Chapter 38 02. Gains and losses of the Tokyo Trial

On August 15, 1945, the Japanese Emperor issued an imperial edict accepting the "Potsdam Proclamation" and announcing unconditional surrender.The Great Japanese Empire, known as "long-lasting martial arts", finally became immobile like meat on a chopping board.The Japanese appreciate carp's fearlessness, are they really like that? Soon, on September 10, 1945, the first list of 38 war criminals was confirmed, all of which were Japan's former "imperial elites", and former Prime Minister Hideki Tojo topped the list. On the afternoon of September 12, when the U.S. military arrived at Tojo’s home to arrest him, Tojo fired a shot at the circle on his chest, but missed (the heart was deformed in a long strip).Hearing the gunshots, the U.S. military rushed into the house and saw him lying on a chair, asking for water like a "pig strong", and after drinking more, his painful face was distorted, and he was still talking: "It took so long to die , I am so sorry. The Great East Asian War was legitimate and just. I am sorry for our country and all the peoples of the countries of Great East Asia. I do not want to be tried in the court of the conquerors. I wait for the just verdict of history." Tojo said that these are not No, it's annoying if he can still talk!Is it that hard to kill yourself?Just learn from Anan, but just do harakiri.What a "do not live up to expectations" guy!Draw a good circle to aim, all missed!This is enough to show that demons are as afraid of death as ordinary people.Tojo was sent to the hospital in time to be revived.

You are not allowed to die when you commit suicide, you are judged according to your crime, and you are dealt with only after you hear the verdict.The Americans taught the Japanese a vivid lesson in justice. On January 19, 1946, with the authorization of the Allies, MacArthur, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Japan, promulgated the "Special Notice" and the "Charter of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East", announcing the formal establishment of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo, preparing to try Japanese war criminals.

On April 29, 1946, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East formally prosecuted 28 Class A war criminals including Hideki Tojo.A day later, the indictment was sent to the full defendants. On May 3, the court held its first public meeting and began to try the crimes committed by Hideki Tojo and other war criminals. From the 3rd to the 4th, Chief Prosecutor Ji Nan read out the 42-page indictment, counting the crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the accused from January 1, 1928 to September 2, 1945 Wait. When the judges of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East were selected, only nine countries were eligible to send judges.There is only one truly Asian country among them, and that is China.In order to show that this is a trial belonging to Asians, judges from the Philippines and India were added, so that 11 countries have sent judges.The judge sent by China is Mr. Mei Ruao, a jurist studying in the United States.

The "Tokyo Trial" has been protracted.The International Military Tribunal for the Far East was established on January 19, 1946. After nearly three years of trial, the verdict was completed on November 12, 1948.Looking back on the past, there has never been a country in history that has changed China's history as profoundly as Japan.We sat down at the judgment seat bruised and bruised, but the judgment was not used to us. Therefore, China's initial preparations for the "Tokyo Trial" were not meticulous.So much so that Qin Dechun, the former deputy commander of the 29th Army, had no words to answer on the witness stand. When the judge asked him to cite the atrocities committed by the Japanese army, he said: "The Japanese army burned, killed, looted, and committed all kinds of crimes." Repeat: "The Japanese army burned, killed, looted, and committed all kinds of crimes." The judge was so angry that he almost threw him down.Compared with ordinary people, the "emperor" Puyi performed well. He appeared in court for eight consecutive days to give evidence, portraying Manchuria's "emperor's career" vividly and vividly, and his calm performance provided strong evidence. After all, the "emperor" is not in vain!

At the later stage of the trial, the judges had a heated debate on the sentencing of war criminals. Among the 11 judges of the Far East Military Tribunal, many of them lived in countries that did not suffer too much aggression and trampling by the Japanese army during World War II. Judges disapprove of imposing the death penalty on war criminals because the domestic criminal law has abolished the death penalty, and some judges oppose the execution of heinous war criminals on humanitarian grounds. Mei Ruao proved the atrocities committed by the Japanese army with sufficient evidence. For example, in the Nanjing Massacre alone, the Japanese army used heinous atrocities such as beheading, heart-digging, drowning, burning, cutting off limbs, and genital mutilation. The German army's method of simply using poison gas to kill people in Auschwitz concentration camp was extremely cruel.

In view of this, Mei Ru'ao advocated that the chief criminal of the Japanese army must be sentenced to death.Under Mei Ru'ao's generous statement and reasoning, 11 judges voted on the issue of the death penalty. The result was a slight advantage of 6 votes to 5 votes, and seven major war criminals including Kenji Doihara, the chief culprit of the Nanjing Massacre Sent to the gallows. A passage from Mei Ru'ao may give people a deeper understanding of what war and history are: "I am not a revanchist, and I have no intention of writing the blood debt owed to us by Japanese militarism on the Japanese people's account. However, I believe that forgetting the sufferings of the past may invite future disasters."

There were initially 28 defendants in the Tokyo Trial, but former Japanese Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka and former Navy Admiral Nagano Siki died of illness, and Zhou Ming Okawa pretended to be crazy, so a total of 25 people were finally sentenced. Seven war criminals were sentenced to death by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East: Hideki Tojo, Koki Hirota, Kenji Doihara, Seishiro Itagaki, Heutaro Kimura, Iwane Matsui, and Akira Muto. In the early morning of December 23, 1948, seven war criminals including Hideki Tojo were hanged on the death rack in Sugamo Prison in Tokyo.Before their execution, they all shouted loudly: "Long live the Emperor!" For the seven of them, this ending was like the last line of "Infernal Affairs": You choose!

In addition to the 7 people sentenced to hang, the Far East International Military Tribunal sentenced 16 people to life imprisonment: Araki Sadao, Hashimoto Kingoro, Hata Shunroku, Hiranuma Kiichiro, Hoshino Naoki, Kaya Konobu, Kido Koichi, Ko Akira Isokuni, Nanjiro, Keijun Oka, Hiroshi Oshima, Kenro Sato, Shigetaro Shimada, Toshio Shiratori, Yoshijiro Umezu, Teiichi Suzuki; two people were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment: Matoku Togo 20 years and Aoi Shigemitsu 7 years. Since mid-December 1945, China has also established a military court to try war criminals.By the end of 1947, military tribunals had accepted 2,435 war criminal cases, 318 of which had been judged, 661 of which were not prosecuted, and 110 of which were sentenced to death by the Ministry of National Defense.Among them, one of the chief culprits of the Nanjing Massacre, Hisao Tani, the commander of the Sixth Division of the Japanese Army, was sentenced to death and bound to Nanjing Zhonghua Gate for execution.

Later, due to the foreign policy shift of the United States, the United States adopted a leniency policy towards Japanese war criminals.By April 7, 1958, all war criminals who had not served their sentences had been pardoned. Afterwards, some war criminals and ex-purged persons held public office again.Nobusuke Kishi, a class-A war criminal known as the "Monster of Showa", also served as the prime minister. "About half of his cabinet members have been purged from ministers to chief executives."In his memoirs, Kishi proudly said: "I started the Liberal Democratic Party, and the fate of Japan can only be controlled by the Liberal Democratic Party." This is a mockery of justice.It can also be seen from this that right-wing forces are still rampant in Japan.

Why are Japan's anti-fascist measures not in place?The biggest reason is to keep the emperor. After World War II, the five-star general MacArthur, the commander-in-chief of the US military stationed in Japan, became the "overlord" of Japan, and he reformed Japan according to his own intentions. At the end of September 1945, someone made an appointment to see MacArthur.It was Emperor Hirohito who came. On the morning of the 27th, he came out of the palace, dressed in a tuxedo, striped pants, and a top hat, and went to MacArthur's residence.It is rare for the emperor to come out to meet people in person, and it cannot be said that there is no precedent.When Puyi visited Japan when he was the "Emperor of Manchukuo", the Emperor also went to the station to greet him.But this time the mentality is completely different, the last time was to welcome the puppet, this time to see if I can still be a puppet.

Emperor Hirohito came to MacArthur's living room under the guidance of the staff, and two unfamiliar men met.MacArthur took out an American cigarette and handed it over. The emperor quickly accepted the gift with both hands, and MacArthur stepped forward to light it for him himself.At that moment, he was surprised to see the hands of the supreme ruler of Japan trembling!The emperor may have dreaded the punishment he would receive. In fact, MacArthur had long planned to "coerce the emperor to order Japan", not to punish the emperor, but to use the emperor's prestige in the hearts of the Japanese to maximize the interests of the United States.Seeing the great power of the emperor, he ordered more than 3 million Japanese soldiers to put down their weapons and surrender obediently, so he must not deal with the emperor. After a while, the emperor spoke: "General MacArthur, I have come to you to accept the judgments of the countries you represent. I have made all political and military decisions and all actions taken by my country in this war. , take full responsibility.” This statement was shocking.The emperor still had courage, at least he showed courage, perhaps he wanted to test MacArthur's cards. MacArthur was obviously moved by the emperor's "sincerity" and should redeem the courageous person. He immediately confirmed that the Japanese could cooperate and share the arduous mission of transforming Japan.Therefore, the emperor was let go, he was not guilty. The problem came out. The Japanese soldiers believed that I was fighting for the emperor. He was not guilty, and we were not guilty. We did not reflect. As a result, many Japanese war criminals were pardoned.Shigeru Yoshida, the first prime minister of Japan after the war, was the Consul General in Fengtian in 1928. He participated in the Huanggutun incident that killed Zhang Zuolin. He was involved in many plots to invade China.When he was in Hideki Tojo's cabinet, he was the Minister of Industry and Commerce and the Minister of Colonial Affairs. He resigned because he opposed war with Britain and the United States.Ordinarily, this person has committed a heinous crime against China, but because he opposes war with Britain and the United States, nothing has happened, and he has served as prime minister for a long time. How unreasonable it is!Germany is an anti-Nazi fighter and Japan is a war criminal.Therefore, the lingering poison of Japanese militarism has not been eliminated. Some people are always worried that the ghost of Japanese militarism will linger, and some people hope that the world will use justice and fairness to argue the right and wrong.However, people in some places don't have that temperament, and they don't like this, what do you think should be done?It is still the old ancestor's saying: Tian Xingjian, a gentleman strives for self-improvement!