Mark Scott Smith's Blog: Enemy in the Mirror, page 86

Tokyo Trials

The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE) conducted the Tokyo War Crimes Trials from May 1946 to November 1948.

28 Imperial Japanese military and government leaders were charged with Class A war crimes  – participating in a joint conspiracy to start and wage war. Additionally, ~ 5,700 subordinate personnel were charged with conventional war crimes in separate trials convened by Australia, China, France, The Netherlands, the Philippines, the United Kingdom and the USA.

The charges included abuse of prisoners, rape, forced prostitution, torture, ill-treatment of laborers, summary executions without trial and inhumane medical experiments.

To ensure a smooth occupation and various reforms in Japan, neither Emperor Hirohito nor any members of his family were charged with war crimes.

25 high-ranking officials completed the Tokyo Trials. Additionally, two died during the trial and a third defendant was declared mentally unfit to stand trial. All defendants were found guilty.

The sentences were death by hanging for Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, Foreign Minister Koki Hirota and five generals (Kenji Doihara, Seishiro Itagaki, Hyoturo Kimura, Iwane Matsui and Akira Muto). Sixteen others received life sentences. Past foreign ministers, Shigenori Togo and Mamoru Shigemitsu were sentenced to several years imprisonment. Togo died in prison; but Shigemitsu later served as Japan’s foreign minister.

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Tokyo Trials 1946

The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE) conducted the Tokyo War Crimes Trials from May 1946 to November 1948.

28 Imperial Japanese military and government leaders were charged with Class A war crimes  – participating in a joint conspiracy to start and wage war. Additionally, ~ 5,700 subordinate personnel were charged with conventional war crimes in separate trials convened by Australia, China, France, The Netherlands, the Philippines, the United Kingdom and the USA.

The charges included abuse of prisoners, rape, forced prostitution, torture, ill-treatment of laborers, summary executions without trial and inhumane medical experiments.

To ensure a smooth occupation and various reforms in Japan, neither Emperor Hirohito nor any members of his family were charged with war crimes.

25 high-ranking officials completed the Tokyo Trials. Additionally, two died during the trial and a third defendant was declared mentally unfit to stand trial. All defendants were found guilty.

The sentences were death by hanging for Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, Foreign Minister Koki Hirota and five generals (Kenji Doihara, Seishiro Itagaki, Hyoturo Kimura, Iwane Matsui and Akira Muto). Sixteen others received life sentences. Past foreign ministers, Shigenori Togo and Mamoru Shigemitsu were sentenced to several years imprisonment. Togo died in prison; but Shigemitsu later served as Japan’s foreign minister.

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Nuremberg Trials 1945

From 1945-46, judges from Great Britain, France, USSR and USA presided over the Nuremberg trials of 24 prominent Nazis charged with war crimes.

Charges included:

crimes against peace—defined as participation in the planning and waging of a war of aggression in violation of numerous international treaties
war crimes—defined as violations of the internationally agreed upon rules for waging war
crimes against humanity—including murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population, before or during the war; or persecution on political, racial, or religious grounds in execution of or in connection with any crime within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, whether or not in violation of domestic law of the country where perpetrated.

 

LEADING NAZI OFFICIALS INDICTED FOR WAR CRIMES included:

Hermann Goering (Hitler’s heir designate)
Rudolf Hess (deputy leader of the Nazi party)
Joachim von Ribbentrop (foreign minister)
Wilhelm Keitel (head of the armed forces)
Wilhelm Frick (minister of the interior)
Ernst Kaltenbrunner (head of security forces)
Hans Frank (governor-general of occupied Poland)
Konstantin von Neurath (governor of Bohemia and Moravia)
Erich Raeder (head of the navy)
Karl Doenitz (Raeder’s successor)
Alfred Jodl (armed forces command)
Alfred Rosenberg (minister for occupied eastern territories)
Baldur von Schirach (head of the Hitler Youth)
Julius Streicher (radical Nazi antisemitic publisher)
Fritz Sauckel (head of forced-labor allocation)
Albert Speer (armaments minister)
Arthur Seyss-Inquart (commissioner for the occupied Netherlands)
Martin Bormann (Hitler’s adjutant) was tried in absentia

 

OCTOBER 1, 1946 VERDICTS AT NUREMBERG:

death sentence for Goering, Ribbentrop, Keitel, Kaltenbrunner, Rosenberg, Frank, Frick, Streicher, Sauckel, Jodl, Seyss­Inquart, and Bormann
life imprisonment for Hess, economics minister Walther Funk, and Raeder
prison terms ranging from 10 to 20 years for Doenitz, Schirach, Speer, and Neurath
acquitted were Hjalmar Schacht (economics minister), Franz von Papen (politician) and Hans Fritzsche (head of press and radio)
The death sentences were carried out on October 16, 1946, with two exceptions: Goering (committed suicide in his cell) and Bormann (remained missing, but was later proven to have committed suicide to avoid capture)
the seven major war criminals sentenced to prison terms were remanded to the Spandau Prison in Berlin

 

Although the legality of the Nuremberg trials remains controversial, many feel they set an important precedent for dealing with genocide and other crimes against humanity.

 

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Nuremberg Trials

From 1945-46, judges from Great Britain, France, USSR and USA presided over the Nuremberg trials of 24 prominent Nazis charged with war crimes.

Charges included:

crimes against peace—defined as participation in the planning and waging of a war of aggression in violation of numerous international treaties
war crimes—defined as violations of the internationally agreed upon rules for waging war
crimes against humanity—including murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population, before or during the war; or persecution on political, racial, or religious grounds in execution of or in connection with any crime within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, whether or not in violation of domestic law of the country where perpetrated.

 

LEADING NAZI OFFICIALS INDICTED FOR WAR CRIMES included:

Hermann Goering (Hitler’s heir designate)
Rudolf Hess (deputy leader of the Nazi party)
Joachim von Ribbentrop (foreign minister)
Wilhelm Keitel (head of the armed forces)
Wilhelm Frick (minister of the interior)
Ernst Kaltenbrunner (head of security forces)
Hans Frank (governor-general of occupied Poland)
Konstantin von Neurath (governor of Bohemia and Moravia)
Erich Raeder (head of the navy)
Karl Doenitz (Raeder’s successor)
Alfred Jodl (armed forces command)
Alfred Rosenberg (minister for occupied eastern territories)
Baldur von Schirach (head of the Hitler Youth)
Julius Streicher (radical Nazi antisemitic publisher)
Fritz Sauckel (head of forced-labor allocation)
Albert Speer (armaments minister)
Arthur Seyss-Inquart (commissioner for the occupied Netherlands)
Martin Bormann (Hitler’s adjutant) was tried in absentia

 

OCTOBER 1, 1946 VERDICTS AT NUREMBERG:

death sentence for Goering, Ribbentrop, Keitel, Kaltenbrunner, Rosenberg, Frank, Frick, Streicher, Sauckel, Jodl, Seyss­Inquart, and Bormann
life imprisonment for Hess, economics minister Walther Funk, and Raeder
prison terms ranging from 10 to 20 years for Doenitz, Schirach, Speer, and Neurath
acquitted were Hjalmar Schacht (economics minister), Franz von Papen (politician) and Hans Fritzsche (head of press and radio)
The death sentences were carried out on October 16, 1946, with two exceptions: Goering (committed suicide in his cell) and Bormann (remained missing, but was later proven to have committed suicide to avoid capture)
the seven major war criminals sentenced to prison terms were remanded to the Spandau Prison in Berlin

 

Although the legality of the Nuremberg trials remains controversial, many feel they set an important precedent for dealing with genocide and other crimes against humanity.

 

The post Nuremberg Trials appeared first on Enemy in the Mirror.

Our Job in Japan

Our Job in Japan, a training film for American soldiers assigned to occupation forces in Japan, begins with a description of the Japanese brain that has been duped by military leaders. The film details Japanese barbarity during the war and advises taking no chances with “tricky” Japanese today while helping the “honest” ones to recover from the war and accept democracy.

After revisions, apparently demanded by the Supreme Command of Allied Powers (ASCAP) occupying Japan, the film ends on a more optimistic note, showing smiling GIs interacting with women in kimonos and small children. When exposed to the truth long enough, the film suggests, the Japanese brain can comprehend modern, civilized sense.

 

In September, 1945, General Douglas MacArthur became the Supreme Command of Allied Powers (SCAP) and assumed the task of rebuilding war-torn Japan. Initial Allied efforts (~1945-47) emphasized punishment of war crimes, reforms of the Japanese government and society, revival of the economy and establishment of a formal peace treaty and alliance.

The Imperial Japanese Army was disbanded and war crimes trials were convened in Tokyo. Land reform policies, designed to benefit tenant farmers formerly under the control of rich landowners were instituted. Efforts were made to weaken large Japanese business conglomerates (zaibatsu) and establish a free capitalist market.

SCAP censorship of all Japanese media, banned topics including:

Criticism of SCAP

Criticism of Allied policy

Imperial propaganda

Defense of war criminals

Praise of “undemocratic” forms of government

Discussion of the atomic bomb

Black market activities

Discussion of allied diplomatic relations

In 1947, Allied “advisors” drew up a new constitution for Japan that downgraded the emperor to a figurehead and placed power within a parliamentary system. Women were granted increased rights and privileges.

Eliminating all non-defensive armed forces, Japan’s new constitution renounced the right to wage war.

 

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After the War

September 1945 – the war is over!

…You’ll never know how many dreams

I’ve dreamed about you

Or how empty they all seem without you

So kiss me once…and kiss me twice

And kiss me once again

It’s been a long…long time

It’s been a mighty, mighty long time

 

WWII caused >60 million deaths – approximately 3% percent of the 1940 world’s population. After the war, Allied powers worked to reduce the potential military power of conquered Axis nations and prosecute those accused of war crimes. Millions of Germans and Japanese were forced to leave territories they had colonized (e.g. in Eastern Europe, Korea, Taiwan and Manchuria). Tension between Western Allies and Communist Russia became particularly heated in Germany and the Korean Peninsula, resulting in the ultimate creation of East and West Germany and North and South Korea.

 

WWII:After the War: Click this link for 45 fascinating photos from The Atlantic October 30, 2011

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Allies Occupy Germany

Your Job In Germany was a short film shown to US soldiers embarking on post-war occupation duty in Germany. Produced by the United States War Department in 1945, the film was made by a military film unit directed by Frank Capra and was written by Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss.

The film exhorts occupying American troops to realize they are in hostile territory. Trust no one. Always be on the alert. There is an inner German lust for power. Be cautious. And enter into into no personal relationships.

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Burmese Harp / Grave of the Fireflies

Adapted from the novel by Michio Takeyama, this 1956 film directed by Ichikawa Kon, involves a company of Japanese Imperial Army troops who finally surrender in the last desperate stages of the Burma campaign. When their company commander begins to lead them in songs from their homeland, they discover renewed energy and the will to survive.  After they surrender, one of the men, a harp player, fails to convince another group of soldiers holed up in a cave to surrender. Disguised as a Buddhist monk, he escapes to systematically bury dead Japanese troops scattered about the countryside. The film is very powerful and touching.

You don’t have to know Japanese to understand this film trailer.

____________________________________

 

Grave of the Fireflies is a 1988 animated film adapted from the 1967 short story of the same name written by Akiyuki Nosaka. Based on his own experiences during the firebombing of Kobe in 1945, the book was written as a personal apology to his younger sister Keiko who died of starvation under his care after the bombing.

 

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A-Bomb Morality – 1945

Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd

The concept of a nuclear chain reaction reportedly came to the physicist Leó Szilárd as an epiphany while waiting to cross a London street in 1933.

“…It suddenly occurred to me that if we could find an element which is split by neutrons and which would emit two neutrons when it absorbed one neutron, such an element, if assembled in sufficiently large mass, could sustain a nuclear chain reaction.”

With his theory rejected by prominent physicists of the time, Szilárd, a Hungarian Jewish refugee, pursued his own research experiments. When, in 1939, German physicists bombarded uranium with neutrons, causing it to split in two and release extra neutrons in the process, Szilárd realized the scientific and military implications. Concerned that Nazi Germany might first develop a nuclear weapon, Szilárd composed a letter U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and convinced his celebrity friend Albert Einstein to sign it instead of him. FDR responded with interest and the Manhattan Project was ultimately born in 1942.

 

But with the defeat of Nazi Germany looming in the Spring of 1945, Szilárd co-authored the Franck Report that warned of a possible nuclear arms race  or war with Russia that would cost more lives than might be saved by using the atomic bomb against Japan. On the 4th of July, 1945, he sent this petition to fellow scientists.

July 4, 1945

Dear…

Inclosed is the text of a petition which will be submitted to the President of the United States. As you will see, this petition is based on purely moral considerations.

It may very well be that the decision of the President whether or not to use atomic bombs in the war against Japan will largely be based on considerations of expediency. On the basis of expediency, many arguments could be put forward both for and against our use of atomic bombs against Japan. Such arguments could be considered only within the framework of a thorough analysis of the situation which will face the United States after this war and it was felt that no useful purpose would be served by considering arguments of expediency in a short petition.

However small the chance might be that our petition may influence the course of events, I personally feel that it would be a matter of importance if a large number of scientists who have worked in this field went clearly and unmistakably on record as to their opposition on moral grounds to the use of these bombs in the present phase of the war.

Many of us are inclined to say that individual Germans share the guilt for the acts which Germany committed during this war because they did not raise their voices in protest against these acts. Their defense that their protest would have been of no avail hardly seems acceptable even though these Germans could not have protests without running risks to life and liberty. We are in a position to raise our voices without incurring any such risks even though we might incur the displeasure of some of those who are at present in charge of controlling the work on “atomic power”.

The fact that the people of the people of the United States are unaware of the choice which faces us increases our responsibility in this matter since those who have worked on “atomic power” represent a sample of the population and they alone are in a position to form an opinion and declare their stand.

Anyone who might wish to go on record by signing the petition ought to have an opportunity to do so and, therefore, it would be appreciated if you could give every member of your group an opportunity for signing.    Leo Szilard

___________________________

 

Was the atomic bombing of Japan justifiable? .

Reportedly, many others in the U.S. government and military at the time were opposed to use of the atomic bomb:

 

OTHER OPTIONS BESIDE A-BOMB

http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2015/08/03/were-there-alternatives-to-the-atomic-bombings/

Those who defend the bombings always invoke the alternative of a full-scale invasion of the Japanese homeland, Operation Downfall, which would have undoubtedly caused many American and Japanese casualties. The numbers are debatable, but estimates range from the hundreds of thousands to the millions

But the Allies had several other options available in 1945:

Demonstration.

barren island
center of Tokyo Bay

 

Changing the targets.

Hiroshima was chosen as a first target for the atomic bomb because it had not yet been bombed during the war and could therefore emphasize the power of the bomb. 

 

Clarifying the Potsdam Declaration which continued to demand “unconditional surrender.” The Allies could have made it clear that the Emperor would be allowed to continue in a symbolic role. 

 

Waiting for the Soviets.The USSR had been promised several concessions, including the island of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands  for their entry in the war, but by late July 1945, the Americans were having second thoughts. 

 

 

 

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WWII DEATHS

A scene from Dreams directed by Akira Kurosawa in 1990.

 

 

The following graphic presentation of war deaths is worth watching until the end.

 

 

 

 

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