[Music] this is the story of the Tokyo trial the international Military Tribunal that opened in May of 1946 to prosecute the Japanese leaders for war crimes it was supposed to dot the eyes and cross the teas just like the nurburg trial did for Nazi Germany but instead it ended up in a tangled mess this is the story of how why and where it went wrong [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] precisely at noon on August the 15th 1945 Japan for the first time ever heard the voice of God what 73 million Japanese felt at that moment is
almost beyond words all their lives they had been told that they were a superior race chosen by heaven to become the overlords of Asia for years United as one they sacrificed daily and worked relentlessly in order to turn their motherland into a strong strong military power for years they fought what they believed was a noble War for a bright happy peaceful and prosperous future for all of Asia more than that for them it was a holy war a war in the name of a living God the direct descendant of the sun goddess amerasu the Divine
emperor heroo and now for the first time ever the Divine ruler dained to address his humble subjects his duel voice coming from Radio boxes all across the empire was solemn and full of sorrow and people wept first from hearing their God speak and then from what he actually told them everything was in vain the war was over it's time to surrender and 7 million soldiers obeyed and laid down their arms in the next 2 weeks more than 1,000 of The Emperor's loyal subjects committed suicide but hundreds of thousands of other military and civilian officials instead
of killing themselves devoted their efforts to the mass destruction of incriminating evidence for the next 2 weeks bonfires all throughout Japan glowed night and day and they weren't simply trying to save their own skins top secret cables from Tokyo left nothing to chance all documents must be destroyed as soon as possible not a single sheep must be left behind check for papers stuck in the rear of drawers papers inserted under the legs of desks to stabilize them and papers behind filing cabinets and shelves as well anything and everything was carefully and methodically destroyed nothing was
to be spared not even the most sacred item of all the one that had to be saved from a burning building or Sinking Ship before all other valuables the portrait of the emperor Japan wasn't simply burning evidence it was burning its past two weeks after the emperor's speech the first wave of GIS finally made it to Japan us Lieutenant Commander Ted dearry there's practically nothing left firebombs seem to have destroyed everything nothing prepared the Americans for coming face to face with the Enemy they expected a country full of the Primitive bloodthirsty monkey-like Japs they'd been
told about for years instead they saw people US ambassador to Japan William Sabal the Japanese people shocked me most they were unist stably beaten people momentarily despairing and hopeless everything that they'd been told and taught their entire lives vanished Into Thin Air with the emperor's speech not only their homes and material possessions disappeared in the wreckage of the war but also their values principles traditions and beliefs life as they knew it was over there was no future no tomorrow no one in all of Japan seemed to know how to go on on the other hand
the US already had a blueprint for the conquered enemy's future and the Mandate of the quintessential American the five-star general Douglas MacArthur who stepped onto Japanese soil for the first time on August the 30th 1945 was a handful Japan had to be reoriented socially politically and economically the flag that ruled Japan was no longer the Rising Sun and the supreme authority had passed from a [ __ ] known as Hirohito to an American named [Music] [Applause] [Music] MacArthur but MacArthur saw his historical Mission as something even greater than just becoming the new ruler of Japan
he envisioned a never done before grandio experiment of forced democratization of one country by another for both The Victors and the vanquished this was Terror Incognito but MacArthur was full of [Music] optimism first of all Japan was ordered to go through a process of complete demilitarization it was to become a country without arms and a country without an army and as us tanks spewing Napal torched Japanese airbases incinerating brand new planes and Military factories switched from bombs to pots and pans the great Americanization of Japan had begun but in order to truly Turn the Page
and step into a beautiful Democratic tomorrow it was first necessary to deal with the past and the trial of Japanese leaders was set for the next year it was supposed to be quick and Stern and to follow exactly in the footsteps of the trial of 24 Nazi leaders in nurburg and soon MacArthur got an order to start rounding up all possible suspects this was to be expected and didn't surprise the Supreme Commander much but what did was the time frame of the period under scrutiny because the order clearly stated arrest All implicated In the period
of 1931 to 1945 prior to this for MacArthur the goal of the Tokyo trial had always been extremely simple find those responsible for Pearl Harbor and hang them but the New Order complicated everything tfold judge Japan for 14 years the fact that the Japanese government traditionally operated behind a shi screen didn't help either it was virtually impossible to tell who was really in charge at any particular moment not to mention the sheer scope of suspects because during these 14 turbulent years there were 16 successive government cabinets complete with 20 foreign ministers 15 Finance ministers 15
Prime Ministers 12 War ministers and nine Navy ministers there was only one constant at the height of power throughout the entire period the emperor but for various reasons it was decided not to touch him just yet but then what to do whom to blame unexpectedly help with putting together the death list came from the Japanese Elites tight lipped Samurai suddenly turned into gossiping sneaks and everywhere the victors went it was the same refrain exclude the emperor he's innocent focus on General Tojo and his Entourage the once all powerful prime minister and war minister Hideki Tojo
suddenly became everyone's favorite scapegoat but right before GIS entered tojo's Villa to arrest him the Japanese warlord tried to take his own life by shooting himself in the chest at an American evacuation Hospital in Japan us doctors attempt to save ill-fame Tojo with a transfusion of American blood the volunteer is John arenol who like all of us wants Tojo to live and stand trial the [ __ ] is regarded as one of the arch criminals among Japan's Warlords but he'll live to answer on October the 16th The Joint Chiefs of Staff issued a new order
to MacArthur proceed immediately to assemble all available evidence of hirohito's participation in the war by this time the question of what to do with the emperor was becoming a major sore Point among the Allied powers the Australians and Soviets in particular were very eager to see the emperor in the dock so was the American public judge his loyal servants and not the master nonsense according to G public opinion polls taken at the end of the war about 70% of Americans were in favor of harshly punishing the emperor so why was Washington silent surely the new
president Harry S Truman had not for gotten Pearl Harbor unknown to the American public as well as the world a heated debate did indeed take place behind closed doors in Washington but by the beginning of 1946 it was already pretty much over thanks to a series of top secret Communications from MacArthur investigation has been conducted and no evidence has been uncovered which might connect the emperor with the political decisions during the last decade the Emperor is a symbol which unites all Japanese his indictment will unquestionably cause a tremendous convulsion among the Japanese people the repercussions
of which cannot be overestimated all government agencies will break down all hope of introducing Democratic methods would disappear and some form of intense regimentation along communistic lines would arise the nation will disintegrate and a vendetta for Revenge will be initiated whose cycle May well not be complete for for centuries in short touch the emperor and Chaos Civil War and a Communist Revolution Will engulf the Land of the Rising Sun Japan would be lost to the United States forever MacArthur scared Washington straight and a top SEC order flew back to Tokyo take absolutely no action against
the emperor meanwhile a Revolution was already underway in Japan but not the Communist Revolution From Below but rather a democratic one carefully orchestrated from above on MacArthur's order thousands of Japanese political prisoners some of whom had been behind bars for up to 18 years were released and soon leftist ideas started to spread all over the country labor unions were suddenly allowed and even encouraged women were given the right to vote and the first free elections to the Japanese Parliament took place textbooks were being Rewritten School curriculums completely changed the shame from defeat and unconditional surrender
was slowly beginning to fade as well still struggling and hungry but increasingly free the Japanese were learning to be happy about the simple things and and the most popular song of early 1946 was about the beauty and joy of an ordinary [Music] Apple at the same time American pop was starting to play an increasingly dominant role American movies fashion songs and dances were everywhere and suddenly all Japanese people wanted a peace [Music] [Music] the Japanese attitude towards the victors turned out to be much warmer than anyone dreamt possible overnight the white Devils magically turned into
kind liberators the image of the Japanese in the eyes of the Americans was transforming too from a scary and bloodthirsty Samurai into an exotic gisha this sexually charged American view of Japan would linger for years to come times have certainly changed around Tokyo because gi. Joe is getting serious about his occupation duties and right in front of The Emperor's Palace too sometimes it's called fraternization but Joe looks upon it as research in short everything was changing even the emperor because now it was claimed that the supreme leader commanderin-chief and the embodiment of ultra nationalism had
absolutely nothing to do with aggressive policies that Imperial Japan had pursued in his name under his authority and with his active cooperation for almost two decades immense care was put into creating a new image of a peace-loving misinformed and helpless Monarch who was duped by an evil militaristic click for the first time the entire Japanese Imperial family consents to pose for newal cameramen at their Villa in hayama this rebranding campaign knew no bounds the emperor was dressed in New Clothes literally he was made to cast aside his famous Commander in Chief uniform and put on
a western suit he was also ordered to stop being a deity and in his new year Imperial decree Hirohito officially relinquished his Divine status and became Immortal and last but not least in February of 1946 the newly sanitized democratized and humanized Emperor for the first time ever embarked on a tour of his country until this moment his subjects knew their Sovereign only from photographs and news reels but now he appeared among them shuffling uncomfortably in his new clothes and awkwardly trying to look Democratic as one of the stuned American journalists observed he's short slight weak
chinned and round shouldered his coordination is so poor that he seems constantly on the verge of toppling over his clothes are unkempt and his shoes scuff his conversation consists of inanities in a high- pitched voice as the emperor was touring the country the trial was already to [Music] begin and more than a hundred of the EMP loyal servants languished behind bars in Japan's most notorious prison sagamo as Class A war crime suspects but contrary to usual protocol these suspects were allowed to communicate freely there coordinating their future testimonies to protect the emperor from any possible
taint of War responsibility the international Military Tribunal for the Far East more commonly known as the Tokyo trials took place in the former Japanese Army headquarters building which was conveniently spared from Allied carpet bombings in comparison to nurburg Tokyo had not four but 11 justices representing 11 nations of the world and although all the countries ravaged by Japan were Asian there was only one Asian judge at first a Chinese one after a small diplomatic scandal at the very last moment two more Asian judges were added a judge from Colonial Philippines still under the heavy influence
of the United States and a judge from the British colony of India neither had enough time to make it to court for the first day of proceedings though and on May the 3rd 1946 the court started without them for the nine judges present the trial looked rather simple probably because most of them even before the beginning of the trial had already made up their minds on the verdict guilty as charged together with diverse other persons between the 1st January 1928 and the second but who were the judges representing the nine most powerful nations of the
world the president of the tribunal Australian Sir William F web the other eight The Honorable Lord Patrick of Britain Edward Stewart McDougal of Canada may ja of China H Bernar from France Professor B Rowling of the Netherlands Harvey northcroft of New Zealand Major General Ivan zarov of the Soviet Union and John P Higgins of the United States the men in the dock 28 Japanese Military Officers and civilian officials according to the enormous coverall indictment with 55 counts of offenses these 28 alone bore responsibility for the past War complete with mass murders torture and all the
other barbaric atrocities as the defendants gloomily listened to the seemingly NeverEnding indictment one of them started to act rather bizarrely virtually unknown outside of Japan Dr schum Okawa was an evil genius a one-man Think Tank a brilliant ideologue philosopher extreme Nationalist and one of the most influential men in the Japan of the 1930s but now Okawa wept gently caressed the hand of an MP behind him and then tried to perform a strip tease which he wasn't able to finish as he was sternly stopped from bearing himself completely but even that was not the most bizarre
moment of the opening day of the Tokyo trial after all his bizarre Antics Okawa who was seated directly behind Tojo prayed a little and then unexpectedly half Rose from his seat and and slap the former prime minister on the back of the [Music] head the official US psychiatric report would be amusing to say the least because according to it Okawa felt that he was the embodiment of Jesus Muhammad Buddha and Jehovah all rolled into one quite a few judges were rather skeptical about okawa's sudden onset of Madness but there was nothing they could do on
day one Okawa left the courtroom never to return two weeks later the Indian judge Rabin not pal finally made it to Tokyo pal was picked in such a hurry that no one in India even bothered to check his views on Japan before sending him off if they had they would have discovered the fal Japan had always been somewhat of a lighthouse a proud Asian country that managed to stay in independent throughout the centuries unknown to the world now among the judges appeared an avid admirer of Japan who had also made up his mind on the
verdict before the beginning of the trial in Paul's eyes all defendants were not guilty the prosecution's opening statement read by Chief prosecutor Joseph Barry Keenan on June the 4th 1946 was ruthless the wars which they were planning and for which they were preparing and which they initiated and waged could result in nothing else than wholesale destruction of human lives they were determined to destroy democracy and its essential basis freedom and the respect of human personality they were determin that the system of government of and by and for the people should be eradicated and what they
turned a new order established instead if you think about it this was a rather absurd statement because was there a true democracy freedom and respect of human personality in British India American Philippines Dutch East Indies or French Indochina before Japan invaded these [Music] countries no not really all these nations were Western colonies to begin with and no democracy furthermore at the same time the chief prosecutor delivered this passionate speech the Dutch were already fighting their way back into Indonesia their former colony which had dared to rise up and declare independence at the end of the
war and no one at the trial saw the hypocrisy on June the 13th the Filipino judge colonel delin jenila finally joined his black robed Brothers now for jenila this trial was much more personal than for the other judges simply because he himself had spent part of the war as a Japanese p and had even taken part in the infamous batan Death March during which thousands of Filipino and American prisoners of War died and we do not now in any other court this could have led to his immediate disqualification just think about it a judge was
argu a victim of the same people he was about to judge meanwhile the prosecution plunged into the confusing Labyrinth of Japanese politics starting with 1928 to navigate through almost two decades of murky political intrigues and shadowy power struggles of 16 government cabinets was truly a Herculean task also it was all so foreign so alien just like the ancient Imperial gagaku dance the judges were unexpectedly invited to enjoy that summer in gagaku every little movement carries a lot of meaning which is crystal clear for the enlightened Outsiders on the other hand don't have a chance to
unravel it and the judges were getting more and more confused the American judge Higgins in particular was getting restless he tried to warn his colleagues that the the trial was heading in the direction of a fiasco or even a f but nobody listened to him report Higgins got fed up and resigned his high ranking replacement Major General myON C Kramer would leave no significant mark on the trial then the China phase of the trial began in 1931 Japan occupied mansuria an area three times the size of France complete with almost 30 million people 6 years
later a full-on war against China started and Japanese news reels surprisingly set to the sound of Vagner proudly showcased Japan's victories against its giant neighbor [Music] la [Music] in December of 1937 Japanese troops entered the capital of the Republic of China Nang King this is where one of the most horrible War atrocities of the 20 Century took place it would remain in history as the rape of Nan [Music] King witness testimonies were becoming more and more terrifying have you resided in China especially shocking was the testimony of John Gillespie McGee I was a missionary of
the Episcopal Church at Nan King from 1912 to 1940 in complete secrecy Reverend McGee filmed victims of Japanese atrocities in King who were lucky enough to survive and make it to the hospital together with his meticulous notes these 16 mm films present a blood chilling historical document this pregnant 19-year-old girl was bayonetted when she tried to resist rape when admitted to hospital she had 29 wounds all over her body it's unknown if she survived or not this 7-year-old boy was bayonetted five times in the abdomen he died 3 days after admission this man was shot
through the jawer soaked in gasoline and set on fire he died after 2 Days in the hospital during the trial it was estimated that between two and 300,000 men women and children were massacred during the 6 weeks of the rape of Nan King by the Japanese [Music] Army on top of that there were approximately 20,000 cases of rape the majority of rape victims were subsequently mutilated with Relentless savagery soon the trial got around to the formation of the Axis powers and as the details of Japan's love affair with Germany were revealed in the courtroom news
from nurburg came the trial of the top Nazi leaders took 11 months its judgment was revolutionary for the first time in history a nation's political and military leaders were held personally responsible for Waging War for judges in Tokyo this was excellent news now they had a legal precedent something to lean on regarding torture then the atrocities phase of the trial began with even more excruciating affidavits and testimonies the Japanese bayonetted to death all five occupants of the house one of whom was a three-year-old girl the six Japanese ate the flesh from some of the bodies
of their victims during the two days period that they stayed at the house we were treated throughout the march by the Japanese fa buy we were beaten the men were baned stabbed and as the men were on fire they were baned or shot club or stabbed [ __ ] soldiers were yelling as if they were enjoying their test we'll recess for 15 minutes the judges found it almost incomprehensible to connect what they were hearing inside the courtroom with the people among whom they themselves were now living decent absolutely normal and even likable people so how
could the same people have done all these horrible and unimaginable things just a year ago meanwhile Christmas came to Tokyo and then a new year 1947 Japan continued to [Music] change so did the rest of the world post-war Euphoria was rapidly evaporating the Victorious allies were starting to drift apart the impetuous descent into the abyss of the Cold War was gaining momentum Asia was in Flames once again the French war in into China that would eventually take almost 700,000 lives was escalating the Dutch Indonesian campaign with an ultimate death toll of 200,000 was going strong
as well a civil war between Communists and nationalists with millions of casualties in both camps was at full blast in China I Do by the beginning of 1947 everyone at the trial was weary and there was no end in sight the defense stage had just begun to be honest most of the judges weren't that interested in what the defendants or their lawyers had to say anyway The Honorable Lord Patrick of England for example simply echoed the views of the British foreign office here we have a predominantly Western tribunal sitting in the Far East to try
Japanese war criminals if the tribunal fails to full fulfill its task Western Justice will become the laughing stock of the Far East exactly A year had passed since the Tokyo trial held its first session and symbolically on this very day 3rd of May 1947 a new Japanese Constitution came into effect a brand new Japanese Constitution which was pretty much ghostwritten by the Americans even the accompanying booklet explaining the details of the new constitution in colorful and easy to to understand pictures looked very much like an American comic book no nation in the world had ever
rested on a constitution so fundamentally foreign or on such a bizarre cocktail of monarchism democratic idealism and pacifism in fact the whole Constitution was based on a single page three-point memo penned by none other than MacArthur himself one Emperor is at the head of the state his succession is dynastic two War as a sovereign right of the nation is a abolished no Japanese Army Navy or Air Force will ever be authorized and three the feudal system of Japan will cease by this time back in the courtroom Pearl Harbor the key issue of the trial for
the Americans was the main topic of discussions once again and the emperor's loyal subjects instead of Defending themselves continued to exonerate their ruler by blurring dates places and responsibilities one affidavit even stated that the emperor was so apolitical and out of the loop that he leared about the Pearl Harbor attack only post factum but it's impossible to cover all the tracks and an imperial conference transcript resurfaced which clearly stated that on November the 30th 1941 4 days after the Imperial Fleet set sail for Pearl Harbor the emperor had a meeting with Tojo at which the
Pearl Harbor issue was discussed after learning this web asked a simple and logical question so does that mean then that the emperor directed the attack to be carried out the courtroom froze this wasn't in the script but then lawyer William Logan rushed up to the lecton to protect the Japanese emperor who by the way wasn't even one of his clients but the emperor was following constitutional government if a cabinet advises a king to commit a crime and the King directs that a crime be committed there is no constitutional protection but if the cabinet advised the
emperor I assume that you're going to suggest right now that in that case the king can do no wrong under the Constitution yes if the cabinet advises the emperor that it is necessary for the country to go to war for self-preservation and self-defense self-defense is a good defense to any crime they didn't want to go to war your honor they were driven to it in September of 1947 the accused finally took the stand but contrary to any possible expectations there would be no amazing Revelations even the emperor's personal advisor and confident koichi Kido who knew
the emperor's full complicity in the war down to the Last Detail continued the official trial line the emperor didn't have anything to do with the war the militarists are to blame for for everything the cabinet decided to go to war and the emperor didn't have any choice but to agree prosecutor Kenan who knew perfectly well the true objective of the trial personally led the cross-examination and he wasn't about to leave anything to chance even if it meant literally putting words into kido's mouth short of it is that Japan was getting ready to make up its
mind whether or not it was going to war with the United States and the Great Britain and the Netherlands that was the purpose of that Imperial conference in September wasn't it so yes now did the emperor of Japan have anything really really have anything to do with uh that decision reach that the imperial conference that you just [Applause] [Music] described the emperor thought it was a very bad thing when prier told him of this no what I'm asking you is this was that decision of that Imperial conference really in reality the decision of the emperor
of Japan or merely a formal acquiescence on his part to something that had been decided by others in plain language yes so now you're telling us in your affidavit that soon Webb who could no longer stand this fast interrupted the chief prosecutor and demanded he stop putting words into into the defendant's mouth by this time one thing was already clear to almost everyone closely involved in the trial no matter how hard the accused some of the defense and most of the prosecution tried there was still something not right with the image of the Emperor as
the apolitical pacifist and Marine lifeloving figurehead there was just something fishy about it Webb could no longer ignore the elephant in the room or for that matter hide his belief that the emperor belonged in court if not as an accused then at least as a witness but Webb's hands were tied he just like Kenan had been forced to promise he would keep his hands off the emperor no matter what but as the saying goes some promises are meant to be broken please proceed Mr witness with your full explanation meanwhile one more little Det came up
which made it even harder for anyone closely involved to believe that the peaceloving emperor was a fierce opponent of Pearl Harbor during the cross-examination of the former Minister of Foreign Affairs Shori Togo it was accidentally revealed that on the very day of the Pearl Harbor attack Togo was urgently summoned for a meeting with the emperor at this meeting which took place at the Imperial Palace at 3:00 in the morning Hirohito was dressed in full Naval dress uniform the the image of the emperor proudly wearing his full Naval dress uniform the same day his Navy starts
an undeclared war against the United States and Britain didn't quite fit with the image of a peaceloving and grief stricken Sovereign December the 26th 1947 was a big day at the Tokyo trial finally it was tojo's turn interest in the trial peaked once again and masses of Japanese showed up extra early that day for their three-day passes but not all of them would get in there were just too many of them and the Japanese could only sit in a specific section of the courtroom even if there were empty seats Elsewhere for example in the section
where MacArthur's wife and son sat they too came to see the arch villain who according to the prosecution almost single-handedly plunged Japan into war rules tojo's wife and children were in attendance as wellas before the cross-examination defense attorney blitt read tojo's Mammoth 250 Page Long affidavit there has never existed a so-called militaristic click such an allegation is a fallacy of the highest degree America and Britain adopted a policy of strangulation against Japan to provoke and force Japan into this war allies needed this in order to be able to involve America into the European Conflict for
Japan it was a war of self-defense and there was no alternative Tojo didn't forget about the emperor in his affidavit as well the emperor had no free choice and the war was absolutely not the responsibility of the emperor I am on the other hand not only willing but sincerely desire to accept the full responsibility for this war time flies it was already the second New Year's Eve of the Tokyo trial and just another day of tojo's cross-examination everyone was already exhausted after it had been 20 months everybody even Tojo he was tired from non-stop questioning
and was even starting to lose his usual sharpness and when asked a simple question if he knew of any instances when Kido acted or gave advice contrary to the emperor's wishes for peace Tojo slipped I do not know of any such instances simply because there were none I do not see how a subject of the emperor even among the country's highest authorities could have gone against the will of his majesty the emperor had consented to the war none of us would dare act against the emperor's [Music] will for the first time a simple and rather
obvious thing was said out loud the emperor had Authority and power that also meant that he could have stopped the war at any time or even not have started it at all the day quickly wrapped up and there was a good excuse it was New Year's Eve after all Webb was overjoyed tojo's slip was an unexpected late Christmas gift to him he' finally heard what he was waiting for that very day Webb wrote to General MacArthur requesting permission to bring the emperor in for questioning but instead of answering web MacArthur urgently summoned Kenan at the
meeting the Supreme Commander ordered the chief prosecutor to fix this mess Pronto and Kenan launched a storm of activity through three different Japanese intermediaries Tojo was carefully and thoroughly instructed on how to recant his incriminating remark and the chance to do so was soon presented to him by Kenan during the continuation of the cross-examination I want to uh I think it's a good time Mr too to change his subject and after this rather awkward intro Keenan went for it I want to ask you a few questions on the relative positions of yourself and the emperor
of Japan on the matter of Waging War you have told us that the emperor on repeated occasions made known to you that he was a man of peace and did not want war is that correct Tojo agreed well you did make war against the United States Great Britain and the Netherlands did you not Tojo agreed again and then Kenan put to Tojo the million-dollar question was that the will of the Emperor Hirohito that war should be instituted no it might have been against the emperor's will the emperor consented to the war reluctantly and only after
a great deal of hesitation the emperor's Love and Desire for peace remain the same even during the war the emperor's feelings in this regard can be clearly ascertained from the Imperial rescript declaring war as it contains the words this war is indeed unavoidable and is against my own desires now to be honest this wasn't the best explanation or bulletproof proof of The Emperor's innocence Tojo could have done better but it was good enough for Kenan but not good enough for Webb who was determined to continue his Crusade the next day though Webb was summoned by
MacArthur at their meeting the general was blunt forget it the emperor will never ever rep in the courtroom even as a witness end of [Music] discussion and on a rainy Friday April the 16th 1948 almost 2 years after the Tokyo trial began as photographers and cameramen swarmed the courtroom to film and photograph the defendants wondering about their fate every everyone else involved exhaled even Webb in a private letter wrote we expect to be a month or so on our deliberations the same as nurburg 1 2 3 4 but nothing in Tokyo was the same as
nurburg and the courtroom would stay empty for another s months as the International Panel of Judges struggled and quarreled by the summer of 1948 it was already clear that Japan's wartime wounds were healing well step by step Japan was becoming a different country altogether public interest in the trial slowly waned after all this trial dealt with issues no longer relevant in the new Americanized Japan and on November the 12th 1948 it all came to an end after 818 Court sessions 419 witness testimonies 779 affidavits 4,336 exhibits 2 years 6 months and 15 days after its
first session the international Military Tribunal for the Far East crawled to the Finish Line the enormous final judgment took 5 days just to read its gist was simple though since 1928 Japan was in the hands of a military click that had conspired to launch a succession of aggressive Wars between 1931 and 1945 there was a common pattern of atrocities and cruelties of the most inhumane and barbarous character in all theaters of War which leads to only one possible conclusion the atrocities were either secretly ordered or willfully permitted by the Japanese government and Military the accused
are found guilty for the actions of the state to no one's surprise the emperor's complicity in the war was never addressed the international military East is now reserved in accordance with article 15h of the charter the international Military Tribunal for the Far East will now pronounce the sentences on the accused convicted on this indictment and then One By One The defendants were LED out to hear their fate proclaimed by Webb accused hinuma KIRO the international Military Tribunal for the Far East sentences you to imprisonment for Life 16 got life in prison two got slightly lighter
sentences sentences you to death by hanging death by hanging death by hanging and seven including five generals one civilian former Premier koki hir and obviously Tojo were sentenced to death by hanging now and just like that the seemingly never ending trial came to an end there was no Fanfare it didn't even feel like a closure it just fizzled out there was talk about five separate opinions though but not one of them was ever read in court the Indian judge Justice Pal's enormous 1,235 Page Long dissenting opinion can be summed up in a single sentence whatever
the accused did they did out of patriotic motives and in order to change the colonial status quo and this was a good enough excuse for pal his verdict not guilty all of them more than that Japan is not guilty too Webb wrote that the tribunal was greatly compromised by the absence of the emperor and the careful exclusion of any references to him Webb was Furious that the leader of the crime had been granted immunity French judge HRI Bernard echoed web it cannot be denied that Japan's crimes had a principal author who escaped all prosecu ution
and of whom the defendants could only be considered as accomplice but as any law scholar knows the beauty of dissenting opinions is that they don't change a thing and at the stroke of midnight December the 23rd 1948 the sgo 7 were hanged immediately after the execution the bodies were loaded onto an American army truck and taken to the Yokohama crematorium where they were [Music] burnt the very next day on Christmas Eve American authorities announced amnesty for all Class A war criminal suspects still held in sugamo prison and they were promptly released a week later shum
Okawa whose Midsummer Madness miraculously and suddenly disappeared was declared mentally fit and quietly discharged from the hospital and then things got even more interesting obsessed with the fear that Japan was turning red the Americans started to jettison many of the democratization ideals that they themselves so passionately introduced and induced just a few years earlier first there was a strong Crackdown on Communists then on labor unions then on freedom of speech at the same time charges against prominent Japanese were dropping like flies all Class A war criminals sentenced by the Tokyo trial to life in prison
were also miraculously pardoned one after another within just a few short years for many Japanese this would become the ultimate proof that the Tokyo trial had been nothing but a hypocritical F Japan is not guilty then despite the protests of a younger generation of Japanese Washington slowly started cozying up to the conservative Old Guard of Japan and this would culminate in the case of a member of tojo's cabinet who spent a few years in the SG prison as a Class A war crime suspect himself nusuki Kishi after his release from sugamo Kishi like all the
others pardoned was prohibited from ever holding public office again but a few years down the road embraced and groomed by the US Embassy in Tokyo Kishi became Japan's new premier [Music] the much vaunted permanent demilitarization of Japan ended even earlier in June of 1950 when Civil War erupted in Korea the very day hostilities broke out the decision to rearm Japan was taken in Washington and thanks to multi-billion order of special procurements for American forces fighting in Korea the Japanese economy in just a few short years Rose Like a Phoenix our film is almost over but
a crucial question is still left unanswered so why did Washington go to such lengths to save the Japanese emperor especially because if one digs just a little deeper it would turn out that all those Prophecies of apocalypse and Armageddon if Japan were to lose her beloved figurehead were based on pretty much thin air here's an excerpt from a top secret American report dated mid December 1945 the Allies are unduly apprehensive of the effect of the Japanese if the emperor was removed at the most there might be demonstrations but they would pass Japanese people now are
more concerned with food and housing problems than with the fate of the Emperor Japanese public opinion polls confirm this as they show that only 16% of Japanese wanted to keep their Godlike ruler status unchanged in other words the Japanese were ready for a change it was the Americans who weren't of course Washington knew all along that the emperor didn't quite fit the picture of Innocence they created for him but they also knew that Japan was destined to play a critical role in the post-war balance of power and they saw the emperor first and foremost as
a tool which would help transform Japan from a former enemy into a submissive Cold War partner and they turned out to be absolutely right but what was the price this campaign to exonerate the emperor played a very cruel trick on the mind of the nation because millions of Japanese guilty of their own wartime sins started to ponder if even the emperor got away with everything then why should we his humble subjects reflect and dwell on our past and with time Japan past started to slowly fade from the memory of the nation and the way that
war is often Remembered in Japan today sometimes has little to do with history or truth because once again that war is remembered as a noble War the war where Heroes fought and died for the glory of the Empire and the emperor [Music]
