historyWikipedia1948 · Tokyo, Japan

Tokyo's war crimes tribunal sentenced seven Japanese leaders to death

the gist

On 12 November 1948 the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo sentenced seven Japanese military and government officials to death for their roles in World War II, including General Hideki Tojo, who had been prime minister during most of the war. The tribunal was set up by the Allied powers after Japan's surrender and ran alongside the Nuremberg trials in Germany. Defendants faced charges including crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Many others received prison sentences. The seven condemned men were hanged in December 1948.

so what

The trials set a precedent that leaders can be held personally accountable for waging aggressive war, a principle that shaped later international criminal law. They also remain disputed in Japan and elsewhere: one judge, India's Radhabinod Pal, dissented and argued that the defendants should all be acquitted, and critics noted the emperor was not prosecuted.

the bigger pattern

Nuremberg and Tokyo were the first major trials of this kind, and they were followed by tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda in the 1990s and by the permanent International Criminal Court.

fun fact

The tribunal was made up of judges from eleven countries, including India and the Philippines.

more on this

background

The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), also known as the Tokyo Trial and the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, was a military trial convened on April 29, 1946, to try leaders of the Empire of Japan for their crimes against peace, conventional war crimes, and crimes against humanity, leading up to and during World War II. The IMTFE was modeled after the International Military Tribunal (IMT) at Nuremberg, Germany, which prosecuted the leaders of Nazi Germany for their war crimes, crimes against peace, and crimes against humanity.

From Wikipedia: International Military Tribunal for the Far East (CC BY-SA 4.0) ↗ · text CC BY-SA 4.0

Adapted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Raymond D’Addario, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons