The Japanese Military’s Attitude Towards International Law and the Treatment of Prisoners of War

Abstract

The famous scholar of international law, Sir Hersch Lauterpacht, has characterized the war crimes committed during the Second World War in the following terms: The Second World War witnessed war crimes, on a scale unprecedented in history, on the part of Germany and, to a lesser extent, of some of her allies.... on the part of Japan the main source of war crimes lay in her inhuman treatment of Prisoners of War/1 After the war, the Allied Powers established 49 war crimes courts based on Article 10 of the Potsdam Declaration, which promised that stern justice would be meted out to all war criminals, including those who had mistreated prisoners of war (POWs). Among the 5472 Japanese war criminals brought to justice by these tribunals, 4353 were found guilty, and 920 were sentenced to death.2 In 36 per cent of these cases, the tribunals made their charges on crimes related to the killing, mistreatment, and mistreatment causing the death of POWs.3