Figure 1.--.

The Tokyo War Crime Trials openened with a blaze of publicity, but covrerage very quickly fell to the back pages. Many were surprised that the Emperor was not indicted. Press reporting was much more limited than at Nurenberg. Almost all of the reports were small articles in the back pages. After the first few days, the public showed less and less interest. As a result, there is a general assumption that the Germans were more ruthless and killed more people than the Japanese. Even today we note written and media comments such as 'NAZI were the most infamous war criminals that the world has ever known.' This is, however, simply untrue. TheJapanese were every bit as brutal and evil as the Germans. In fact the Japanese were probably reponsible for more deaths than the Germans. The Germans crtainly killed in part more efficently, essntially indistrializing the process. The numbers of people killed in Asian by the Japanese, however,almost certainly were higher. This is difficult to asssess with any percission, in part because accurate mumbers in Asian countries like China, Indo-China (Vietnam), and the Dutch East Indies (Indnonesia) were never compiled. Most died from starvation both purposefully and as a resukt of incredible in efficency. But the outright killings make for very grisly reading. Most of the killings were civilians, especially Chinese. The treatment of POWs was also incresibly brutal. Chinese POWS were killed. Ghere were no POW camps for Chinese POWs. Western POWs and civilian were kept under incredibly harsh conditions and died in large numbers. Given the extent and barbarity of Japanese war crimes, it is surprising that the Tokyo War Crimes Trials have recveived so little attention, both by newspapers at the time and by scholars today.

Contemporary Press Coverage

The Tokyo War Crime Trials openened with a blaze of publicity, but covrerage very quickly fell to the back pages. Many were surprised that the Emperor was not indicted. Press reporting was much more limited than at Nurenberg. Almost all of the reports were small articles in the back pages. After the first few days, the public showed less and less interest.

Scholarly Attention

There is a vast accademic body of literature on the IMT Nurremberg Trials. There are many monographs and countless articles in the popular press and academic journals. In contrast there has been almost no academic discusion of the IMT Tokyo trials by Western scholars. Japanese schilars have almost toatally ignored the trials, prefering to ficus on the two American atomic bombs.

Consequences

As a result, there is a general assumption that the Germans were more ruthless and killed more people than the Japanese. Even today we note written and media comments such as 'NAZI were the most infamous war criminals that the world has ever known.' This is, however, simply untrue. TheJapanese were every bit as brutal and evil as the Germans. In fact the Japanese were probably reponsible for more deaths than the Germans. The Germans crtainly killed in part more efficently, essntially industrializing the process.

Japanese War Crimes

The numbers of people killed in Asian by the Japanese, however,almost certainly were higher. This is difficult to asssess with any percission, in part because accurate mumbers in Asian countries like China, Indo-China (Vietnam), and the Dutch East Indies (Indnonesia) were never compiled. Most died from starvation both purposefully and as a resukt of incredible in efficency. But the outright killings make for very grisly reading. Most of the killings were civilians, especially Chinese. The treatment of POWs was also incresibly brutal. Chinese POWS were killed. Ghere were no POW camps for Chinese POWs. Western POWs and civilian were kept under incredibly harsh conditions and died in large numbers.

Reasons for Lack of Coverage

Given the extent and barbarity of the Japanese war crimes, it is surprising that the Tokyo War Crimes Trials have recveived so little attention, both by newspapers at the time and by scholars today. It is interestuing, however, that given the level of criminality and death toll that so little attention, actually virtually none, has been given to the Tokyo trials. There appear to be several reasons. First, Western scholars focus primarily on actions that affected Europeans. And this of course meant the Germans. Suffering in China or Indo China was of less interest that what the Czechs, Dutch, Ffrench, Poles, and other Eurooeans were going theough. Here both national and racial fractors were at play. And there was less information coming out of the areas occupied by the Japanese in part becaus of both geographic and libguistic issues. as a result, North Americans and Europeans were more inflamed over what happened in Europe than in Asia. Second, there was more repirting on Japanese attricities aginst POWs and internees, but this soon got got brushed aside after the War. Third, unlike the occupation of Germany, General MacArthur did not disband the Japanese Government. And that Government never accepted respnsibility for the War and the level of attrocities in the same way that Germans officials did. In fact the Japanese Gobernment focused on the two atomic bombs and the myth that Japan was a victim of the War. Fourth, many of the Germans indicted were well know figures, even the general public could probably name several. Beyond Primeminister Tojo, even avid World War II readers would be hard put to name any of the Japanese defendents. Fifth, also I think the fact that Jews were involved in Europe, meant that a large number of educated, literate people speaking English or European languages wrote about the Holocaust ingreat detail. This did not occur in Asia. Sixth, ideology was another factor. Many journalists historials have liberalm orientations. And as the war progressed, Chang Kai-shek came innder increasing criticism and the Chinese Communists got some favoravle press treatment even though they did little to engage the Japanese. The criticm of Chang and the natiinalists meant thatv there was less interest in addressing Japanese attricities in China. Seventh, unlike Europe thaere was considerable Asian cooperatin with the Japanese. This was particularly strong in Burma and the Dutch East Indies and to a degree Malaya. Thailand actually joined the Axus. There was little interest in addessing attrocities in areas that had been pro-Japanese. Eighth, China where most of the Japanese killing took place was taken over by the Communists (1949) and soon attacked American forces in Korea (1950). And Chinese scholarship was unrelaible. The Chinese claimed falesly that during the Korean War that the United States used chemical and bilogical weapons. So Chinese reports on Japanese attricities could not be accepted. And language issues meant that Chinese literature was not readily available to Western scholars.

Created: 4:06 AM 10/25/2013
Last updated: 4:06 AM 10/25/2013