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Tokyo Trials: Justice Achieved?

Tokyo Trials: Justice Achieved? . Brooke Rutner. International Military Tribunal of the Far East (IMTFE).

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Tokyo Trials: Justice Achieved?

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  1. Tokyo Trials: Justice Achieved? Brooke Rutner

  2. International Military Tribunal of the Far East (IMTFE).. An international tribunal composed of eleven different countries,The aim was to bring justice to victims. Doing so by, reckoning with the past. This is was said to pave the way for a peaceful and democratic Japan. Strongly influenced by Nuremberg Trials Active role in compiling important historical records, that documents were crucial to the trial for identifying individuals guilty of human rights violations (The Japanese government had attempted to burn these files before the occupation)

  3. Main Accusations: Crimes against PeaceMurderConventional war crimesCrimes against humanityIll treatment of POW

  4. The Trial Predictably, there were opposition to these accusations…The Japanese government denied the responsibility for the Nanjing Massacre (while admitting the events took place, there was the refusal to take responsibility for such events)Denial of conspiring to dominate the Asia-Pacific region.(although evidence revealed that this had been a major since 1928, when it became part of the Japanese government policy)

  5. Verdict The Japanese military, along with it's supporters(conspirators), were found guilty of serious war crimes and atrocities. Responsibility was given to leaders who had either 'secretly ordered or willfully permitted' such atrocitiesIndividuals involved were charged with crimes against peace Out of the fifty-five separate counts of crimes, the number was reduced to seventeen

  6. Main question: Was the IMTFE successful in achieving their claimed goal? Goal : To bring justice to victims, To reckon with the past which was said to pave the way for a future peaceful and democratic Japan. Contemporary Japan in fact is more or less a peaceful democracy, but do the Japanese credit the IMTFE for this outcome ?

  7. A Divided Public Opinion Leftwing Liberals: Thankful for the IMTFE. Credited them for unveiling truth, claiming they were a major force of a democratic and demilitarized Japan. Yet felt that the IMTFE should have done more to pursue postwar justiceRightwing Conservatives: Strongly opposed. Resent the IMTFE being the cause of Japan s label as a criminal nation.

  8. Grounds for Opposition The tribunal choose to ignore:Emperor Hirohito was not called trialed Major human rights violations of China (such as: Human experiments conducted by Unit 731, alleged use of biological and chemical warfare)Wartime sufferings of the Japanese colonial subjects in Korea and TaiwanThose imprisoned by the IMTFE were pardoned by 1956, when the US sought Japan as an ally in the Cold War.

  9. Outcome: Partial Justice The points listed for the grounds for opposition raise suspicion for hidden motives of the IMTFE. The Tokyo Trials resulted in symbolic closure, yet it can not be proven that their involvement created a real tangible difference.

  10. Sources • MadokaFutamura (2008) • War Crimes Tribunals and Transitional Justice: Tokyo Trials and the Nuremberg Legacy . New York. RoutledgeInternational Military Tribunal for the Far East (2006). , United Nations University, Japan

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