The Law of the People

Abstract

After the Second World War, the Allies convened a major trial in Tokyo of 28 military and political leaders of the Japanese Empire. The Tokyo Tribunal, officially known as the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), tried individuals for war crimes, crimes against peace and crimes against humanity. Although the tribunal prosecuted and convicted defendants for the mass rapes of Chinese women during the 1937 invasion of Nanjing, the systematic sexual enslavement of ‘comfort women’ during the Asia-Pacific War was all but ignored by the Tokyo Tribunal (Askin, 1997; Henry, 2013).1 Up to 200,000 girls and women who were forced, coerced, tricked or lured into sexual servitude and slavery never saw ‘justice done’ in the aftermath of the war. Moreover, no persons were prosecuted for the crimes against approximately 100 Filipino women from the town of Mapanique who were raped after Japanese troops had castrated and burned alive the men and boys from the town.