What happened in the Tokyo trials?

The Tokyo War Crimes Trials took place from May 1946 to November 1948. The IMTFE found all remaining defendants guilty and sentenced them to punishments ranging from death to seven years’ imprisonment; two defendants died during the trial.

What was the purpose of the Tokyo trial?

The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), also known as the Tokyo Trial or the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, was a military trial convened on April 29, 1946, to try the leaders of the Empire of Japan for joint conspiracy to start and wage war (categorized as “Class A” crimes).

Is Tokyo Trial a true story?

A four-part series, Tokyo Trial tells the real-life story of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, also known as the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, set up to try the leaders, politicians including Prime Ministers, foreign ministers and military commanders of Japan for waging a war against China and for war …

How many Japanese were prosecuted for war crimes?

In addition to the central Tokyo trial, various tribunals sitting outside Japan judged some 5,000 Japanese guilty of war crimes, of whom more than 900 were executed.

Who was tried during the Tokyo Trials?

One week after the surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945, General Douglas MacArthur—the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers—ordered the arrests of Japanese suspects, including General Hideki Tojo. Twenty-eight defendants, mostly Imperial military officers and government officials, were charged.

How many Japanese were executed?

Why was Japan not punished for war crimes?

Airmen of the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service and Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service were not included as war criminals because there was no positive or specific customary international humanitarian law that prohibited the unlawful conduct of aerial warfare either before or during World War II.

Why was Japan not tried for war crimes?

Was Pearl Harbor a war crime?

The war crimes prosecutors looked to Article 1 of the 1907 Hague Convention III – The Opening of Hostilities. According to the article, an attack performed “without previous and explicit warning” was against international law. The Kellog-Briand Pact of 1928 also deems the attack on Pearl Harbor as an illegal act.

Did the Japanese eat POWs?

JAPANESE troops practised cannibalism on enemy soldiers and civilians in the last war, sometimes cutting flesh from living captives, according to documents discovered by a Japanese academic in Australia. He has also found some evidence of cannibalism in the Philippines.

How many Japanese officers were executed?

In total almost 1000 Japanese former leaders and generals were executed for their role in the atrocities and war crimes.

Did Japanese throw prisoners overboard?

The crew of a different Japanese carrier, Makigumo, picked him up. A postwar investigation found Japanese accounts that said he was interrogated and then thrown overboard with weights attached to his feet, drowning him.

When did the Tokyo Trials start and end?

He established the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, with trials set to begin in May 1946 in Tokyo. Based on the precedents set at Nuremberg (see reading, Establishing the Nuremberg Tribunal ), the Far East tribunal indicted 28 Japanese military and civilian leaders for war crimes,…

When was the 60th anniversary of the Tokyo Tribunal?

Approaching the 60th anniversary of the opening of the Tokyo Tribunal in 2006, public opinion was divided over Prime Minister Koizumi’s visits to Yasukuni Shrine. One reason for opposition to the visit was that Tokyo Tribunal Class A war criminals are enshrined there.

Who was tried for war crimes in Tokyo?

The Tokyo War Crimes Trials (1946-48): Notes, Selected Links & Bibliography by Shira Megerman TOKYOWAR CRIMES TRIALS The International Military Tribunal for the Far East MAY 3, 1946toNOVEMBER 12, 1948 All Japanese Class A war criminals were tried by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE)in Tokyo.

Why was the Tokyo Trials called Victor’s Justice?

Why might Justice Pal (who, while never denying the wartime atrocities committed by Japan, still voted to acquit the defendants) have seen the Tokyo trials as “victor’s justice”? Some people in Japan felt that the trials should have been conducted in Japanese courts, rather than by the International Military Tribunal.