The Tokyo trial saw the end of the Japanese Empire's brutal regime it helped lay the foundation for international criminal law and the International Court of Justice and it was only the second time in history an international tribunal sentenced people to prison and To death, but yet it's barely mentioned in history. Today, I seek to change that Japan had been living in a self-imposed isolation for centuries Until 1854 when the USA forced it to open its ports and markets Japanese leaders realizing just how weak they had become compared to the rest of the world created a plan to rapidly westernize modernize and industrialize as Japan's economy grew it soon ran out of the resources to run that modern economy as a result Japan would fight several wars to gain access to foreign resources and eventually taking Over a large part of Asia until its defeat at the hands of Allied powers as the Japanese army moved across Asia It became apparent that they were committing atrocities on a massive scale slave labor comfort women massacres When the tide of war had turned the leaders of various powers came together to declare that the leaders of Japan Will be punished but the details of this were left vague when Japan surrendered The u.s. Came to occupy the island nation and so the question of how Japanese leaders would be punished fell mostly to the USA and The USA decided to largely copy the system used to punish the German leadership after World War two Called the Nuremberg trial it was a military tribunal to prosecute Germany's leaders for war crimes if you want more information, there's a link at the end of this video and so the USA established the International Military Tribunal for the Far East or simply called the Tokyo trial and With that came the question of who would participate in the trial Well, it was decided that only the nine countries who signed the surrender of Japan would get to sit in judgment over Japan as well as India and the Philippines Colonies of the UK and USA respectively who had also been fighting in the war. And so the tribunal would have 11 judges and 11 prosecution teams from each of the 11 countries They came from Australia, India, Canada, China, France Netherlands, New Zealand Philippines Soviet Union, United Kingdom, and the United States The defense however was compromised of 1/4 US lawyers and 3/4 Japanese lawyers Next came the issue of exactly which crimes a person could be indicted for after all, most of the atrocities weren't committed by the men on trial but rather by the soldiers and So it was determined that a person could be indicted for three types of crimes Crimes against peace such as planning preparing or initiating a war war crimes such as violating the rules of war like executing prisoners and crimes against humanity Such as murder enslavement or deportation Someone could be tried for any or all of them however A person would have to at least be indicted for crimes against peace in order to be tried at the Tokyo trial Otherwise, they would be tried at lesser courts for example Yoshio Shima was the ambassador to Germany. This meant that he couldn't have committed war crimes or crimes against humanity But he did help in planning a war thus he was found guilty sentenced to life imprisonment But paroled seven years afterwards he would die in 1975 or take the case of Akira Muto He helped plan several Wars and commanded an army in the Philippines where his troops conducted a long list of atrocities thus he was found guilty on all three types of charges and sentenced to death and Then came the question of how long ago an atrocity could have taken place After all, Japan had been fighting wars since the 19th century Not only would gathering evidence be difficult. The oldest man on trial were teenagers during the first Wars So it was decided that the leaders could only be indicted for crimes committed after 1931 For example pokey Hirota served as foreign minister and Prime Minister before the Second World War But he was still indicted for crimes committed before his retirement Hence, he was still found guilty of crimes against peace and for waging war against China in the 1930s And he was sentenced to death In total 28 men were indicted 18 senior military leaders 9 senior political leaders and one scholar but none of them were from the imperial family The USA determined that having the Emperor on the throne would make occupying and reforming Japan a lot easier so even though the Emperor and his family were co-conspirators in almost all indictments the USA decided against prosecuting the imperial family and Not even the defendants would put any blame on the imperial family as they didn't want to portray the emperor in a negative light If they did comment on the Emperor, then there would only be two outcomes I did they would admit that the Emperor was involved or they would admit that they acted without the Emperor's knowledge and thus committed high treason and so both the prosecution and the defense Avoided the issue altogether But they weren't the only ones who escaped indictment. The leader of Japan's human experimentation unit also wasn't put on trial They performed lethal experiments to test the limits of the human body with methods, too gruesome to mention in this video The USA wanted the research results and so traded the results in exchange for immunity of all members of the unit I left a link in the description with the Wikipedia article for more information But be warned the testimonies are quite gruesome and other websites do have images of the victims Which you probably wish you had never seen The arrests of the 28 men who were indicted didn't happen smoothly though Hideki Tojo attempted to commit suicide by shooting himself in the heart He was prime minister from 1941 to 1944 presiding over most conquests of the Western colonies in Asia as well as various massacres He believed that the war was justified and did not want to submit himself to a foreign tribunal whom they had just fought a war against Hideki Tojo however Missed his heart and was too resuscitated shortly afterwards From then on any arrests would be accompanied by medical professionals. So no war criminal could escape justice by hiding in death Hideki Tojo accepted full responsibility in order to protect the emperor was found guilty and sentenced to death The judges had assembled the defendants were gathered and the lawyers who were ready the trial would take two and a half years During which two defendants died of natural causes in 1946 they were Yosuke Matsuoka a diplomat who was one of the architects of the tripartite pact and admiral Asami Nagano who oversaw the entire Japanese Imperial Navy Another defendant was deemed mentally ill and unfit for trial Chimay Okawa a scholar who was put on trial for his influence over Japan's propaganda program He acted oddly in court such as wearing his pajamas or slapping a fellow defendant on the head He was released from a mental hospital in 1948 Spent his later years translating the Quran into Japanese before passing away in 1957 whether he faked his perfectly timed mental illness remains unknown The trial started with the prosecution presenting its case Spending over six months to present all the evidence against the defendants their job was in DC as soon as the war ended Japan's government ordered all troops to destroy any evidence of atrocities as a result The prosecution couldn't rely on direct orders of atrocities So instead they built their case around the idea that the atrocities were consistent widespread and strikingly similar By proving this the prosecution wanted to show that such acts could have only been committed if the Japanese government had ordered these massacres after all if atrocities were common and Similar, then there would need to be some sort of central authority directing these similar acts But even if that were true that still wouldn't prove that these men on trial were personally responsible Theoretically it was possible that only a few of them directed atrocities while the rest were innocent So the prosecution tried to prove three things for each of the defendant One that the defendants were aware of the atrocities two that the defendants had the power to stop these atrocities and Third that the defendants did nothing to prevent these atrocities And of course there was almost no evidence that these men ordered any atrocities But the prosecution was able to prove to the court that almost all Defendants did nothing to prevent the atrocities while having the power to do so Meaning that they were negligent in their duties to uphold the rules of war as laid out in various treaties before the Second World War the defense lawyers however Fought Anna mentally for their clients with one lawyer being quoted as saying I intend to hang 27 of the accused to save my client They argued that the court wasn't impartial enough with the Philippine judge being a victim of Japanese Brutality who couldn't be impartial in his verdict according to the defense their request to replace the judge however, was denied But they went further Arguing that the trial as a whole did not hold any legitimacy Stating that even if the defendants were negligent in that duty that they couldn't legally be held accountable They pointed out that many of the countries on the tribunal such as France The Netherlands the UK and the USA were only on the tribunal Because they colonized Asia and they colonized Asia through aggressive Wars of their own The defense therefore argued that Japan's Wars were no different than Western Wars So why should Japan be held to a different level of accountability than the rest of the world? The defense also attacked the notion that Japan was fighting wars of aggression Instead they explained that for centuries Europe and the USA had invaded Asia Attacking Japan's neighbors one by one and that Japan was being threatened by Western imperialism They explained that Japan was an isolationist country for 220 years Until those powers forced Japan to open its markets to foreign trade and when Japan was forced to modernize and industrialize to keep up with the invading Western powers Japan had to invade its neighbors for the resources it needed for its survival Just as Western powers had done They argued that the USA cut off oil supplies to Japan. As long as Japan was occupying the mainland of Asia With only two years of oil supplies left Japan was facing extinction. And so Japan was left with only two choices either Japan wasn't going to go to war in which case Japan would certainly perish or They would go to war in which case Japan might perish if they perished without war then Japanese culture would perish as other powers would dominate the island nation But if they perished in war then its people would rebuilt their nation to once more rise to prominence Another time with the USA forcing Japan into these two options Japan chose to go down fighting and So the defense argued the blame of the war did not fall upon Japan But rather the blame of Japan's war against Western nations was the fault of the USA forcing Japan to go to war Therefore it should not be Japan but the USA who should be put on trial There were various versions of this argument made by various defense attorneys, but all of them would follow a similar line of reasoning But when it came to the atrocities committed during the war the stories of the men were very different Some claimed to not have known about them, others claimed that they were justified For example, he won a Matsui was commander of the Shanghai Expeditionary Force during the Nanjing Massacre He defended himself with It is just the same in a family when an elder brother has taken all he can stand from his Ill-behaved younger brother and has to chastise him in order to make him behave properly He was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death While other specified that they did indeed try to stop massacres and therefore weren't guilty. For example Mamoru Shima Gazoo actively tried to prevent war with the Western powers But the prosecution argued that he didn't do enough that he could have stepped down Relinquish power and choose not to remain part of the system the court agreed and sentenced him to seven years in prison He would be paroled after only two years got back into politics and served as foreign minister and Deputy Prime Minister before passing away in 1957 after 225 days of the defense presenting their argument it was time for the judges to determine the innocence or guilt of the 25 remaining Defendants if over half the judges voted a person was guilty then they would be sentenced Out of the 55 different charges which could be brought against any of the defendants the court ruled that 45 of them were either redundant or not authorized by the court and most of the defendants would be acquitted on several charges brought against them a Total of seven defendants were sentenced to death among those not already mentioned were Congedo hara chief of the intelligence services in Manchuria an instrumental for planning, its invasion and occupation He turned Manchuria into a vast criminal enterprise where assault sadism and a long list of other crimes became commonplace Shiro it Iguchi an important figure in the occupation of Manchuria Heitaro Kimura commander of the Burma Area Army who played an important role in the invasions of China and Southeast Asia 18 defendants were sentenced to prison among those not already mentioned were sadao araki served in various Wars before the Second World War sentenced to life imprisonment but was released after seven years due to ill health and passed away in 1966 King Goro Hashimoto major instigator of the second sino-japanese war Sentenced to life imprisonment released seven years later and died in 1957 general Cohutta commander in chief of the China Expeditionary Force which committed wide-scale atrocities and the rest command sentenced to life imprisonment paroled after six and died in 1962 Key Ichiro hero Numa served as prime minister and chief of the Supreme Court of Japan sentenced to life in prison Paroled after four years and died shortly after his release Now key Hoshino as chief secretary of the government. He was highly involved in Japanese war preparations He was sentenced to life imprisonment, but paroled ten years later He would go on to serve as president and chairperson of several companies before passing away in 1978 Oki Nori Kya finance minister He prepared Japan's financial economic and industrial policies for war Sentenced to 20 years in prison and paroled after seven. He rejoined politics and became Minister of Justice after being convicted of war crimes He died in 1977 Koishi Kido one of the closest advisers to the Emperor sentenced to life imprisonment released due to ill health five years later and passed away in 1977 24 years later Kuniaki Kui show governor of Korea sentenced to life in prison where he died two years later Zero minami Minister of War he was sentenced to life imprisonment paroled six years later and died in 1955 Takasumi Oka Minister of the Navy given a life sentence, but was paroled after six years in prison and passed away in 1954 Kenryo Sato chief of the military affairs Bureau sentenced to life imprisonment until his parole eight years later he passed away in 1975 Shigetarō Shimada Minister of the Navy sentenced to life imprisonment paroled after serving seven years and died in 1976 Toshio Shiratoru ambassador to Italy found guilty of conspiring to wage war and sentenced to life imprisonment He died in prison a year later in 1949 Yoshijirō Umezu chief of the army general staff Sentenced to life imprisonment. He also died in prison a year later in 1949. Shigenori Tōgō Minister of Foreign Affairs staunchly against the war with Western powers He repeatedly advocated for both peace before and during the war while he informed his superiors of the war crimes He was aware of the court concluded that he didn't do enough sentenced to 20 years in prison and passed away two years later in 1950 Teiichi Suzuki primary planner of Japan's wartime economy Sentenced to life imprisonment but paroled after serving seven years He briefly rejoined government service and passed away at the age of 100 in 1989 with him died the last of the Tokyo trial defendants The seven men sentenced to death would receive their punishment about six weeks later on December 23rd 1948 The seven men were executed by hanging each dying instantly no photographs were taken of these men after their executions with the leader of the occupation force fearing it would embarrass or antagonize the Japanese people Instead four members of the Allied Council would act as official witnesses their bodies were cremated and so ended the Japanese Imperial regime If you like this video I also made one on the Nuremberg trials which you can click on here If you want to see more videos like this like the video subscribe and press the notification bell
