The Tokyo War Crimes Trial: The Pursuit of Justice in the Wake of World War II

This book assesses the historical significance of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE)-commonly called the Tokyo trial-established as the eastern counterpart of the Nuremberg trial in the immediate aftermath of World War II. Through extensive research in Japanese, American, Australian, and Indian archives, Yuma Totani taps into a large body of previously underexamined sources-including diplomatic records, transcripts of the proceedings in open session, internal court memoranda, court exhibits, judgments, and notes and memoirs of key participants-to explore some of the central misunderstandings and historiographical distortions that have persisted to the present day. This study deepens our knowledge of the historical intricacies surrounding the Tokyo trial and advances our understanding of the Japanese conduct of war and occupation during World War II, the range of postwar debates on war guilt, and the relevance of the IMTFE to the continuing development of international humanitarian law.