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Tokyo Trial and Other Trials Against Japan

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseThe International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), also known as the Tokyo Trial or the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, tried Japanese leaders accused for war crimes and other charges committed between 1937 and 1945. The legal basis for the trial was established by the Charter of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (CIMTFE), which was proclaimed on 19 Jan 1946 by Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers General Douglas MacArthur. The Tokyo Trial began on 3 May 1946 at Ichigaya Court (formerly the Japanese Army headquarters building) in Tokyo, Japan. The members of the tribunal were:

ww2dbasePresident of the International Military Tribunal

Sir William Webb (Australia) ww2dbaseJudges

Edward Stuart McDougall (Canada)

Major General Mei Ju-ao (China)

Henri Bernard (France)

Radhabinod Pal (India)

Professor Bert Röling (Netherlands)

Harvey Northcroft (New Zealand)

Colonel Delfin Jaranilla (Philippines)

Honorable Lord Patrick (United Kingdom)

John P. Higgins (United States; through Jul 1946)

Major General Myron C. Cramer (United States; after Jul 1946)

Major General I. M. Zarayanov (Soviet Union) ww2dbaseChief Prosecutor

Joseph Keenan (United States) ww2dbaseProsecutors

Mr. Justice Alan Mansfield (Australia)

Brigadier Henry Nolan (Canada)

Xiang Zhejun (China)

Robert L. Oneto (France)

P. Govinda Menon (India)

W. G. Frederick Borgerhoff-Mulder (Netherlands)

Brigadier Ronald Henry Quilliam (New Zealand)

Pedro Lopez (Philippines)

Arthur Strettell Comyns Carr (United Kingdom)

Judge Sergei Alexandrovich Golunsky (Soviet Union)

ww2dbase28 Japanese leaders were charged with Class A crimes, and more than 5,700 were charged with Classes B and C crimes. Class A included those who were charged with crimes against peace, Class B was a category for those accused of war crimes, and those charged with crimes against humanity were said to be in Class C. Members of the Japanese imperial family, including Emperor Showa (Hirohito), were granted immunity by MacArthur.

ww2dbaseTwo of the accused Class A criminals, Matsuoka Yosuke and Nagano Osami, died of natural causes during the trial. Seven were found guilty and sentenced to death, with the executions carried out at Sugamo Prison, Tokyo, Japan on 23 Dec 1948. Those executed were:

General Kenji Doihara

Baron Koki Hirota

General Seishiro Itagaki

General Heitaro Kimura

General Iwane Matsui

General Akira Muto

General Hideki Tojo

ww2dbase16 of them were sentenced to life imprisonment:

General Sadao Araki

Colonel Kingoro Hashimoto

Field Marshal Shunroku Hata

Baron Kiichiro Hiranuma

Naoki Hoshino

Okinori Kaya

Marquis Koichi Kido

General Kuniaki Koiso

General Jiro Minami

Admiral Takasumi Oka

General Hiroshi Oshima

General Kenryo Sato

Admiral Shigetaro Shimada

Toshio Shiratori

General Teiichi Suzuki

General Yoshijiro Umezu

ww2dbaseFinally, Shigenori Togo received 20 years imprisonment and Mamoru Shigemitsu received 7 years imprisonment.

ww2dbaseOf the 5,700 accused of Class B and Class C crimes, 984 were condemned to death (some were later pardoned), 475 were given life imprisonment sentences, 2,944 were given finite imprisonment sentences, 1,018 were acquitted, and 279 were not brought to trial or not sentenced.

ww2dbaseThere were criticisms of the Tokyo Trial, which mostly centered around the American bias through the entire proceedings as well as the immunity enjoyed by members of the imperial family. Judge Radhabinod Pal of India offered a dissenting opinion, questioning the exclusion of western imperialism and the American use of the atomic weapons from the trial while Japanese imperialism and Japanese use of chemical and biological weapons were central to the Tokyo Trial.

ww2dbaseOther Trials

ww2dbaseBetween 1945 and 1951, over 2,200 trials were held outside of Japan against 5,600 Japanese nationals and Japanese collaborators accused of various crimes. More than 4,400 were convicted, and about 1,000 were sentenced to death.

ww2dbaseBetween 29 Oct and 7 Dec 1945, an American military tribunal tried General Tomoyuki Yamashita in Manila, Philippines for war crimes. The trial was publicized greatly in the Philippines; Yamashita symbolized the Japanese officers that the Filipinos came to blame for the war time atrocities, and the press build up swayed the public opinion against the Japanese general. He was found guilty and was executed by hanging on 23 Feb 1946 at Los Banos Prison Camp 30 miles south of Manila. His responsibilities for the atrocities as the commanding officer later came to be known as the Yamashita Standard, which set precedence for future war crimes rulings.

ww2dbaseThe Khabarovsk War Crime Trials between 25 and 29 Dec 1949 at Khabarovsk in Russian Far East, conducted by the Russians, tried 12 members of the Japanese Kwangtung Army for the use of biological weapons. All 12 were found guilty and were sentenced to various imprisonment terms.

General Otsuzo Yamada

Lieutenant General Ryuji Kajitsuka

Lieutenant General Takaatsu Takahashi

Major General Kiyoshi Kawashima

Major Tomio Karasawa

Lieutenant Colonel Toshihide Nishi

Major Masao Onoue

Major General Shunji Sato

Lieutenant Zensaku Hirazakura

Senior Sergeant Kazuo Mitomo

Corporal Norimitsu Kikuchi

Yuji Kurushima

ww2dbaseIn 1946, the Chinese government held a series of trials against Japanese Army officers for crimes committed in occupied China. In the Nanjing Trials, one of a total of thirteen trials held by Nationalist China (the communists held their own trials against the Japanese), the following four Japanese officers were found guilty and sentenced to death in 1947.

Lieutenant General Hisao Tani

Captain Gunkichi Tanaka

Second Lieutenant Toshiaki Mukai

Second Lieutenant Tsuyoshi Noda

ww2dbaseSource: Wikipedia.

Last Major Update: Jan 2009

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