| International Military Tribunal for the Far East | |
|---|---|
 Court chamber during the tribunal in Ichigaya, Tokyo | |
| Indictment | Conspiracy, crimes against peace, war crimes, crimes against humanity |
| Started | April 29, 1946 |
| Decided | December 12, 1948 |
| Defendant | 28 (see list) |
| Case history | |
| Related action | Nuremberg trials |
| Court membership | |
| Judge sitting | 11 (see list) |
The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), also known as the Tokyo Trial and the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, was a military trial convened on 29 April 1946 to try leaders of the Empire of Japan for their crimes against peace, conventional war crimes, and crimes against humanity, leading up to and during the Second World War.[1] The IMTFE was modeled after the International Military Tribunal (IMT) at Nuremberg, Germany, which prosecuted the leaders of Nazi Germany for their war crimes, crimes against peace, and crimes against humanity.[2]
Following Japan's defeat and occupation by the Allies, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, United States General Douglas MacArthur, issued a special proclamation establishing the IMTFE. A charter was drafted to establish the court's composition, jurisdiction, and procedures; the crimes were defined based on the Nuremberg Charter. The Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal was composed of judges, prosecutors, and staff from eleven countries that had fought against Japan: Australia, Canada, China, France, India, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States; the defense consisted of Japanese and American lawyers. The Tokyo Trial exercised broader temporal jurisdiction than its counterpart in Nuremberg, beginning from the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria. Twenty-eight high-ranking Japanese military and political leaders were tried by the court, including current and former prime ministers, cabinet members, and military commanders. They were charged with fifty-five separate counts, including the waging wars of aggression, murder, and various war crimes and crimes against humanity (such as torture and forced labor) against prisoners-of-war, civilian internees, and the inhabitants of occupied territories; ultimately, 45 of the counts, including all the murder charges, were ruled either redundant or not authorized under the IMTFE Charter. The Tokyo Trial lasted more than twice as long as the better-known Nuremberg trials, and its impact was similarly influential in the development of international law; similar international war crimes tribunals would not be established until the 1990s.[3]
By the time it adjourned on November 12, 1948, two defendants had died of natural causes and one, Shūmei Ōkawa, was ruled unfit to stand trial. All remaining defendants were found guilty of at least one count, of whom seven were sentenced to death and sixteen to life imprisonment.
Thousands of other "lesser" war criminals were tried by domestic tribunals convened across Asia and the Pacific by Allied nations, with most concluding by 1949. Due to U.S. government intervention, the trials did not charge imperial Japanese leaders who may have been responsible for Unit 731.[4]
- ^ "More about the IMTFE". Guides @ Georgia Law. The University of Georgia School of Law. Archived from the original on 11 July 2018. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
- ^ "Milestones: 1945–1952 – Office of the Historian". history.state.gov. Retrieved 2021-12-12.
- ^ "The International Military Tribunal for the Far East". imtfe.law.virginia.edu. Retrieved 2021-12-12.
- ^ Guillemin, Jeanne (2017). Hidden Atrocities: Japanese Germ Warfare and American Obstruction of Justice at the Tokyo Trial. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-54498-6.