Yuma Totani. Justice in Asia and the Pacific Region, 1945-1952: Allied War Crimes Prosecutions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. 274 pp. ISBN 9781107087620. $75.50.

Abstract

[Extract] In her most recent book, Justice in Asia and the Pacific Region, 1945-1952: Allied War Crimes Prosecutions, Yuma Totani provides an impressive analysis of fourteen trials of senior Japanese military personnel prosecuted by the Allies in the aftermath of the Pacific War. These fourteen trials were part of a massive number of trials conducted by the Allies throughout the Asia-Pacific region from 1945-1952. Those who were convicted of war crimes received either a lengthy jail sentence, or were executed. Although not a stated objective, and perhaps more unwittingly conveyed by Totani, is the inescapable notion that the Pacific War was a collision of colonial interests between Japan and the Allies. Japan belligerently seized territory and resources from the Dutch, the US, the UK, the French, and the Australians to feed its massive war machine in northern China. This rapacious conquest caused a great deal of humiliation for the Allies whom themselves had been the colonial masters throughout the Asia-Pacific for many years. When it came time for the trials, no doubt this humiliation influenced the way the trials were conducted.