A kind of morality play. [WWII]

[**The following is in relation to the post-WWII Tokyo War Crimes Trial.**] >In 1971, Princeton University published a book by Richard Minear, titled *Victor’s Justice*, which shows that this trial was little more than a kangaroo court where the defendants were prevented from receiving a fair trial through such devious means as the judges interpreting the rules of evidence liberally when the prosecution presented its case, but changing to a conservative interpretation for the defense’s portion of the trial, and then becoming liberal again with the prosecution’s rebuttal. “The Tokyo tribunal found [Tojo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Hideki_Tojo.jpg) guilty and sentenced him to death by hanging. It is my contention that he was legally innocent,” he wrote. >Minear believes this was primarily a political trial for the purpose of corroborating “our conviction about the dastardly and criminal nature of Japan’s wartime leadership and policies.” Evidently this was also apparent at the time, for on January 11, 1949, the *Washington Post* said, “It is more and more evident to us that the good name of justice, let alone of the United States, had been compromised… in Tokyo.” >There is overwhelming evident the Japanese committed many war crimes – the Bataan Death March and the horrendous medical experiments immediately come to mind – but how responsible the Japanese leadership was for these crimes is uncertain. The thing is, the Tokyo tribunal didn’t really focus on conventional war crimes. Instead, it primarily dwelt on the legally dubious idea of Japanese aggression event though Japanese colonialism was not that much different from American and British colonialism in the nineteenth century. Minear said, “The trial was a kind of morality play, a reaffirmation of a world-view that had been one factor in the making of World War II. To the extent that this world-view was itself invalid, the Tokyo trial was harmful rather than helpful. It prolonged our immersion in the unreal world of our dreams.” >But be that as it may, when the question of the nuclear bombings was raised by the defense, the tribunal determined the evidence was inadmissible. _________________________________ **Source:** Stephens, John Richard. “Alternative Views.” *Weird History 101: Tales of Intrigue, Mayhem, and Outrageous Behavior*. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2006. 65. Print. _________________________________ **Further Reading:** [Richard (Dick) H. Minear](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Minear) [Hideki Tōjō](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hideki_Tojo) [International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE) / Tokyo Trials / Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Military_Tribunal_for_the_Far_East) [Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki) [Japanese War Crimes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_crimes)