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THE OTHER NUREMBERG - The Untold Story of the Tokyo War Crimes Trials

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For those of us who marveled at the manner in which the combined Allies created and conducted the trials of the German hierarchy at Nuremberg, successfully demonstrating to the world the fashion in which the British, French, American and Russian allies could cooperate and compromise sufficiently to prosecute some of the most murderous of the motley crew comprising the Nazi regime, the stunning failures of our similar attempts to settle the issues surrounding the disposition of the Japanese war criminals was a bitterly disappointing revelation.

Indeed, by the time the collected Allies gathered to consider the fate of the Japanese offenders, the world had changed, and the welter of economic, social, and geo-political concerns that had united the Allies now served to separate them. As a result, the efforts to render anything approaching objective justice to the often barbaric behavior of high ranking Japanese officials were doomed from the inception.

Moreover, the relative lag in time between the war's cessation and the first beginnings of serious efforts to enact a tribunal served to work against justice by making it more difficult to locate and secure evidence, much of which had been destroyed in the final stages of the war. As mentioned above, the lack of international cooperation and a variety of differences in terms of perceived national interests also contributed to a seeming inability to move forward on any but a few of the defendants in the first two years following the end of hostilities in August 1945.

As the author reveals, the Japanese war crimes trials were troubled from beginning to end in terms of relative respect, loss of critical evidence, insufficient staff and resources available, and an inhospitable cultural atmosphere which tended to stifle and limit the range of punishments unnecessarily. Still the author, who had participated as a news correspondent at the trials, skillfully mines both his own recollections and the range of materials he had at his disposal, including memoirs, transcripts, and interviews to meaningfully reconstruct a sometimes riveting account of this historic event. This is an interesting book, and one I would not hesitate to recommend. Enjoy!

It took a little getting into this book, but overall I found it very interesting and well-written. Brackman had a huge undertaking in trying to write about the whole two and a half year trial. It is rather confusing in some places, with all the legal jargon and whatnot, but I think that Brackman did a good job given the hugeness of his task.

I have been a student of the Holocaust since before I was a teenager. A major focus of my interest was the Nuremberg Trials in which the surviving Nazi big wigs were brought to justice in an extensive judicial review of the high crimes of Nazi Germany. The world was focussed on the trials and an Academy Award-winning feature film was made about them as well. When I read a review of "The Other Nurembeg: The Untold Story of the Tokyo War Crimes Trials", it may have been the first I knew that there actually was such an inquest. I never came across it at book stores so I sought it out on Amazon.com to find out just what the trials were all about.

These trials were somewhat different from their German counterpart. One difference was the control that General MacArthur held over the creation and (to a small extent) control of the trials. There were also a lot more countries represented on the Bench. Instead of the Big Four in Europe, the Americans, English and Chinese were joined by jurists from Australia, the Soviet Union, The Netherlands, The Philipines, India, and France. The chief judge was an Australian and the chief prosecutor was an American. The accused, however, were all Japanese.

There were a variety of issues involved such as the Rape of Nanking, the forced labor, the surprize attack on Pearl Harbor, the killing of POW's and shooting survivors of torpedoed ships, the mass murders in China, The Philipines and elsewhere. The issue of waging an agressive war was also an issue which was worked over and defined.

The genesis of the tribunal and the prosecution of the trials are spelled out well in Arnold Brackman's researched recollection as a journalist covering the trials at the time. Some topics and crimes may seem to be covered in less detail that the reader may prefer. However, Brackman's description of the tens of thousands of pages of evidence and testimony gives us an overall aprreciation of the author's ability to summerize the major points of the trials. There are a lot of incidents referred to that may have escaped the attention of many readers. The initial outbreak of the invasion in China was an event known as the Mukden Incident which was news to me. At times the vollume of brutality left the author acknowledging that there was a lot more than he (or the tribunal) had time to cover.

Brackman had a good sense of the personalities and rivalries involved in the judges and lawyers working in the trials. He also was rather defensive at times regarding that variety of opinions back home about the War and its' causes. He is also willing to speak frankly about some of the merits of the defense of the accused. For example, he points out that the Japanes army had "liberated" a number of European colonies in Asia. However, Brackman also points out that the Japanese were more brutal to their Asian captives than they were to the European ones.

At times the book seems more oriented to a legal focus rather than an historic one but this is, afterall, about a trial rather than a battle. In the end, the trial, having lasted well past what was expected, came to an end with seven executions and a number of lengthy prison sentences of which most ended with parole in the mid-1950's.

The Tokyo trials were not the focus of the world like their Nuremberg counterpart. However, they were an important reminder that, even in war there are standards of decency. The evidence that we do get reminds us of the reason for the trial. "The Other Nuremberg", like the trials themselves, is valuable for the closure that it brings to the end of a brutally waged war of agression.

Everyone knows the story of the Nuremberg Trials but today the story of the Tokyo Trials is largely forgotten outside of Japan. The Allies who prosecuted the Pacific War held trials of Japan's war leaders on the same legal basis as those of the Nazis following the end of WWII. This book, written by a reporter who was present during the proceedings, looks at international law and the violations of it while Japan attempted to take over Asia. Also, the Japanese government's involvment in narcotics trafficing and both large-scale and small-scale atrocities directed at the civilian populations and POWs was addressed during the trials.

While imperfect, the trials not only established the criminal behavior of Japan's government but determined the punishment of key leaders involved. The war guilt of Emperor Hirohito was never addressed (or addressed only obliquely) for political reasons while seven men were hanged for war crimes.

A good read with some photos.