Emperor Hirohito as the Japanese Kaiser and Selection of the IMTFE Defendants

Babovic, Aleksandra

doi:10.1007/978-981-13-3477-1_6

Aleksandra Babovic⁵

Part of the book series: New Directions in East Asian History ((NDEAH))

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Abstract

The author analyzes the process of selection of Japanese defendants and difficulties the prosecution section has when it comes to the fast-changing Japanese cabinets over the period of 17 years and the lack of evidence. This chapter looks at the nature of selection criteria that the prosecution used and the standard of evidence used to make the case against them. The absence of Emperor Shōwa from the dock and the reasons for the shielding from the trial the only constant source of power and authority in Japan during the war which the prosecution had difficulties finding are studied.

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Notes

1.
MacArthur to JCS, “Enclosure B,” January 24, 1946, JCS 1512/10 in Makoto Iokibe, ed., Occupation of Japan: US Planning Documents, 1942–1945 (Tokyo: Maruzen, 1987), 2-A-120.
2.
Herbert P. Bix, “Hirohito: String Puller, Not Puppet,” New York Times, September 29, 2014.
3.
War Department to SWNCC, “Apprehension and Punishment of War Criminals in the Far East,” Memorandum, September 29, 1945, in Makoto Iokibe, ed., The Occupation of Japan, Part 2: US and Allied Policy, 1945–1952, microfiche, 2A105.
4.
Parliamentary question, Sir Geoffrey Shakespeare, February 2, 1946, F.O. 371/41788. The question was addressed to Mr. Eden, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, on whether the formal warning would be issued, along with the US, against Japan that the procedure agreed at Moscow for Germany will be imposed upon Japan as well. In his reply on February 8, he stated that the punishment of war criminals will follow German scenario.
5.
IDACFE, “Political Problems: Institution of the Emperor,” CAC-93a, May 9, 1944, in Makoto Iokibe, ed., Occupation of Japan: U.S. Planning Documents, 1942–1945 (Tokyo: Maruzen, 1987), microfiche, 2-A-7, NDL.
6.
Ibid.
7.
Foreign Office Minutes, Sir Ashley Clarke, April 23,1944, F.O. 371/41; Bertram D. Hulen, “Tokyo War Lords Guilty, says Grew”, The New York Times, February 1, 1944, FO371/41.
8.
Stimson Diaries, Entry from July 24, 1945 in Henry Lewis Stimson. Diaries. Vol. 52 (New Heaven: Yale University Library, 1973).
9.
Herbert Bix, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan (New York: Harper Collins, 2000), 543–589.
10.
Ibid.
11.
Sellars, “Crimes against Peace” and International Law, 191.
12.
Joint Chiefs of Staff to MacArthur, “Australian First List of Major War Criminals,” JCS 1512/10, January 22, 1946, in Makoto Iokibe, ed., The Occupation of Japan, Part 2: US and Allied Policy, 1945–1952 (Maruzen: Tokyo, 1989), 2-A-120.
13.
Berendsen to Fraser, January 18, 1946, Doc. 651 in Robin Kay, ed., Documents on New Zealand External Relations Volume II: The Surrender and Occupation of Japan, 1508–1509.
14.
Johnson to Byrnes, “Letter of transmittal”, SWNCC 57/12, April 4, 1946, in Makoto Iokibe, ed., The Occupation of Japan, Part 2: US and Allied Policy, 1945–1952, 2-A-118.
15.
Quilliam to Shahanan, Tokyo, April 9, 1946, Doc. 667 in Robin Kay, ed., Documents on New Zealand External Relations Volume II: The Surrender and Occupation of Japan, 1554–1556.
16.
“Australian List of Major Japanese War Criminals (JCS 1512/10)”, Memorandum by the State Member, SWNCC 57/13, August 16, 1946, in Makoto Iokibe, ed., The Occupation of Japan, Part 2: US and Allied Policy, 1945–1952, 2-A-120; 2-A-121.
17.
Lovett to SWNCC/SFE, “Apprehension and Punishment of War Criminals (Japan),” Memorandum, October 10, 1945 in Makoto Iokibe, ed., The Occupation of Japan, Part 2: US and Allied Policy, 1945–1952, 2-A-110.
18.
MacArthur to Joint Chief of Staff, “Enclosure B,” January 24, 1946, JCS 1512/10 in Makoto Iokibe, ed., Occupation of Japan: U.S. Planning Documents, 1942–1945, 2-A-120.
19.
Totani, The Tokyo War Crimes Trials: The Pursuit of Justice in the Wake of World War II, 57.
20.
“Method of presentation”, April 26, 1946, IPS Documents in NARA II, RG331. Washington to Foreign Office, Telegram, June 18, 1946, F.O. 262/2047.
21.
Washington to Foreign Office, Telegram, June 18, 1946, F.O. 262/2047.
22.
Gerry Simpson, 137.
23.
Article 16, “The Rome Statute,” July 28, 2002.
24.
Article 13, “The IMTFE Charter,” April 24, 1946.
25.
James Burnham Sedgwick, “The trial within: Negotiating Justice at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, 1946–1948” (The University of British Columbia, 2012), 63.
26.
Joseph Keenan to Tom Clark, January 2, 1946, IPS Documents in NARA II, RG331.
27.
Foreign Office to Tokyo, Telegram, January 5, 1946, F.O. 262/2041.
28.
Comyns-Carr to Keenan, Memorandum, February 11, 1946, International Prosecution Section Documents in NARA II, RG331.
29.
Higgins to Keenan, “General Policy,” Confidential Memorandum, February 27, 1946, IPS Documents in NARA II, RG 331.
30.
Yuma Totani, The Tokyo War Crimes Trials: The Pursuit of Justice in the Wake of World War II (Cambridge: Harvard University Press), 66.
31.
Awaya Kentarō, Tōkyō Saiban e no Michi, Vol.1 (Tokyo: Kodansha, 2006), 193–194.
32.
Awaya Kentarō, “Selecting Defendants for the Trial,” 56 in Neil Boister and Robert Cryer, eds., The Tokyo Military Tribunal: A Reappraisal (Leiden: Brill, 2011).
33.
John W. Dower, Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II (New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1999), 481.
34.
Sellars, “Crimes against Peace” and International Law, 190–191.
35.
Awaya Kentarō, “Selecting Defendants for the Trial,” 52 in Boister and Cryer, The Tokyo Military Tribunal: A Reappraisal.
36.
Ibid.
37.
Solis Horwitz, “The Tokyo Trial,” International Conciliation 465 (November 1950), 494.
38.
Dower, Embracing Defeat, 480–481.
39.
Ibid., 482–483.
40.
Awaya Kentarō, “Selecting Defendants for the Trial,” 52 in Boister and Cryer, The Tokyo Military Tribunal: A Reappraisal, 52.
41.
Dower, Embracing Defeat, 482.
42.
Watt, “Historical Introduction,” xvii.
43.
Quilliam to McIntosh, Tokyo, April 24, 1946, Doc. 669 in Robin Kay, ed., Documents on New Zealand External Relations Volume II: The Surrender and Occupation of Japan, 1559–1564.
44.
Ibid., 1562.
45.
Lyal S. Sunga, The Emerging System of International Criminal Law: Developments in Codification and Implementation (The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 1997), 7.

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Osaka University, Osaka, Japan
Aleksandra Babovic

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Babovic, A. (2019). Emperor Hirohito as the Japanese Kaiser and Selection of the IMTFE Defendants. In: The Tokyo Trial, Justice, and the Postwar International Order. New Directions in East Asian History. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3477-1_6

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3477-1_6
Published: 05 January 2019
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-3476-4
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-3477-1
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