Question: This year marks the 80th anniversary of the opening of the Tokyo Trials. Could you share with us the historical and legal significance of the Tokyo Trials?
Embassy Spokesperson: From May 1946 to November 1948, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), composed of representatives from 11 countries including China, the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, conducted a just trial of Japanese militarism for launching wars of aggression and committing grave war crimes. The IMTFE held a total of 818 court sessions, heard testimony from 419 witnesses, examined 4,336 pieces of evidence and formed nearly 50,000 pages of English transcripts of court proceedings. The Tribunal brought to light the wartime atrocities of Japanese militarism in Asian countries, ruled that militarist Japan waged a war of aggression, and condemned the Fascist war criminals to perpetual infamy.
The Tokyo Trials, a litmus test of humanity’s conscience, delivered historical justice. The historical justice embodied in the Trials must not be denied, its legal authority must not be challenged, and the foundations of the post-war international order established through it must not be undermined.
The IMTFE is an important pillar of the post-war international order, and its judgments are binding under international law. The Charter of the IMTFE explicitly provided that the Tribunal shall have the power to try Japanese war criminals charged with offenses which include crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity. It further stipulated that the judgments of the IMTFE were legally binding on Japan, which was obliged to recognise and implement the outcomes of the Trials.
The legal authority of the IMTFE did not arise out of thin air. The Cairo Declaration, the Potsdam Proclamation and the Japanese Instrument of Surrender are key international legal documents. Together, they form a complete legal chain and constitute the international legal framework governing post-war Japan.
The Cairo Declaration clearly stipulated that Japan must restore all the Chinese territories it had stolen and Japan shall be stripped of all the islands in the Pacific which it had seized or occupied since the beginning of the first World War. It also provided that Japan’s sovereignty shall be limited to its four main islands and such minor islands as the Allies determine. The Potsdam Proclamation reaffirmed the terms of the Cairo Declaration, explicitly requiring Japan’s complete disarmament, the eradication of militarism, the elimination of its war-making power, and the severe punishment of war criminals. The Japanese Instrument of Surrender provided that Japan shall “carry out the provisions of the Potsdam Declaration in good faith.” Any act in violation of the Potsdam Proclamation would constitute a breach of international law and entail serious legal consequences.
Accepting the judgement of the Tokyo Trials is the prerequisite for Japan’s postwar return to the international community. Eighty years on, however, the spectre of Japanese militarism still remains and continues to breed. Japan’s right-wing forces are still trying every possible means to deny and distort the judgement of the Tokyo Trials and the irrefutable evidence, and even whitewash the crimes committed during the war of aggression, including by revising history textbooks and indoctrinating the Japanese people with a wrong perception of history. Mei Ru’ao, the Chinese judge at the Tokyo Trials, famously said, “Amnesia of past sufferings may lead to future disasters.” Should anyone or any force foolishly attempt to reverse the verdict of aggression, they will be pushed back by all peace-loving people in the world and brought once again before the tribunal of history.
