Japan was barely recognizable as the country whose relentless military aggression had ended only seven years earlier. The nation’s new constitution prohibited the government from arming itself except for purposes of self-defense. Seven Class A Japanese war criminals had been executed at the conclusion of the international Tokyo War Crimes Trials in 1948, including General Tōjō Hideki, Japan’s prime minister who ordered the attack on Pearl Harbor. Almost 6,000 lower-level war criminals were also indicted, out of whom 920 were executed and more than 3,000 were given prison terms. As a means to
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