The Question of Complicity: Japan’s Early Postures toward War Crimes and War Responsibility in the Aftermath of the Second World War

Abstract

Building on research completed for my book (Men to Devils, Devils to Men: Japanese War Crimes and Chinese Justice) concerning how the Chinese dispensed justice for Japanese war crimes in China, this chapter considers the roots of law and the idea of war responsibility in East Asia that fed into this postwar push toward the use of war crimes trials to resolve postimperial conflicts. What ideology underpinned the pursuit of justice in China and Japan and how did this movement react to the political forces at the time? In Japan the immediate postwar period saw political and military moves to stymie the war crimes process as the means to protect the “imperial polity,” frequently just a stand-in term for “military embarrassment.” Likewise, the early postwar social debates about war responsibility were not limited to analyzing war crimes but rather focused on the issue of military loss. When did this shift occur and what were the parties that mobilized behind such action? This chapter will illuminate these issues and focus on early postwar Japanese attempts to shape the postwar conversation about justice in a manner that suited wartime military goals and civilian aims.