"The Philippine Campaign through the Lens of ...." Topic

….Post-WWII Allied War Crimes Trials.

"In this excerpt from Justice in Asia and the Pacific Region, 1945-1952, Yuma Totani explores the impacts of WWII as the Allied powers brought war crimes trials against the Japanese. The pursuit of justice shed new light on war in the Philippines.

"We do not intend that the Japanese shall be enslaved as a race or destroyed as a nation, but stern justice shall be meted out to all war criminals, including those who have visited cruelties upon our prisoners." To give effect to this particular term as stipulated in the Instrument of Surrender, the Allied Powers established in central Tokyo in January 1946 the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE) to begin prosecuting major Japanese war criminals. More than 2,240 Allied war crimes trials, too, were concurrently held at 51 separate locations in the Asia-Pacific region. Three of the four successive commanding generals of the Japanese army that invaded and occupied the Philippines were among the accused: Lt. Gen. Honma Masaharu, commander the 14th Army at the time of the initial invasion of the Philippines (December 1941 – August 1942); Lt. Gen. Kuroda Shigenori, holding the same position in the 14th Army and subsequently heading the 14th Area Army (May 1943 – September 1944); and Gen. Yamashita Tomoyuki, commander-in-chief of the 14th Area Army to fight the losing battles against the American assault forces in the last months of the war (October 1944 – September 1945). The U.S. military commission tried, convicted, and sentenced to death Honma and Yamashita on charges of war crimes (1945-1946), while Kuroda was tried, convicted, and sentence to life in prison similarly on charges of war crimes by the Philippine military commission (1948-1949). Gen. Tanaka Shizuichi, who commanded the 14th Army between Honma's and Kuroda's tenure, was not subject to war crimes investigation or trial, as he committed suicide at the end of the war…."
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Amicalement
Armand

Really fascinating information! A fairly long read for a post to TMP, but well worth it to any student of the Pacific War and the Philippines in particular.

Honest legal questions were raised about aspects of the war crimes trials, particularly that of Yamashita, but the alternative to these would have been no punishment or justice at all for the possibly one million murdered Filipino's, not to mention atrocities committed against Americans, military and civilian.

Might have to get this book, even in my old age….

TVAG

Happy you enjoyed it my friend!. (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

Many only think about the Nurnberg trails, where in the PTO there were many members of the IJFs that were tried. And later executed as well. I've heard the numbers were larger than those of German/Nazi war criminals ? But I don't have any facts to back that up at this time. Sadly some that should have been executed on both fronts, escaped well deserved justice.

The Nuremburg trials had only 24 defendants. In total I think about 1,000 Japanese were executed as a result of all the war crimes trials that went on in a number of countries up until the Australians finished up their last case in 1951.

In Europe a heap of countries prosecuted Nazi war criminals – in Poland alone they set up tribunals in September 1944 and these were still going in 1949 – they tried about 5,000 people alone. I think they found about 3,000 guilty and hung about 500 or so. The Norwegians tried and executed 13 Germans for war crimes and tried and shot about 25 Quislings from 1946 – 48. This sort of thing was going on all over Europe, so I don't think that more Japanese ended up getting prosecuted and punished than German/Nazi/Fascists.

A further interesting example is what occurred at the Belgrade Trials, wherein the Luftwaffe General Alexander Lohr was found guilty and executed for the mass murder of Yugoslavian civilians – this was for the carpet bombing of Belgrade in 1941. His was an exception to the whole judicial standard of the bombing of cities.

Thank you for verification.

The US did a series of 12 additional trials at Nürnberg after the intial IMT trial. But even when you add in the trials in other nations more of the war crimminals escaped than faced justice considering just how vast the crimes had been.