Japan had signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact in 1928, and violation of its principles was emerging at that very time as a major charge to be leveled against defendants in the Tokyo war-crimes trials. In these circumstances, the Kellogg-Briand language of peace became, rhetorically and legally, a double-edged sword: used, in the new draft constitution, to protect the emperor even as it was being unsheathed to cut down his erstwhile officers and officials.
