The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (also referred to as the IMTFE, the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, or the Tokyo Trial) was held to try the leaders of Japan for three types of crimes - "Class A" (crimes against peace), "Class B" (war crimes), and "Class C" (crimes against humanity) - committed during World War II, including some incidents such as the Nanjing Massacre. It did not cover individual Japanese war crimes. Those were dealt with separately, in other cities throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
A panel of eleven judges presided over the IMTFE, one each from victorious Allied powers (United States, Soviet Union, United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Republic of China, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India, and the Philippines). Twenty-five Japanese military and political leaders were charged with Class A crimes, and more than 300,000 Japanese were charged with Class B and C crimes, mostly over prisoner abuse.
The tribunal convened on May 3, 1946, and was adjourned on November 12, 1948.
Prosecutors
Judges
Charges
| Count |
Offense |
| 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. |
Sentences
There were 28 defendants tried, mostly military and political leaders. Two defendants (Matsuoka Yosuke and Nagano Osami) died of natural causes during the trial. Okawa Shumei had a nervous breakdown during the trial and was removed.
Seven others were sentenced to death by hanging for war crimes and crimes against humanity. They were executed at Sugamo Prison in Ikebukuro on December 23, 1948:
- General Doihara Kenji, spy (later Air Force commander)
- Baron Hirota Koki, foreign minister
- General Itagaki Seishiro, war minister
- General Kimura Heitaro, commander, Burma Expeditionary Force
- General Matsui Iwane, commandr, Shanghai Expeditionary Force
- General Muto Akira, commander, Philippines Expeditionary Force
- General Tojo Hideki, commander, Kwantung Army (later prime minister)
Sixteen more were sentenced to life imprisonment. Three (Koiso, Shiratori, and Umezu) died in prison, while the other thirteen were paroled in 1955:
- General Araki Sadao, war minister
- Colonel Hashimoto Kingoro, major instigator of the second Sino-Japanese War
- Field Marshal Hata Shunroku, war minister
- Baron Hiranuma Kiichiro, prime minister
- Hoshino Naoki, Chief Cabinet Secretary
- Kaya Okinori, opium dealer to the Chinese
- Marquis Kido Koichi, Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal
- General Koiso Kuniaki, governor of Korea, later prime minister
- General Minami Jiro, commander, Kwantung Army
- Admiral Oka Takasumi, naval minister
- General Oshima Hiroshi, ambassador to Germany
- General Sato Kenryo, chief of the Military Affairs Bureau
- Admiral Shimada Shigetaro, naval minister
- Shiratori Toshio, ambassador to Italy
- General Suzuki Teiichi, president of the Cabinet Planning Board
- General Umezu Yoshijiro, war minister
Two defendants received finite sentences. General Togo Shigenori died in prison in 1949, while foreign minister Shigemitsu Mamoru was paroled in 1950 and went on to serve in Prime Minister Ichirō Hatoyama's cabinet.
Criticism
Some have accused the IMTFE of having an American bias, because unlike the Nuremberg Trials, there was only a single prosecution team, which was led by Joseph B. Keenan, an American (though the members of the tribunal represented eleven different Allied countries). Also, because the IMTFE only prosecuted officials of the defeated Japanese forces, some have felt that possible Allied violations of the laws of war were ignored. For example, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the firebombing of Tokyo and other cities have been described as crimes against humanity, and the Soviet Union's invasions of Manchuria and parts of Japan have been criticized as crimes against peace.
Others criticise that the crimes perpetrated by Japanese troops and authorities in the occupation of Korea and China (Manchukuo) were ignored (though China held 13 tribunals of its own, resulting in 504 convictions and 149 executions), that the family of the military commander-in-chief, Emperor Hirohito, were given immunity. The emperor and his family (Prince Asaka) were kept from being prosecuted, as the emperor was seen as more useful to the Americans as a symbol of the state whose presence could unite and pacify the people of Japan. Thus some major crimes, such as those committed by Japan's bacteriological and chemical warfare unit were deliberately covered up due to special interests of the United States.
Relatively few senior Japanese officers and officials were tried or convicted, and Kishi Nobusuke, who was held as a suspected Class A criminal but never tried, later became Prime Minister.
See also
Further Reading
- Bass, Gary Jonathan. Stay the Hand of Vengeance: The Politics of War Crimes Trials. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 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. New York: New Press, 1999.
- Horowitz, Solis. "The Tokyo Trial" International Conciliation 465 (Nov 1950), 473-584.
- Minear, Richard H. Victor's Justice: the Tokyo War Crimes Trial. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1971.
External links
