70th Anniversary of Tokyo War Tribunal

May 3^rd is broadly known as the day Constitution of Japan was activated in 1947. But, the day is also memorized as the beginning of Tokyo War Tribunal in 1946. Asahi Shimbun quoted the words of a scholar that evaluated the tribunal: “The last act of the war, the first act of the peace.” Putting a period on their history of bureaucratic despotism, the Japanese embarked on the road of democracy with the tribunal.

Tokyo War Tribunal started on May 3^rd, 1946, and ended on November 12^th, 1948, with sentencing penalties to the leaders of Imperial Japan. Eleven judges, selected from United States, Soviet Union or other war winners, investigated war crimes exercised in the period between January, 1928, when Japan started aggressive policy, and September, 1945, when Japan signed a document of surrender.

According to Asahi coverage, Japanese war criminals were separated into three categories, based on London Agreement in August 1945. Ordinary war crimes including murder of prisoners or hostages were categorized as B-Class. The judges added two other classes that were new category of war crime. One was A-Class crime against peace, which planned or started aggressive war. Another was C-Class crime against humanity, which included massacre of ordinary people.

There were 28 A-Class defendants, including Hideki Tojo, the Prime Minister at the time of starting the war. 25 defendants were sentenced guilty and 7 of them were hanged. The act of war by United Nations, such as dropping atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was not subject of the tribunal. Emperor Hirohito was not listed in the defendants with consideration for smooth occupation governance.

Through the testimony of war witnesses, the Japanese people realized true aspect of the war. Nanjing Massacre was one of the greatest surprises for ordinary Japanese. Anger against Japanese military that had been concealing the facts swelled. The Japanese also recognized the war as aggressive. The war had internally been explained as a war for self-defense. But, the tribunal determined it to be an aggressive war. Although frustration against ambiguous definition of aggression existed among Japanese people, Prime Minister Tomi-ichi Murayama recognized the war as aggressive and officially apologized in 1995.

Right wing movement still refuses historiography of Tokyo War Tribunal. They criticize Murayama’s statement of apology as masochistic. However, there would be no eyebrow-raising economic growth in Japan without evaluating what the Japanese did in the war. Tokyo War Tribunal has to be recognized as the starting point of peaceful modern Japan.