Behind the Scenes at the Tokyo Tribunal, 3 May 1946–12 November 1948

Abstract

Since World War II ended in May 1945, few topics related to the war or its consequences have attracted more attention than the famous Nuremberg War Crime Trials. Eagerly, hundreds of historians have used the trials as a vehicle for demonstrating Germany's collective war guilt and for fingering those individuals, primarily Germans, who were most responsible for Germany's numerous war crimes. On the other hand, far fewer historians have examined the relative “war guilt” of other Axis countries, in particular, the Japanese Empire. This article begins to redress this historical imbalance by providing a virtual ‘insiders’ view of the Tokyo War Crimes Trials, which were conducted from 1946 to 1948. In addition to exploiting fresh archival materials to reveal unprecedented details about the trials themselves, the article also provides keen insights regarding the political context of the trials, that is, how and why the Allied Powers conducted the trials as they did.