Chapter 19 Mei Ru'ao: The Lonely Judge (2)

At the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, the China Liaison Officer of the Allied Supreme Command hosted a welcome banquet for Judge Mei.At the banquet, Gu Yuxiu, who was then the deputy minister of education of the national government and the president of the National Central University, presented Mei Ru with a luxuriously decorated sword.Mei Ru'ao bowed deeply, and received the sword with both hands above her head.He said: "'Red powder is given to a beautiful woman, and a sword is given to a strong man'. Unfortunately, I am not a strong man, and I am ashamed to accept it." Gu Yuxiu said: "On behalf of the 450 million Chinese people and millions of compatriots who died, you came here to invade the country. The capital of the country to punish the culprit. The most heroic thing in the world, this is the most. If you are not a strong man, whoever is a strong man will be a strong man!"

After listening, Mei Ruao drew his sword out of its sheath, and said emotionally: "There is often a saying in operas, "Shang Fang's sword, cut first and play later". Now it is the era of the rule of law, we must first judge and then kill. Otherwise, I really want to kill a few of them first, Fang Xue The hatred in my heart... These war criminals must be severely punished, otherwise, I can’t comfort the millions of compatriots who died unjustly. Since I have been entrusted by the people of the country, I will try my best to act according to the law, and I will definitely not let the culprit of the war escape the law!"

The "strong man" fulfilled his promise.In this large-scale trial, which lasted two and a half years and was rare in the judicial history of mankind, among the 28 Japanese Class A war criminals who were tried, except for two who died of illness in prison and one whose trial was terminated due to mental illness, Hideki Tojo 7 people including Koki Hirota, Iwane Matsui, Kenji Doihara, Seishiro Itagaki, Akira Muto, and Heutaro Kimura were sentenced to hang, 16 people including Yoshijiro Umezu were sentenced to life imprisonment, and 2 people were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment. Today, the manuscript of the Tokyo Trial Judgment donated by Mei Ru’ao’s relatives and the legal robe that Mei Ru’ao ​​wore at that time have been collected in the National Museum.

The words of this impassioned judge of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East still linger in our ears: "I am not a revanchist. I have no intention of writing the blood debt owed to us by the Japanese imperialists on the Japanese people's account." ...but, I believe, forgetting past misery may invite future misery."