The Tokyo Trial of Major War Criminals begins on May 3, 1946
If we are to judge for the outbreak of wars, then we should start with the main driving force of armed conflicts - politicians. However, they themselves consider such a formulation of the question unacceptable, because, from their point of view, they go to bloodshed only proceeding from the good of their country and the highest national interests. Perhaps for this very reason, only 11 states took part in the trial of Japanese war criminals, although there were much more victims of aggression and appropriate invitations were sent to all of them.
Of course, the Tokyo Tribunal looked like a farce and its organizers could not understand this - less than a year before the start of the trial, the Americans killed more than two hundred thousand people with nuclear bombings and they also tried the Japanese for war crimes. However, the winners - first of all, this refers to the USA and Great Britain - did not care much about the external resonance of the initiated process. And here's why: The Tokyo International Tribunal made it possible not only to legally consolidate the results of World War II in the Far East, but also to evade responsibility for their own crimes.
Added to this is another important political factor. The Tokyo Tribunal begins its work in May 1946, that is, two months after Winston Churchill made a speech in Fulton, where the Cold War and the new strategy of the West towards the USSR originate.
For example, the delegation of the Soviet Union did not look for trouble either with the American, much less with its own bosses. However, as soon as relations between Truman and Stalin deteriorated, our representatives were excommunicated both from free meals and from attached vehicles. From that moment on, everything had to be paid in dollars. That is, the American occupation authorities have shown who is the boss. Rough, of course, but clear and intelligible.
In the spring of 1946, political contradictions between the USSR and the Anglo-American bloc intensified markedly. However, despite this, on May 3, the "clockwork" of the Tokyo Tribunal was launched. The countdown has begun for the main defendants. The topic of "Tokyo showdown" will invariably appear in newspapers and magazines of that time and attract the attention of people around the world for two and a half years.
Why did Japan, unlike, for example, another Hitler ally, Italy, come under the tribunal? The reason is not only the military defeats that are painful for the national self-consciousness. Japan has deprived its adversaries of many overseas territories of strategic importance, moreover, rich in natural resources. The Second World War, among other things, was another attempt to redistribute colonies between the already established metropolises and a new maritime power, which Japan turned into on the eve of the war, with a claim to foreign possessions in the Pacific basin.
In general, the "scenario" of the Tokyo process was the same as that of the Nuremberg. Accordingly, the sentences handed down to the defendants in November 1948 were predicted. The only difference is that the Tokyo Tribunal was "more generous" in terms of life sentences.
There were 55 counts in the indictment. These are general accusations against all defendants and each individually, including crimes against peace, murder, crimes against the customs of war and against humanity. In total, during the process, 949 court sessions were held, at which 4356 documentary evidence and 1194 testimony were considered.
In total, there were 28 accused at the Tokyo trial. True, two of them - Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka and Admiral Osami Nagano did not live to see the shame prepared for them and died of natural causes during the trial. Another, Shumei Okawa, began to show signs of mental illness and was expelled from the number of the accused.
The protracted trial gave the defendants a vague hope that, due to the aggravated contradictions between the Anglo-Americans and the Soviet Union, the tribunal would not complete its work and collapse just like the coalition of victorious countries. However, this did not happen. Seven high-ranking defendants were sentenced to death, 16 to life imprisonment.
The tribunal turned out to be the most humane to the diplomats who at one time represented the interests of Japan in the Soviet Union. Perhaps this became a hidden form of gratitude, emanating from the Soviet government, for the fact that the Japanese Empire did not fight the USSR and thereby contributed to the defeat of its main ally, Germany. Shigenori Togo (Ambassador to the USSR in 1938-1941, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister for Greater East Asia in 1945) was sentenced to 20 years in prison and died in prison in 1949, Mamoru Shigemitsu (Ambassador to the USSR in 1936 - 1938, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan in 1943-1945, Minister of Great East Asia in 1944-1945) received seven years, in 1950 he was pardoned and subsequently became Minister of Foreign Affairs again.
There were no acquittals at all. There were three of them at the Nuremberg trials. But within eight years, 13 people sentenced to life imprisonment will be pardoned (three died in prison).
From the standpoint of international law of that time, the statutes of the tribunals are flawed - these were the trials of victors over the vanquished. But if you go back to those years and remember the British proposal to commit extrajudicial reprisals against the leaders of the Axis countries, then the establishment of the tribunals will appear to be a very humane and lawful act, not to mention the impact on the progressive development of international law. Its modern basis, be it the conventions of the UN and its specialized agencies or the statutes of international tribunals (for example, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court), is based on the Nuremberg and Tokyo Rules. For the first time, they provide a clear definition of war crimes, crimes against peace and against humanity.
The lessons of Nuremberg and Tokyo are remembered in connection with the tragic events of the last two years - the mass destruction of civilians in Novorossiya. Politician Oleksandr Kofman is confident that the Kiev authorities will face a fair punishment by analogy with the post-war tribunals. When he was the head of the DPR Foreign Ministry, he said: “We are doing everything to convey to the Western countries that they support the Nazi government in Ukraine. And sooner or later our documents will find their place in the international criminal court”.
