iwane Matsui
    Iwane Matsui
    was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army and the commander of the expeditionary forces sent to China in World War II. He was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death by hanging by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East for responsibility over the Nanking Massacre.-Early life...

    , commander of the Shanghai Expeditionary Force and Central China Area Army (1937)
  • General Akira Mutō
    Akira Muto
    - Notes :...

    , commander of the Philippines Expeditionary Force
  • Colonel Kingorō Hashimoto
    Kingoro Hashimoto
    was a soldier in the Imperial Japanese Army and politician.-Early career:Hashimoto was born in Okayama City, and a graduate of the 23rd class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1911. He subsequently graduated from the Army Staff College in 1920. In April 1922, he was assigned to the Kwangtung...

    , founder of Sakurakai
  • General Yoshijirō Umezu, war minister
  • General Teiichi Suzuki
    Teiichi Suzuki
    was a Japanese army general who helped plan Japan's economy in World War II and later was imprisoned as a war criminal, died of heart failure. He was 100 years old.Mr...

    , president of the Cabinet Planning Board

Tokyo War Crimes Trial

Following months of preparation, the IMTFE, also known as the Tokyo War Crimes Trial, first convened on April 29, 1946. As at Nuremberg, the location held a special irony. The trials were held in the War Ministry office in Tokyo.

On May 3, the prosecution opened its case, charging the defendants with "Conventional War Crimes", "Crimes against Peace", and "Crimes against Humanity." The trial continued for more than two and a half years, hearing testimony from 419 witnesses, and admitting 4,336 exhibits of evidence including depositions and affidavits from 779 other individuals.

Charges

Following the model used at the Nuremberg Trials in Germany, the Allies established three broad categories. "Class A" charges alleging "crimes against peace" were to be brought against Japan's top leaders who had planned and directed the war. Class B and C charges, which could be leveled at Japanese of any rank, covered "conventional war crimes" and "crimes against humanity", respectively. However, unlike the Nuremberg Trials, the charge of crimes against peace was a prerequisite to prosecution, that is, only those individuals whose crimes included "crimes against peace" could be prosecuted by the Tribunal.

The indictment accused the defendants of promoting a scheme of conquest that "contemplated and carried out ... murdering, maiming and ill-treating prisoners of war (and) civilian internees ... forcing them to labor under inhumane conditions ... plundering public and private property, wantonly destroying cities, towns and villages beyond any justification of military necessity; (perpetrating) mass murder, rape, pillage, brigandage, torture and other barbaric cruelties upon the helpless civilian population of the over-run countries."

Joseph Keenan, the chief prosecutor representing the United States at the trial, issued a press statement along with the indictment: " war and treaty-breakers should be stripped of the glamour of national heroes and exposed as what they really are --- plain, ordinary murderers."
Count Offence
1 As leaders, organisers, instigators, or accomplices in the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to wage wars of aggression, and war or wars in violation of international law.
27 Waging unprovoked war against China.
29 Waging aggressive war against the United States.
31 Waging aggressive war against the British Commonwealth.
32 Waging aggressive war against the Netherlands.
33 Waging aggressive war against France (Indochina).
35,36 Waging aggressive war against the USSR.
54 Ordered, authorised, and permitted inhumane treatment of Prisoners of War (POWs) and others.
55 Deliberately and recklessly disregarded their duty to take adequate steps to prevent atrocities.

Evidence and testimony

The prosecution began opening statements on May 3, 1946, and took 192 days to present its case, finishing on January 24, 1947. It submitted its evidence in fifteen phases. The Tokyo war crimes trials were a sharp contrast with the Nuremberg proceedings. Whereas the Nuremberg convictions were supported by masses of documentary evidence, the Japanese destroyed most of their military records at the time of their surrender. This made it exceedingly difficult for allied investigators to find evidence of criminal orders.

The evidentiary standard was greatly relaxed. The Charter provided that evidence against the accused could include any document "without proof of its issuance or signature" as well as diaries, letters, press reports and sworn or unsworn out of court statements relating to the charges. Article 13 of the Charter read in part: "The tribunal shall not be bound by technical rules of evidence . . . and shall admit any evidence which it deems to have probative value".

War time press releases of the Allies were admitted as evidence by the prosecution while those sought to be entered by the defense were excluded. The recollection of a conversation with a long-dead man was admitted (Ibid.). Letters allegedly written by Japanese citizens were admitted with no proof of authenticity and no opportunity for cross examination by the defense (Ibid.).

Finally, the Tribunal embraced the "Best Evidence Rule" once the Prosecution had rested . The "Best Evidence Rule" dictates that the "best" or most authentic evidence must be produced (e.g., a map instead of a description of the map; an original instead of a copy; and, a witness instead of a description of what the witness may have said). Justice Pal, one of two justices to vote for acquittal on all counts, observed, "in a proceeding where we had to allow the prosecution to bring in any amount of hearsay evidence, it was somewhat misplaced caution to introduce this best evidence rule particularly when it operated practically against the defense only . . .".

To prove their case, the prosecution team relied on the doctrine of "command responsibility" instead. The advantage of this doctrine was that it didn't require proof of criminal orders. The prosecution had to prove three things: that war crimes were systematic or widespread; the accused knew that troops were committing atrocities; and the accused had power or authority to stop the crimes.

The prosecution argued that a 1927 document known as the Tanaka Memorial
Tanaka Memorial
The is an alleged Japanese strategic planning document from 1927, in which Prime Minister Baron Tanaka Giichi laid out for the Emperor Hirohito a strategy to take over the world...

 showed that a "Common Plan or Conspiracy" to commit "Crimes against Peace" bound the accused together. Thus, the prosecution argued that the conspiracy had begun in 1927 and continued through to the end of the Asia and Pacific War in 1945. The Tanaka Memorial is now considered by most historians to have been a forgery; however, it was not regarded as such at the time.

Defense

The defendants were represented by over one hundred attorneys, three-quarters Japanese and one-quarter American, plus a support staff of their own. The defense opened its case on January 27, 1947, and finished its presentation 225 days later.

The defense argued that the trial could never be "free from substantial doubt as to its "legality, fairness and impartiality".

The defense challenged the indictment, arguing that ‘crimes against peace’ and more specifically, the undefined concepts of ‘conspiracy’ and ‘aggressive war’, had yet to be established as crimes in international law; in effect, the IMTFE was contradicting accepted legal procedure by trying the defendants retroactively for violating laws which had not existed when these alleged crimes had been committed. Moreover, the defence insisted that there was no basis in international law for holding individuals responsible for acts of state, as the Tokyo trial proposed to do. The defense further attacked the notion of ‘negative criminality’, by which the defendants were to be tried for failing to prevent breaches of law and war crimes by others, as likewise having no basis in international law.

The defense argued that Allied Powers' violations of international law, including the atomic bombings of Japan, should be examined.

Former Foreign Minister Shigenori Tōgō maintained that Japan had had no choice but to enter the war for self-defense purposes. He asserted that "[because of the Hull Note
Hull note
The Hull note or officially Outline of Proposed Basis for Agreement Between the United States and Japan was the final proposal delivered to the Empire of Japan by the United States before the attack on Pearl Harbor and the declaration of war between the two nations...

] we felt at the time that Japan was being driven either to war or suicide.".

Judgment

The IMT spent six months reaching judgment and drafting its 1,781-page opinion.

On the day the judgment was read, five of the eleven justices released separate opinions outside the court.

In his concurring opinion Justice Webb (Australia) took issue with Emperor Hirohito's legal status. "The suggestion that the Emperor was bound to act on advice is contrary to the evidence", wrote Webb. While refraining from personal indictment of Hirohito, Webb indicated that Hirohito bore responsibility as a Constitutional Monarch who accepted "ministerial and other advice for war" and that "no ruler can commit the crime of launching aggressive war and then validly claim to be excused for doing so because his life would otherwise have been in danger ... It will remain that the men who advised the commission of a crime, if it be one, are in no worse position than the man who directs the crime be committed".

Justice Jaranilla (Philippines) disagreed with the penalties imposed by the tribunal. "They are, in my judgment, too lenient", wrote the justice, "not exemplary and deterrent, and not commensurate with the gravity of the offence or offences committed."

Justice Henri Bernard (France) pointed out the tribunal's flawed course of action such as the absence of Hirohito and the lack of sufficient deliberations by the judges. He concluded that Japan's declaration of war "had a principal author who escaped all prosecution and of whom in any case the present Defendants could only be considered as accomplices". and that "A verdict reached by a Tribunal after a defective procedure cannot be a valid one)(...)".

"It is well-nigh impossible to define the concept of initiating or waging a war of aggression both accurately and comprehensively", wrote Justice B. V. A. Röling (Netherlands) in his dissenting opinion.

Justice Roling stated "I think that not only should there have been neutrals in the court, but there should have been Japanese also." He also argued that they would always have been a minority and therefore, would not have been able to sway the balance of the trial, however, "they could have convincingly argued issues of government policy which were unfamiliar to the Allied justices".
Pointing out the difficulties and limitations in holding individuals responsible for an act of state, and making omission of responsibility a crime, Röling called for the acquittal of several defendants including Hirota.

Justice Radhabinod Pal (India) produced a 1,235-page judgment in which he dismissed the legitimacy of the IMTFE as mere victor's justice
Victor's justice
The label "victor's justice" is a situation in which an entity partakes in carrying out "justice" on its own basis of applying different rules to judge what is right or wrong for their own forces and for those of the enemy. Advocates generally charge that the difference in rules amounts to...

. "I would hold that each and every one of the accused must be found not guilty of each and every one of the charges in the indictment and should be acquitted on all those charges", concluded Pal. Pal did not question whether the Japanese military had committed atrocities during the war. While taking into account the influence of wartime propaganda, exaggerations and distortions of facts in the evidence, and "over-zealous" and "hostile" witnesses, Pal concluded, "The evidence is still overwhelming that atrocities were perpetrated by the members of the Japanese armed forces against the civilian population of some of the territories occupied by them as also against the prisoners of war."

Sentencing

Two defendants (Matsuoka Yosuke and Nagano Osami) had died of natural causes during the trial.

Six defendants were sentenced to death by hanging
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...

 for war crime
War crime
War crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable in armed conflict giving rise to individual criminal responsibility...

s, crimes against humanity and crimes against peace
Crime against peace
A crime against peace, in international law, refers to "planning, preparation, initiation, or waging of wars of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances, or participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the foregoing"...

 (Class A, Class B and Class C):
  • General Kenji Doihara
    Kenji Doihara
    was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II. He was instrumental in the Japanese invasion of Manchuria for which he earned fame taking the nickname 'Lawrence of Manchuria', a reference to the Lawrence of Arabia....

    , Chief of the intelligence service in Manchukuo, later Air Force commander
  • Baron Kōki Hirota
    Koki Hirota
    was a Japanese diplomat, politician and the 32nd Prime Minister of Japan from March 9, 1936 to February 2, 1937.-Early life:Hirota was born in what is now part of Chūō-ku, Fukuoka city, Fukuoka Prefecture. His father was a stonemason, and he was adopted into the Hirota family. After attending...

    , prime minister (later foreign minister)
  • General Seishirō Itagaki, war minister
  • General Heitarō Kimura, commander, Burma Expeditionary Force
  • General Akira Mutō
    Akira Muto
    - Notes :...

    , commander, Philippines Expeditionary Force
  • General Hideki Tōjō
    Hideki Tōjō
    Hideki Tōjō was a general of the Imperial Japanese Army , the leader of the Taisei Yokusankai, and the 40th Prime Minister of Japan during most of World War II, from 17 October 1941 to 22 July 1944...

    , commander, Kwantung Army (later prime minister)

One defendant was sentenced to death by hanging
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...

 for war crime
War crime
War crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable in armed conflict giving rise to individual criminal responsibility...

s and crimes against humanity (Class B and Class C):
  • General Iwane Matsui
    Iwane Matsui
    was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army and the commander of the expeditionary forces sent to China in World War II. He was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death by hanging by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East for responsibility over the Nanking Massacre.-Early life...

    , commander, Shanghai Expeditionary Force and Central China Area Army


They were executed at Sugamo Prison
Sugamo Prison
Sugamo Prison was located in the district of Ikebukuro, which is now part of the Toshima ward of Tokyo, Japan-History:...

 in Ikebukuro
Ikebukuro
is a commercial and entertainment district in Toshima, Tokyo, Japan. Toshima ward offices, Ikebukuro station, and several shops, restaurants, and enormous department stores are located within city limits....

 on December 23, 1948. MacArthur, afraid of embarrassing and antagonizing the Japanese people, defied the wishes of President Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...

 and barred photography of any kind, instead bringing in four members of the Allied Council to act as official witnesses.

Sixteen more were sentenced to life imprisonment. Three (Koiso, Shiratori, and Umezu) died in prison, while the other thirteen were parole
Parole
Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their...

d between 1954 and 1956:
  • General Sadao Araki
    Sadao Araki
    Baron was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army before World War II. A charismatic leader and one of the principal nationalist right-wing political theorists in the late Japanese Empire, he was regarded as the leader of the radical faction within the politicized Japanese Army and served as...

    , war minister
  • Colonel Kingorō Hashimoto
    Kingoro Hashimoto
    was a soldier in the Imperial Japanese Army and politician.-Early career:Hashimoto was born in Okayama City, and a graduate of the 23rd class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1911. He subsequently graduated from the Army Staff College in 1920. In April 1922, he was assigned to the Kwangtung...

    , major instigator of the second Sino-Japanese War
    Second Sino-Japanese War
    The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany , the Soviet Union and the United States...

  • Field Marshal Shunroku Hata, war minister
  • Baron Kiichirō Hiranuma
    Kiichiro Hiranuma
    Baron was a prominent pre–World War II right-wing Japanese politician and the 35th Prime Minister of Japan from 5 January 1939 to 30 August 1939. The modern Japanese politician, Takeo Hiranuma, is his adopted son.- Early life :...

    , prime minister
  • Naoki Hoshino
    Naoki Hoshino
    was a bureaucrat and politician who served in the Taishō and early Shōwa period Japanese government, and as an official in the Empire of Manchukuo.-Biography:Hoshino was born in Yokohama, where his father was involved in the textile industry...

    , Chief Cabinet Secretary
  • Okinori Kaya
    Okinori Kaya
    was the Japanese finance minister between 1941-1944. In 1945, he was captured by the Allies, tried by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment...

    , finance minister
  • Marquis Kōichi Kido
    Koichi Kido
    Marquis served as Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal from 1940 to 1945, and was the closest advisor to Emperor Showa throughout World War II.Kido was the grandson of Kido Takayoshi, one of the leaders of the Meiji Restoration...

    , Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal
    Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal of Japan
    The was an administrative post not of Cabinet rank in the government of the Empire of Japan. The Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal was responsible for keeping the Privy Seal of Japan and State Seal of Japan....

  • General Kuniaki Koiso
    Kuniaki Koiso
    - Notes :...

    , governor of Korea, later prime minister
  • General Jirō Minami
    Jiro Minami
    - Notes :...

    , commander, Kwantung Army
  • Admiral Takasumi Oka, naval minister
  • General Hiroshi Ōshima
    Hiroshi Ōshima
    Baron was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army, Japanese ambassador to Nazi Germany before and during World War II — and unknowingly a major source of communications intelligence for the Allies. His role was perhaps best summed up by General George C...

    , ambassador to Germany
  • General Kenryō Satō, chief of the Military Affairs Bureau
  • Admiral Shigetarō Shimada
    Shigetaro Shimada
    was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. He also served as Navy Minister-Biography:A native of Tokyo, Shimada graduated from the 32nd class of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in 1904...

    , naval minister
  • Toshio Shiratori
    Toshio Shiratori
    was the Japanese ambassador to Italy from 1938 to 1940, advisor to the Japanese foreign minister in 1940, and one of the 14 Class-A war criminals enshrined at Yasukuni....

    , ambassador to Italy
  • General Teiichi Suzuki
    Teiichi Suzuki
    was a Japanese army general who helped plan Japan's economy in World War II and later was imprisoned as a war criminal, died of heart failure. He was 100 years old.Mr...

    , president of the Cabinet Planning Board
  • General Yoshijirō Umezu, war minister


Foreign minister Shigenori Tōgō
Shigenori Togo
was Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Empire of Japan at both the start and the end of the Japanese-American conflict during World War II...

 was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment and died in prison in 1949. Foreign minister Mamoru Shigemitsu
Mamoru Shigemitsu
was a Japanese diplomat and politician in the Empire of Japan, who served as the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs at the end of World War II.-Biography:...

 was sentenced to 7 years.

The verdict and sentences of the tribunal were confirmed by General MacArthur on November 24, 1948, two days after a perfunctory meeting with members of the Allied Control Commission for Japan, who acted as the local representatives of the nations of the Far Eastern Commission set up by their governments. Six of those representatives made no recommendations for clemency. Australia, Canada, India, and the Netherlands were willing to see the general make some reductions in sentences. He chose not to do so. The issue of clemency was thereafter to disturb Japanese relations with the Allied powers until the late 1950s when a majority of the Allied powers agreed to release the last of the convicted major war criminals from captivity.

Criticism

According to Japanese tabulation, 5,700 Japanese individuals were indicted for Class B and Class C war crimes. Of this number, 984 were initially condemned to death; 475 received life sentences; 2,944 were given more limited prison terms; 1,018 were acquitted and 279 were never brought to trial or not sentenced. The number of death sentences by country is the following : Holland 236, Great Britain 223, Australia 153, China 149, USA 140, France 26 and Philippines 17. Additionally, the Soviet Union and Chinese Communist forces held trials for Japanese war criminals.

The Khabarovsk War Crime Trials
Khabarovsk War Crime Trials
Khabarovsk War Crime Trials were a series of hearings held between December 25 - 31st, 1949 in the Soviet Union's industrial city of Khabarovsk situated on the Russian Far East...

 held by the Soviets tried and found guilty some members of Japan's bacteriological and chemical warfare unit (Unit 731
Unit 731
was a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that undertook lethal human experimentation during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. It was responsible for some of the most notorious war crimes carried out by Japanese...

). However those who surrendered to the Americans were never brought to trial as MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was an American general and field marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. He received the Medal of Honor for his service in the...

 secretly granted immunity to the physicians of Unit 731 in exchange for providing America with their research on biological weapons. On 6 May 1947, MacArthur wrote to Washington that "additional data, possibly some statements from Ishii probably can be obtained by informing Japanese involved that information will be retained in intelligence channels and will not be employed as 'War Crimes' evidence." The deal was concluded in 1948.

One of the focuses of the Tribunal was crimes against peace, but Gen. MacArthur himself after retirement on May 3, 1951 in the Senate Armed Services Committee stated, "They (Japanese) feared that if those supplies were cut off, there would be 10 to 12 million people unoccupied in Japan. Their purpose, therefore, in going to war was largely dictated by security."

Composition of prosecution team

It is also argued by some, such as Solis Horowitz, that IMTFE had an American bias, because unlike the Nuremberg Trials
Nuremberg Trials
The Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals, held by the victorious Allied forces of World War II, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of the defeated Nazi Germany....

, there was only a single prosecution team, which was led by Joseph B. Keenan, an American, although the members of the tribunal represented eleven different Allied countries.

The IMTFE had less official support than the Nuremberg Trials. For example, Keenan, a former US assistant attorney general, had a much lower position than Nuremberg's Robert H. Jackson
Robert H. Jackson
Robert Houghwout Jackson was United States Attorney General and an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court . He was also the chief United States prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials...

, a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...

.

Charges of victors' justice

Because the United States had provided the funds and the staff necessary for the running of the Tribunal and also held the function of Chief Prosecutor, there were some who argued that it was difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile these different elements with the requirement of impartiality with which such an organ should be invested. This apparent conflict gave the impression that the tribunal was no more than a means for the dispensation of victor's justice.

Justice Radhabinod Pal, the Indian justice at the IMTFE, argued that the exclusion of Western colonialism and the use of the atom bomb by the United States from the list of crimes, and judges from the vanquished nations on the bench, signified the "failure of the Tribunal to provide anything other than the opportunity for the victors to retaliate." In this he was not alone among Indian jurists of the time, one prominent Calcutta barrister writing that the Tribunal was little more than "a sword in a [judge's] wig".

Justice B. V. A. Roling stated, "[o]f course, in Japan we were all aware of the bombings and the burnings of Tokyo and Yokohama and other big cities. It was horrible that we went there for the purpose of vindicating the laws of war, and yet saw every day how the Allies had violated them dreadfully".

Pal's dissenting opinion

Pal's dissenting opinion also raised substantive objections: he found that the entire prosecution case, that there was a conspiracy to commit an act of aggressive war, which would include the brutalization and subjugation of conquered nations, weak. About the Rape of Nanking in particular, he said, after acknowledging the brutality of the incident (and that the "evidence was overwhelming" that "atrocities were perpetrated by the members of the Japanese armed forces against the civilian population... and prisoners of war"), that there was nothing to show that it was the "product of government policy", and thus that the officials of the Japanese government were directly responsible. Indeed, he said, there is "no evidence, testimonial or circumstantial, concomitant, prospectant, restrospectant, that would in any way lead to the inference that the government in any way permitted the commission of such offenses."

In any case, he added, conspiracy to wage aggressive war was not illegal in 1937, or at any point since.

Exoneration of the imperial family

There has been much criticism of the blanket exoneration of Emperor Hirohito and all members of the imperial family implicated in the war including Prince Asaka
Prince Asaka
of Japan, was the founder of a collateral branch of the Japanese imperial family and a career officer in the Imperial Japanese Army. Son-in-law of Emperor Meiji and uncle by marriage of Emperor Shōwa , Prince Asaka was commander of Japanese forces in the final assault on Nanking , then the capital...

, Prince Fushimi Hiroyasu
Prince Fushimi Hiroyasu
was a scion of the Japanese imperial family and was a career naval officer who served as chief of staff of the Imperial Japanese Navy from 1932 to 1941.-Early life:...

, Prince Higashikuni
Prince Higashikuni
was the 43rd Prime Minister of Japan from 17 August 1945 to 9 October 1945 for a period of 54 days. An uncle of Emperor Hirohito twice over, Prince Higashikuni was the only member of the Japanese imperial family to head a cabinet...

 and Prince Takeda
Prince Tsuneyoshi Takeda
was the second and last heir of the Takeda-no-miya collateral branch of the Japanese Imperial Family.- Early life :Prince Takeda Tsuneyoshi was the only son of Prince Takeda Tsunehisa and Princess Tsune-no-miya Masako , the sixth daughter of Emperor Meiji...

.

As early as 26 November 1945, MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was an American general and field marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. He received the Medal of Honor for his service in the...

 confirmed to Admiral Mitsumasa Yonai
Mitsumasa Yonai
was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy, and politician. He was the 37th Prime Minister of Japan from 16 January to 22 July 1940.-Early life & Naval career:...

 that the emperor's abdication would not be necessary. Before the war crimes trials actually convened, SCAP, the IPS and court officials worked behind the scenes not only to prevent the imperial family from being indicted, but also to slant the testimony of the defendants to ensure that no one implicated the emperor. High officials in court circles and the Japanese government collaborated with Allied GHQ in compiling lists of prospective war criminals, while the individuals arrested as Class A suspects and incarcerated in the Sugamo Prison
Sugamo Prison
Sugamo Prison was located in the district of Ikebukuro, which is now part of the Toshima ward of Tokyo, Japan-History:...

 solemnly vowed to protect their sovereign against any possible taint of war responsibility.

According to historian Herbert Bix, Brigadier General Bonner Fellers
Bonner Fellers
Bonner Frank Fellers , was a U.S. Army officer who served during World War II as military attaché and psychological warfare director. He was a considered a protégé of General Douglas MacArthur.-World War II:...

 "immediately on landing in Japan went to work to protect Hirohito from the role he had played during and at the end of the war" and "allowed the major criminal suspects to coordinate their stories so that the emperor would be spared from indictment."

Bix also argues that "MacArthur's truly extraordinary measures to save Hirohito from trial as a war criminal had a lasting and profoundly distorting impact on Japanese understanding of the lost war" and "months before the Tokyo tribunal commenced, MacArthur's highest subordinates were working to attribute ultimate responsibility for Pearl Harbor to Hideki Tōjō
Hideki Tōjō
Hideki Tōjō was a general of the Imperial Japanese Army , the leader of the Taisei Yokusankai, and the 40th Prime Minister of Japan during most of World War II, from 17 October 1941 to 22 July 1944...

." According to the written report of Shūichi Mizota, the interpreter of Admiral Mitsumasa Yonai
Mitsumasa Yonai
was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy, and politician. He was the 37th Prime Minister of Japan from 16 January to 22 July 1940.-Early life & Naval career:...

, Fellers met the two men at his office on March 6, 1946 and told Yonai, "it would be most convenient if the Japanese side could prove to us that the emperor is completely blameless. I think the forthcoming trials offer the best opportunity to do that. Tōjō, in particular, should be made to bear all responsibility at this trial".

For historian John W. Dower
John W. Dower
John W. Dower is an American author and historian.Dower earned a bachelor's degree in American Studies from Amherst College in 1959, and a Ph.D. in History and Far Eastern Languages from Harvard University in 1972, where he studied under Albert M. Craig...

, "This successful campaign to absolve the emperor of war responsibility knew no bounds. Emperor Hirohito was not merely presented as being innocent of any formal acts that might make him culpable to indictment as a war criminal. He was turned into an almost saintly figure who did not even bear moral responsibility for the war", "With the full support of MacArthur's headquarters, the prosecution functioned, in effect, as a defense team for the emperor" and "Even Japanese activists who endorse the ideals of the Nuremberg and Tokyo charters, and who have labored to document and publicize the atrocities of the Shōwa regime, cannot defend the American decision to exonerate the emperor of war responsibility and then, in the chill of the Cold war, release and soon afterwards openly embrace accused right-winged war criminals like the later prime minister Nobusuke Kishi
Nobusuke Kishi
was a Japanese politician and the 56th and 57th Prime Minister of Japan from February 25, 1957 to June 12, 1958 and from then to July 19, 1960. He was often called Shōwa no yōkai .- Early life :...

"

Three judges wrote an obiter dictum
Obiter dictum
Obiter dictum is Latin for a statement "said in passing". An obiter dictum is a remark or observation made by a judge that, although included in the body of the court's opinion, does not form a necessary part of the court's decision...

about the criminal responsibility of Hirohito. Judge-in-Chief Webb declared, "no ruler can commit the crime of launching aggressive war and then validly claim to be excused for doing so because his life would otherwise have been in danger ... It will remain that the men who advised the commission of a crime, if it be one, are in no worse position than the man who directs the crime be committed".

Judge Henri Bernard of France concluded that Japan's declaration of war "had a principal author who escaped all prosecution and of whom in any case the present Defendants could only be considered as accomplices".

For judge B. V. A. Röling however, nothing objectable could be found in the Emperor's immunity and five defendants (Kido, Hata, Hirota, Shigemitsu and Tōgō) should have been acquitted.

Immunity granted for germ warfare experiments

As Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers
Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers
Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers was the title held by General Douglas MacArthur during the Occupation of Japan following World War II...

, MacArthur also gave immunity
Immunity from prosecution (international law)
Immunity from prosecution is a doctrine of international law that allows an accused to avoid prosecution for criminal offences. Immunities are of two types. The first is functional immunity, or immunity ratione materiae. This is an immunity granted to people who perform certain functions of...

 to Shiro Ishii
Shiro Ishii
was a Japanese microbiologist and the lieutenant general of Unit 731, a biological warfare unit of the Imperial Japanese Army responsible for human experimentation and war crimes during the Second Sino-Japanese War.-Early years:...

 and all members of the bacteriological research units
Unit 731
was a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that undertook lethal human experimentation during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. It was responsible for some of the most notorious war crimes carried out by Japanese...

 in exchange for germ warfare data based on human experimentation
Human experimentation
Human subject research includes experiments and observational studies. Human subjects are commonly participants in research on basic biology, clinical medicine, nursing, psychology, and all other social sciences. Humans have been participants in research since the earliest studies...

. On May 6, 1947, he wrote to Washington that "additional data, possibly some statements from Ishii probably can be obtained by informing Japanese involved that information will be retained in intelligence channels and will not be employed as "War Crimes" evidence." The deal was concluded in 1948.

In 1981, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is a nontechnical online magazine that covers global security and public policy issues, especially related to the dangers posed by nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction...

 published an article by John W. Powell detailing Unit 731 experiments and germ warfare open-air tests on civilian populations. It was printed with a statement by judge B. V. A. Röling, the last surviving member of the Tokyo Tribunal. Röling wrote that "As one of the judges in the International Military Tribunal, it is a bitter experience for me to be informed now that centrally ordered Japanese war criminality of the most disgusting kind was kept secret from the Court by the U.S. government."

Release of the remaining 42 "Class A" war criminals

The International Prosecution Section of the SCAP decided to try the seventy Japanese apprehended for "Class A" war crimes in three groups, the first group of 28 all being major leaders in the military, political, and diplomatic sphere. The 2nd group of 23 and the 3rd group of 19 were industrial and financial magnates, who were engaged in weapons manufacturing industries or were accused of trafficking in narcotics, as well as a number of lesser known leaders in military, political, and diplomatic spheres. The most notable among these were:
  • Nobusuke Kishi
    Nobusuke Kishi
    was a Japanese politician and the 56th and 57th Prime Minister of Japan from February 25, 1957 to June 12, 1958 and from then to July 19, 1960. He was often called Shōwa no yōkai .- Early life :...

    : In charge of industry and commerce of Manchukuo, 1936–40; Minister of Industry and Commerce under Tojo administration.
  • Fusanosuke Kuhara
    Fusanosuke Kuhara
    was a businessman and politician of Japan.He was a syndicalist, zaibatsu member, and mining industrialist, later becoming a right-wing supporter in wartime Japan....

    : Leader of the pro-Zaibatsu
    Zaibatsu
    is a Japanese term referring to industrial and financial business conglomerates in the Empire of Japan, whose influence and size allowed for control over significant parts of the Japanese economy from the Meiji period until the end of World War II.-Terminology:...

     faction of Rikken Seiyukai
    Rikken Seiyukai
    The was one of the main political parties in the pre-war Empire of Japan. It was also known simply as the ‘Seiyūkai'Founded on September 15, 1900 by Itō Hirobumi , the Seiyūkai was a pro-government alliance of bureaucrats and former members of the Kenseitō. The Seiyūkai was the most powerful...

    .
  • Yoshisuke Ayukawa: Sworn-brother of Fusanosuke Kuhara, founder of Japan Industrial Corporation; went to Manchuria after the "September 18" Incident, where he founded the Manchurian Heavy Industry Development Company
  • Toshizō Nishio
    Toshizo Nishio
    -External links:...

    : Chief of Staff of the Kwantung Army, Commander-in-Chief of China Expeditionary Army, 1939–41; and war-time Minister of Education.
  • Kichiburo Ando: Garrison Commander of Port Arthur and Minister of Interior in the Tojo cabinet.
  • Yoshio Kodama
    Yoshio Kodama
    was a prominent figure in the rise of organized crime in Japan. The most famous 'kuromaku', or behind-the-scenes power broker, of the 20th century, he was active in Japan's political arena and criminal underworld from the 1950s to the early 1970s....

    : Radical ultranationalist
  • Kazuo Aoki
    Kazuo Aoki
    , was a bureaucrat and cabinet minister in the Empire of Japan, serving as Minister of Finance, and Minister of Greater East Asia.- Biography :Aoki was born to a farming family in Sarashina District, Nagano prefecture , and was trained as a lawyer, graduating from the Law School of Tokyo Imperial...

    : Administrator of Manchurian affairs; Minister of Treasury in Nobuyoki Abe's cabinet and then following Abe to China as advisor; Minister of Greater East Asia
    Ministry of Greater East Asia
    The was a cabinet-level ministry in the government of the Empire of Japan from 1942–1945, established to administer overseas territories obtained by Japan in the Pacific War and to coordinate the establishment and development of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.-History and...

     in the Tojo cabinet.
  • Masayuki Tani
    Masayuki Tani
    was the Foreign Minister of Japan from 1942 to 1943.Later, he was involved in US-Japan relations in the postwar era....

    : Ambassador to Manchukuo, Minister of Foreign Affairs and concurrently Director of the Intelligence Bureau; Ambassador to the Reorganized National Government of China
  • Eiji Amo: Chief of the Intelligence Section of Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs; and Director of Intelligence Bureau in the Tojo cabinet.
  • Yakijiro Suma: Consul General at Nanking; in 1938, he served as counselor at the Japanese Embassy at Washington; and after 1941, Minister Plenipotentiary to Spain.
  • Ryoichi Sasakawa
    Ryoichi Sasakawa
    was a Japanese businessman, politician and philanthropist born in Minoh, Osaka. He was accused but acquitted of being a Class A war criminal after World War II, was a self-proclaimed fascist, kuromaku , and the founder of The Nippon Foundation...

    : Radical ultranationalist


All remaining people apprehended and accused of Class A war crimes who had not yet come to trial were set free by General MacArthur in 1947 and 1948.

San Francisco Peace Treaty

Under Article 11 of the San Francisco Peace Treaty
Treaty of San Francisco
The Treaty of Peace with Japan , between Japan and part of the Allied Powers, was officially signed by 48 nations on September 8, 1951, at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco, California...

 signed on September 8, 1951, Japan accepted the jurisdiction of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. Article 11 of the treaty reads as follows:


"Japan accepts the judgments of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and of other Allied War Crimes Courts both within and outside Japan, and will carry out the sentences imposed thereby upon Japanese nationals imprisoned in Japan. The power to grant clemency, reduce sentences and parole with respect to such prisoners may not be exercised except on the decision of the government or governments which imposed the sentence in each instance, and on the recommendation of Japan. In the case of persons sentenced by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, such power may not be exercised except on the decision of a majority of the governments represented on the Tribunal, and on the recommendation of Japan."

The parole-for-war-criminals movement

In 1950, after most Allied war crimes trials had ended, thousands of convicted war criminals sat in prisons across Asia and across Europe, detained in the countries where they were convicted. Some executions were still outstanding as many Allied courts agreed to reexamine their verdicts, reducing sentences in some cases and instituting a system of parole, but without relinquishing control over the fate of the imprisoned (even after Japan and Germany had regained their status as sovereign countries).

An intense and broadly supported campaign for amnesty for all imprisoned war criminals ensued (more aggressively in Germany than in Japan at first), as attention turned away from the top wartime leaders and towards the majority of "ordinary" war criminals (Class B/C in Japan), and the issue of criminal responsibility was reframed as a humanitarian problem.

On March 7, 1950, MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was an American general and field marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. He received the Medal of Honor for his service in the...

 issued a directive that reduced the sentences by one-third for good behavior and authorized the parole of those who had received life sentences after fifteen years. Several of those who were imprisoned were released earlier on parole due to ill-health.

The Japanese popular reaction to the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal found expression in demands for the mitigation of the sentences of war criminals and agitation for parole. Shortly after the San Francisco Peace Treaty came into effect in April 1952, a movement demanding the release of B- and C-class war criminals began, emphasizing the "unfairness of the war crimes tribunals" and the "misery and hardship of the families of war criminals." The movement quickly garnered the support of more than ten million Japanese. In the face of this surge of public opinion, the government commented that "public sentiment in our country is that the war criminals are not criminals. Rather, they gather great sympathy as victims of the war, and the number of people concerned about the war crimes tribunal system itself is steadily increasing."

The parole-for-war-criminals movement was driven by two groups: those from outside who had ‘a sense of pity’ for the prisoners; and the war criminals themselves who called for their own release as part of an anti-war peace movement. The movement that arose out of ‘a sense of pity’ demanded ‘just set them free (tonikaku shakuho o) regardless of how it is done’.

On September 4, 1952, President Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...

 issued Executive Order 10393, establishing a Clemency and Parole Board for War Criminals to advise the President with respect to recommendations by the Government of Japan for clemency, reduction of sentence, or parole, with respect to sentences imposed on Japanese war criminals by military tribunals.

On May 26, 1954, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles
John Foster Dulles
John Foster Dulles served as U.S. Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1959. He was a significant figure in the early Cold War era, advocating an aggressive stance against communism throughout the world...

 rejected a proposed amnesty for the imprisoned war criminals but instead agreed to "change the ground rules" by reducing the period required for eligibility for parole from 15 years to 10.

By the end of 1958, all Japanese war criminals, including A-, B- and C-class were released from prison and politically rehabilitated. Hashimoto Kingorô, Hata Shunroku, Minami Jirô, and Oka Takazumi were all released on parole in 1954. Araki Sadao, Hiranuma Kiichirô, Hoshino Naoki, Kaya Okinori, Kido Kôichi, Ôshima Hiroshi, Shimada Shigetarô, and Suzuki Teiichi were released on parole in 1955. Satô Kenryô, whom many, including Judge B. V. A. Röling regarded as one of the convicted war criminals least deserving of imprisonment, was not granted parole until March 1956, the last of the Class A Japanese war criminals to be released. On April 7, 1957, the Japanese government announced that, with the concurrence of a majority of the powers represented on the tribunal, the last ten major Japanese war criminals who had previously been paroled were granted clemency and were to be regarded henceforth as unconditionally free from the terms of their parole.

Legacy

In 1978, the kami
Kami
is the Japanese word for the spirits, natural forces, or essence in the Shinto faith. Although the word is sometimes translated as "god" or "deity", some Shinto scholars argue that such a translation can cause a misunderstanding of the term...

of 1,068 convicted war criminals, including 14 convicted Class-A war criminals ("crimes against peace") were secretly enshrined at Yasukuni Shrine
Yasukuni Shrine
is a Shinto shrine located in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is dedicated to the soldiers and others who died fighting on behalf of the Emperor of Japan. Currently, its Symbolic Registry of Divinities lists the names of over 2,466,000 enshrined men and women whose lives were dedicated to the service of...

. The fourteen Class-A war criminals enshrined at Yasukuni include former Prime Minister Hideki Tōjō
Hideki Tōjō
Hideki Tōjō was a general of the Imperial Japanese Army , the leader of the Taisei Yokusankai, and the 40th Prime Minister of Japan during most of World War II, from 17 October 1941 to 22 July 1944...

, Kenji Doihara
Kenji Doihara
was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II. He was instrumental in the Japanese invasion of Manchuria for which he earned fame taking the nickname 'Lawrence of Manchuria', a reference to the Lawrence of Arabia....

, Iwane Matsui
Iwane Matsui
was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army and the commander of the expeditionary forces sent to China in World War II. He was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death by hanging by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East for responsibility over the Nanking Massacre.-Early life...

, Heitarō Kimura, Kōki Hirota
Koki Hirota
was a Japanese diplomat, politician and the 32nd Prime Minister of Japan from March 9, 1936 to February 2, 1937.-Early life:Hirota was born in what is now part of Chūō-ku, Fukuoka city, Fukuoka Prefecture. His father was a stonemason, and he was adopted into the Hirota family. After attending...

, Seishirō Itagaki, Akira Mutō
Akira Muto
- Notes :...

, Yosuke Matsuoka
Yosuke Matsuoka
was a diplomat and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Empire of Japan during the early stages of World War II. He is best known for his defiant speech at the League of Nations in 1933, ending Japan’s participation in that organization...

, Osami Nagano, Toshio Shiratori
Toshio Shiratori
was the Japanese ambassador to Italy from 1938 to 1940, advisor to the Japanese foreign minister in 1940, and one of the 14 Class-A war criminals enshrined at Yasukuni....

, Hiranuma Kiichirō, Kuniaki Koiso
Kuniaki Koiso
- Notes :...

 and Yoshijirō Umezu.

Since 1985, visits made by Japanese government officials to the Shrine have aroused protests in China, and Korea.

In a survey of 3,000 Japanese conducted in 2006 by Asahi News as the 60th anniversary approached, 70% of those questioned were unaware of the details of the trials, a figure that rose to 90% for those in the 20-29 age group. Some 76% of the people polled, however, recognized a certain degree of aggression on Japan's part during the war, while only 7% believed it was a war strictly for self-defense.

The South Korean Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South Korea)
South Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission , established on December 1, 2005, is a governmental body responsible for investigating incidents in Korean history which occurred starting from Japan's rule of Korea in 1910 up until the end of Authoritarian Rule in Korea with the election of...

 absolved its Class B and Class C war criminals of all responsibility in 2006.

See also

  • Tokyo Trial (film)
    Tokyo Trial (film)
    -Story:This film was directed by Gao Qunshu and is about the International Military Tribunal for the Far East after Japan surrendered after World War II. The movie presents the Trial from the point of view of the Chinese judge Mei Ju-ao....

  • Nanjing War Crimes Tribunal
    Nanjing War Crimes Tribunal
    The Nanjing War Crimes Tribunal was established in 1946 by the government of Chiang Kai-Shek to judge four Japanese Imperial Army officers accused of crimes committed during the Second Sino-Japanese War...

  • Nanking Massacre
    Nanking Massacre
    The Nanking Massacre or Nanjing Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanking, was a mass murder, genocide and war rape that occurred during the six-week period following the Japanese capture of the city of Nanjing , the former capital of the Republic of China, on December 13, 1937 during the Second...

  • Nanking (film)
    Nanking (film)
    Nanking is a 2007 film about the 1937 Nanking Massacre committed by the Japanese army in the former capital city Nanjing, China. The film draws on letters and diaries from the era as well as archive footage and interviews with surviving victims and perpetrators of the massacre...

  • Command responsibility
    Command responsibility
    Command responsibility, sometimes referred to as the Yamashita standard or the Medina standard, and also known as superior responsibility, is the doctrine of hierarchical accountability in cases of war crimes....

  • Japanese war crimes
    Japanese war crimes
    Japanese war crimes occurred during the period of Japanese imperialism, primarily during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. Some of the incidents have also been described as an Asian Holocaust and Japanese war atrocities...

  • Nuremberg Trials
    Nuremberg Trials
    The Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals, held by the victorious Allied forces of World War II, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of the defeated Nazi Germany....

  • War crime
    War crime
    War crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable in armed conflict giving rise to individual criminal responsibility...

  • INA trials
    INA trials
    The INA trials or the Red Fort Trials refer to the courts martial of a number of officers of the Indian National Army between November 1945 and May 1946 variously for treason, torture, murder and abetment to murder....

  • Justice Erima Harvey Northcroft Tokyo War Crimes Trial Collection
    Justice Erima Harvey Northcroft Tokyo War Crimes Trial Collection
    The Justice Erima Harvey Northcroft Tokyo War Crimes Trial Collection is an archival collection held at the Macmillan Brown Library of Canterbury University based on the personal papers of Sir Erima Harvey Northcroft, one of the eleven judges on the International Military Tribunal for the Far East...


Books

  • Bass, Gary Jonathan. Stay the Hand of Vengeance: The Politics of War Crimes Trials. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2000.
  • Bix, Herbert. Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan. New York: HarperCollins, 2000.
  • Brackman, Arnold C. The Other Nuremberg: the Untold Story of the Tokyo War Crimes Trial. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1987.
  • Dower, John W. Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II
    Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II
    Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II is a history book written by John W. Dower and published by W. W. Norton & Company in 1999. The book covers the Occupation of Japan by the Allies between August 1945 and April 1952, delving into topics such as Douglas MacArthur's administration,...

    . New York: New Press, 1999.
  • Horowitz, Solis. "The Tokyo Trial" International Conciliation 465 (Nov 1950), 473-584.

Web


External links

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