Judgment at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of a Modern Era

This impressive history of the 1946–1948 International Military Tribunal for the Far East describes how Japanese military and civilian leaders were tried for war crimes committed throughout Asia and the Pacific from 1931 to 1945. Bass (The Blood Telegram), a professor of international relations at Columbia University, uses witnesses’ testimonies to offer comprehensive accounts of wartime horrors such as the 1937 Rape of Nanking, the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, and the barbaric treatment of POWs building the Thai-Burma Railway, where an estimated 12,000 prisoners died. He also describes the politics and legal views of the 11 judges representing the Allies, the personal histories of the 28 leaders on trial, and the machinations of the U.S. to ensure that Emperor Hirohito was not held responsible for the war. The trial was a miscarriage of justice, according to Bass, who explains that the verdicts, which sent seven defendants to the gallows, 16 to life in prison, and acquitted six others, condemned several civilian government ministers who had been held hostage by a crazed, militaristic war cabinet and were unable to express antiwar views for fear of assassination. Bass also dedicates significant space to considering the Japanese defense that the war was necessary to free Asia from Western imperialism, and the divisive effect this discussion had on the trial. Bass astounds with his ability to tie so many complex narratives together. This is a clear-eyed look at a pivotal period in world history. (Oct.)