Japanese War Criminals: The Politics of Justice After the Second World War

401 Pages·2017·4.44 MB·English

by  Sandra Wilson

JAPANESE WAR CRIMINALS
JAPANESE WAR CRIMINALS
The Politics of Justice After the Second World
War
SANDRA WILSON, ROBERT CRIBB, BEATRICE
TREFALT, AND DEAN ASZKIELOWICZ
Columbia University Press
New York
Columbia University Press Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex cup.columbia.edu
Copyright © 2017 Columbia University Press All rights reserved E-ISBN 978-0-23154268-5
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Wilson, Sandra, 1957– author. |
Cribb, R. B., author. | Trefalt, Beatrice, author. | Aszkielowicz, Dean, author.
Title: Japanese war criminals : the politics of justice after the Second World War / Sandra Wilson,
Robert Cribb, Beatrice Trefalt, and Dean Aszkielowicz.
Description: New York : Columbia University Press, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references
and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016028052 | ISBN 9780231179225 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780231542685
(e-book) Subjects: LCSH: War crimes—Japan. | War crime trials—Japan. | War criminals—Japan.
| World War, 1939–1945—Atrocities.
Classification: LCC KZ1181 .W55 2016 | DDC 341.6/90268—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016028052
A Columbia University Press E-book.
CUP would be pleased to hear about your reading experience with this e-book at cup-
[email protected].
Jacket design: Noah Arlow
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Note on Names, Spelling, and Terminology
List of Abbreviations
INTRODUCTION
1. DEFINING WAR CRIMES AND CREATING COURTS
The Crimes
Anticipating Prosecution
The Political Aims of Prosecution
Legal Questions
Jurisdiction
Legislation and Courts
2. INVESTIGATION AND ARREST
Collecting Evidence, Arresting Suspects
The Promise and Problem of Command Responsibility
Selection of Defendants
3. IN COURT: INDICTMENT, TRIAL, AND SENTENCING
Indictments
Courts
Procedures
Case for the Defense
Verdicts, Sentences, and Review
Execution
4. DILEMMAS OF DETENTION AND THE FIRST MISGIVINGS
Prisons
Ending the Trials
Toward Parole and Release
Further Misgivings
5. SHIFTING MOOD, SHIFTING LOCATION
Appealing to Compassion
Changing Perceptions of Japanese Soldiers
Transfer to Japan
From Individual Guilt to National Responsibility
6. PEACE AND ARTICLE 11
Early Treaty Drafts
War Guilt and “Pardon”
The Final Drafts
Japanese Responses
The Japanese Public and War Criminals
The Treaty and Article 11
7. JAPANESE PRESSURE MOUNTS
Immediate Responses to the Peace and Article 11
Managing Article 11
Ordinary Men with Aging Mothers
Public Advocacy
Politicians, Bureaucrats, and War Criminals
8. FINDING A FORMULA FOR RELEASE
Further Releases
The Last Repatriations
Clemency for the IMTFE Defendants
New Trials
9. THE RACE TO CLEAR SUGAMO
The Netherlands and Australia Find a Way Out
Balancing Moral Pressure with Public Opinion
Hotel Sugamo
Reviewing the Cases
Dealing with the Hard Core
CONCLUSION
Notes
Bibliography
Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
e would like to thank the many people and institutions who have
W
assisted us in the completion of this project.
The project was supported financially by the Australian
Research Council (DP110100582) and by smaller grants from Murdoch
University, the Australian National University, Monash University, and the
National Library of Australia (Japan Study Grant). These institutions also
provided facilities and general support.
Valuable assistance was provided by the staff of the following archives
and libraries: Archives New Zealand, Wellington; Mitchell Library,
Sydney; National Library of Australia, Canberra (especially Mayumi
Shinozaki); National Archives of Australia, Canberra and Melbourne;
Australian National University Library, Canberra; Australian War
Memorial, Canberra; Monash University Library, Melbourne; Murdoch
University Library, Perth; National Archives of Japan, Tokyo; Diplomatic
Archives of Japan (Gaikō shiryōkan), Tokyo; National Diet Library, Tokyo;
Filipinas Heritage Library (Ayala Museum), Manila; American History
Center, Ateneo de Manila University, Manila; Lopez Memorial Library and
Museum, Manila; Jose P. Laurel Library and Museum, Manila;
Magsaysay Library, Manila; Public Record Office, Hong Kong; Arsip
Nasional Republik Indonesia, Jakarta; National Archives of Singapore;
Arkib Negara Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur; National Archives of Myanmar,
Yangon; Archives du Comité international de la Croix-Rouge, Geneva;
NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies, Amsterdam;
Universiteitsbibliotheek, University of Leiden; Nationaal Archief, The
Hague; Archives diplomatiques, La Courneuve; Archives nationales
d’outre-mer, Aix-en-Provence; Archives nationales, Paris; Service
historique de la défense, Vincennes; National Archives, Kew, London;
Imperial War Museum, London; and National Archives and Records
Administration, College Park, MD (especially Eric Van Slander).
We greatly appreciated the support of the University of Heidelberg in
receiving us as visiting researchers in 2014, and thank, in particular,
Kerstin von Lingen of the Cluster of Excellence “Asia and Europe in a
Global Context.” We also thank Barak Kushner of Cambridge University
for inviting us to the 2014 conference “Breakdown of Japanese Empire”;
Wada Hideho, Mike Lan, and Barak Kushner for inviting us to the 2012
conference in Kumamoto on Taiwanese war criminals; and Franziska
Seraphim, Kerstin von Lingen, Wolfgang Form, and Barak Kushner for
inviting us to the 2015 conference “Contested Visions of Justice: Allied
War Crimes Trials in a Global Context, 1943–1958” in Dublin.
We are grateful to Professor Wolfgang Form for granting us access to
the magnificent trials database of the Forschungs-und
Dokumentationszentrum für Kriegsverbrecherprozesse (ICWC) at the
University of Marburg.
We thank Anne-Marie Medcalf for assistance in gaining access to the
French archives.
Our project has benefited greatly from discussions with colleagues
and from their help on particular points: we thank Neil Boister, Nick
Cheesman, Georgina Fitzpatrick, Wolfgang Form, Higurashi Yoshinobu,
Andreas Hilger, Sarah Kovner, Barak Kushner, Mike Lan, Kerstin von
Lingen, Suzannah Linton, Matsuda Kōichirō, Takeshi Moriyama, Narrelle
Morris, Nagai Hitoshi, Sakamoto Kazuto, Franziska Seraphim, Carolyn
Strange, Yuma Totani, and David Wells. We also acknowledge the
helpful comments of the three anonymous reviewers of this manuscript.
We thank our copy editor, Margaret B. Yamashita, for her close and
helpful reading of the final text.