The Japanese War Crime Trials, formally known as the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), were a series of trials held between 1946 and 1948 to prosecute individuals responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other atrocities committed by the Japanese military during World War II. Held in Tokyo, Japan, these trials aimed to bring justice to victims and establish accountability for those responsible for heinous acts.
The trials focused on high-ranking military and political leaders, including generals, politicians, and bureaucrats, who were implicated in crimes such as the massacre of civilians, systematic torture, and the use of chemical and biological warfare. Notable among the accused were figures like General Hideki Tojo, the wartime Prime Minister of Japan.
The proceedings were conducted by a panel of judges from Allied nations, with prosecutors presenting evidence and testimonies from witnesses. The trials featured meticulous documentation of crimes, often employing extensive archival records and eyewitness accounts.
The outcomes varied, with some defendants receiving harsh sentences, including death by hanging, while others faced imprisonment or were acquitted. While criticized by some for perceived shortcomings, the trials played a crucial role in establishing legal precedents for prosecuting war crimes and promoting international justice in the aftermath of the war.
The fallen : a true story of American POWs and Japanese wartime atrocities
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unspeakable crimes. undeniable proof. unattainable justice. "A gripping account of one of the darkest secrets of World War II: the systematic torture and vivisection of American pilots by Japanese scientists for biological warfare research. Almost sixty years after the fact, revisionists continue to deny these horrors, but The Fallen provides indisputable evidence that Japan had indeed subjected American POWs to live medical experiments-such as mutilating their organs, draining their blood, and pumping seawater into their veins. The postwar decision by the U.S. government to protect Japan's Josef Mengele--like criminals is almost as shocking as the atrocities themselves." -Iris Chang, the New York Times bestselling author of The Rape of Nanking and The Chinese in America "A riveting and horrifying tale. Landas's meticulous and imaginative detective work reconstructs a long-buried investigation that implicates not just a few rogue soldiers but Japanese scientists, professors, and politicians, abetted by an American cover-up at the highest levels. An important book that fills a gap in the story of World War II. The best part of the story is the courage of a lone American flier, loyal to his comrades even in the face of torture, whose ordeal unfolds with vivid immediacy." -Philip Gerard, author of Secret Soldiers
Interpreters and War Crimes
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Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this book raises new questions and provides different perspectives on the roles, responsibilities, ethics and protection of interpreters in war while investigating the substance and agents of Japanese war crimes and legal aspects of interpreters' taking part in war crimes. Informed by studies on interpreter ethics in conflict, historical studies of Japanese war crimes and legal discussion on individual liability in war crimes, Takeda provides a detailed description and analysis of the 39 interpreter defendants and interpreters as witnesses of war crimes at British military trials against the Japanese in the aftermath of the Pacific War, and tackles ethical and legal issues of various risks faced by interpreters in violent conflict. The book first discusses the backgrounds, recruitment and wartime activities of the accused interpreters at British military trials in addition to the charges they faced, the defence arguments and the verdicts they received at the trials, with attention to why so many of the accused were Taiwanese and foreign-born Japanese. Takeda provides a contextualized discussion, focusing on the Japanese military's specific linguistic needs in its occupied areas in Southeast Asia and the attributes of interpreters who could meet such needs. In the theoretical examination of the issues that emerge, the focus is placed on interpreters' proximity to danger, visibility and perceived authorship of speech, legal responsibility in war crimes and ethical issues in testifying as eyewitnesses of criminal acts in violent hostilities. Takeda critically examines prior literature on the roles of interpreters in conflict and ethical concerns such as interpreter neutrality and confidentiality, drawing on legal discussion of the ineffectiveness of the superior orders defence and modes of individual liability in war crimes. The book seeks to promote intersectoral discussion on how interpreters can be protected from exposure to manifestly unlawful acts such as torture.
Japan's wartime medical atrocities : comparative inquiries in science, history, and ethics
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Prior to and during the Second World War, the Japanese Army established programs of biological warfare throughout Chinanbsp;and elsewhere. In these "factories of death," including the now-infamous Unit 731, Japanese doctors and scientists conducted large numbers of vivisections and experiments on human beings, mostly Chinese nationals. However, as a result of complex historical factors including an American cover-up of the atrocities, Japanese denials, and inadequate responses from successive Chinese governments, justice has never been fully served. This volume brings together the contributions of a group of scholars from different countries and various academic disciplines. It examines Japan's wartime medical atrocities and their postwar aftermath from a comparative perspective and inquires into perennial issues of historical memory, science, politics, society and ethics elicited by these rebarbative events. The volume's central ethical claim is that the failure to bring justice to bear on the systematic abuse of medical research by Japanese military medical personnel more than six decades ago has had a profoundly retarding influence on the development and practice of medical and social ethics in all of East Asia. The book also includes an extensive annotated bibliography selected from relevant publications in Japanese, Chinese and English.
Japanese war criminals : the politics of justice after the Second World War
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Beginning in late 1945, the United States, Britain, China, Australia, France, the Netherlands, and later the Philippines, the Soviet Union, and the People's Republic of China convened national courts to prosecute Japanese military personnel for war crimes. The defendants included ethnic Koreans and Taiwanese who had served with the armed forces as Japanese subjects. In Tokyo, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East tried Japanese leaders. While the fairness of these trials has been a focus for decades, Japanese War Criminals instead argues that the most important issues arose outside the courtroom. What was the legal basis for identifying and detaining subjects, determining who should be prosecuted, collecting evidence, and granting clemency after conviction? The answers to these questions helped set the norms for transitional justice in the postwar era and today contribute to strategies for addressing problematic areas of international law. Examining the complex moral, ethical, legal, and political issues surrounding the Allied prosecution project, from the first investigations during the war to the final release of prisoners in 1958, Japanese War Criminals shows how a simple effort to punish the guilty evolved into a multidimensional struggle that muddied the assignment of criminal responsibility for war crimes. Over time, indignation in Japan over Allied military actions, particularly the deployment of the atomic bombs, eclipsed anger over Japanese atrocities, and, among the Western powers, new Cold War imperatives took hold. This book makes a unique contribution to our understanding of the construction of the postwar international order in Asia and to our comprehension of the difficulties of implementing transitional justice.
The other Nuremberg : the untold story of the Tokyo war crimes trials
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1. War criminals at bay -- 2. MacArthur in Tokyo -- 3. The Allied prosecutors -- 4. The judges -- 5. The defense, the prisoners, and the charges -- 6. The indictment : Tojo, not Hirohito -- 7. The trial opens : challenges and decisions -- 8. The missing defendants -- 9. The prosecution begins -- 10. Trouble in the tribunal -- 11. The Army in the dock -- 12. The invasion of Manchuria -- 13. Lawyers at war -- 14. The Emperor of China speaks -- 15. Holocaust in China -- 16. Unconventional warfare : drugs and disease -- 17. The Axis on trial -- 18. Trouble among the Allies -- 19. Judgment at Nuremberg -- 20. Remember Pearl Harbor -- 21. Atrocities in the Philippines -- 22. POWs and other slave labor -- 23. Defense parry, prosecution thrust -- 24. The defense opens, and the Generals shout -- 25. The defense stalls -- 26. Pearl Harbor redux -- 27. Defendants take the stand -- 28. Sir William Webb leaves the bench -- 29. Tog, Tojo, and Umezu -- 30. Rebuttals and summaries -- 31. Decision at Tokyo -- 32. The verdict is read -- 33. Opinions, dissent, and appeal -- 34. Justice on the gallows -- appendixes -- a. The indicted Class A war criminals -- b. The IMTFE's findings on the indictment.
The Tokyo trial a bibliographic guide to English-language sources
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Overshadowed for many years by the Nuremberg trials, the Tokyo Trial--one of the major events in the aftermath of World War II--has elicited renewed interest since the 50th anniversary of the war's end. Revelations of previously hidden war crimes, including comfort women and biological warfare, and the establishment of international courts to try Yugoslav and Rwandan war criminals have added to the interest. This bibliography addressees the renewed interest in the Tokyo Trial, providing over 700 citations to official publications, scholarly monographs and journal articles, contemporaneous accounts, manuscript collections, and Web sites. Also included are sources on the Trial's influence on international law and military law and unresolved issues being debated to this day. Defining war crimes after the fact, practicing victor's justice to punish enemies, holding military commanders accountable for their troops' actions--these were issues confronted in the Tokyo Trial and other Asia-Pacific war crimes trials. They are still being investigated, researched, and debated today. This bibliography helps to illuminate these issues from different perspectives, providing a variety of ways to locate relevant English-language sources. The volume also includes citations to contemporary issues stemming from the Asia-Pacific war crimes trials--comfort women, biological warfare, and unresolved issues of reparations and official apologies. The book is a useful guide to sources on all aspects of the Tokyo Trial.
Victors' justice; the Tokyo war crimes trial
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Tokyo Trial, Tokyo, Japan, 1946-1948
War crime trials -- Tokyo -- 1946-1948
War crime trials -- Japan
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