The emperor personally read the edict, accepting on behalf of Japan the "Potsdam Declaration" proposed by China, the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union, requiring all Japanese troops at home and abroad to lay down their arms and surrender to the allies.

76 years ago today, at noon on August 15, 1945, Japan announced the "end of war."

The emperor personally read the edict, accepting on behalf of Japan the "Potsdam Declaration" proposed by China, the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union, requiring all Japanese troops at home and abroad to lay down their arms and surrender to the allies.

On January 19, 1946, Commander MacArthur of the Allied Supreme Command announced the establishment of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East to try Japanese Class A war criminals.

is known historically as Tokyo Trial .

Tokyo Trial

The location of the trial court is located in Tokyo, the former auditorium of Japanese Army Non-commissioned Officer School.

There, it was the "cradle" of World War II Japanese officers.

Setting up a court here means fundamentally eliminating Japanese militarism.

On February 15, MacArthur appointed a trial team composed of 11 judges based on the lists recommended by the allies.

The presiding judge of the court is Judge Webb of the Supreme Court of Australia.

A Chinese judge who is a member of the Legislative Yuan of the National Government, Mei Ru'ao.

The prosecutor who initiated the prosecution was also composed of prosecutors from allied countries.

The chief prosecutor is American Keenan. The affiliated unit of the

Public Prosecution Team is the International Prosecution Bureau . Keenan is the director.

This is an organization directly under the Allied Supreme Command, which prosecutes Japanese war criminals in the name of the Allies.

There were many Japanese Class-A war criminals arrested at the Tokyo Trial

.

The first batch of people to be tried were the 28 people who had committed the most serious crimes.

and the most important ones are Tojo Hideki and other 10 people.

On April 29, the court accepted the prosecution filed by the Procuratorate.

On May 3, the Tokyo Trial began.

Lasted for two and a half years, had 818 trials, , 419 witnesses, 4,336 pieces of evidence, and 48,412 pages of trial records.

is also very expensive. It took more than 2 years and cost a total of 7.5 million US dollars.

On November 4, 1948, the court read out the verdict of 1231page.

The judge took 8 days to read the verdict, and it was only completed on November 12th.

Tokyo trial scene

In the verdict, 7 people were hanged. They are:

Tojo Hideki, Itagaki Seishiro, Doihara Kenji, Matsui Iwane, Hirota Koki, Kimura Hyoutaro, and Muto Akira.

At 0:00 on December 23, 1948, seven people began to walk to the gallows one by one, and were hanged one after another.

The guilt of the war has finally been punished.

The brutality of killing has finally been avenged. Justice in the

world has finally been served.

China was the country most harmed by Japanese aggression and played an important role in the court.

The first position on the left hand of the presiding judge is the Chinese judge, Mei Ruao.

It is said that this is also the result obtained by Judge Mei after a lot of struggle.

Seating diagram of the Tokyo trial

In addition to judge Mei Ruao and prosecutor Xiang Zhejun, there are many Chinese people in the court, and they should not be forgotten.

After all, during the more than two years of trials, it was their work that achieved the result of using the law to punish war criminals.

The list of these characters, their identities, and their roles in the court were collected and verified by Feichun Duchuan from historical materials from all parties.

may have 10,000 people missing, but only 25 people can see records.

are:

judge team, 4 people;

prosecutor team, 13 people;

witnesses: 7 people;

prison officer: 1 person.

Part of the Chinese team at the Tokyo Trial

Specifically:

1, judge: Mei Ru'ao, legislator of the Legislative Yuan of the National Government;

2, judge secretary and translator: Fang Fushu, law school at Soochow University Law School (the predecessor of Suzhou University) Home

3, Judge’s Secretary: Luo Jiyi, Graduated from Tsinghua University , studied in Japan, served as consul of the Chinese Consulate in Japan

4, Judge’s Secretary: Yang Shoulin, Graduated from Soochow University Law School, translator , Jurist

5, prosecutor: Xiang Zhejun, studied abroad Yale University in the United States . After returning to China, he served as a professor at Beijing, Fazheng, Soochow and other universities, and later served as secretary of the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, etc.

6, prosecutor Secretary: Qiu Xunheng, director of the Law Institute of Soochow University, later quit due to illness

7, prosecutor's secretary: Liu Zijian, Yenching University Chinese lecturer

8, prosecutor's secretary: Zhu Qingru, Soochow University Law graduate

9, prosecutor's secretary: Gao Wenbin , Soochow University law graduate, and translator

10, prosecutor's translator: Zhou Xiqing

11, prosecutor's translator: Zhang Peiji

12, prosecutor's translator: Liu Jisheng

13, prosecutor's translator : Zheng Luda

14, prosecutor's consultant: Ni Zhengyi (yù), counselor of the Ministry of Justice and Administration of the Republic of China, legal expert proficient in British and American law

15, prosecutor's consultant: Elin, Shanghai lawyer

16, prosecutor's consultant: Gui Yu , Shanghai lawyer

17, prosecutor's consultant: Wu Xueyi , Nanjing Central University Law Professor

18, witness (in order of appearance): Qin Dechun, former mayor of Peking and deputy commander of the 29th Army, presented "July 7 Chronicles", testifying against the crimes of the Japanese army

19, witness: Xu Chuanyin , vice president of the International Red Cross, organized the burial of the bodies of compatriots who died in Nanjing, testifying against the crimes of the Japanese army in Nanjing

20, witness: Shang Deyi, a Shanghai citizen , testified against the crimes of the Japanese army in Shanghai

21, witness: Wu Changde , a food merchant in Nanjing, testified against the crimes of the Japanese army in Nanjing

22, witness: Chen Fubao , a citizen of Nanjing, testified against the crimes of the Japanese army

23, witness: Xu Jiejun, worked in the Yunnan and Burma areas , testified against the crimes committed by the Japanese army in the Yunnan and Burma battlefields

24, witness: Puyi , deposed emperor, testified against Japan's control of Manchuria

25, prison officer: Shang Zhen, second-level general, head of the Chinese delegation to Japan, Together with representatives of the British, American and Soviet countries, he was responsible for the execution of Tojo Hideki and other seven people. (End)

Puyi is testifying

Reference:

① (Japanese) "Tokyo Trial" written by "Asahi Shimbun" Tokyo Trial Reporter Group, translated by Ji Jia, Hebei People's Publishing House, 1988

② "Shang Zhen Confronts MacArthur in the Tokyo Trial 》 August 7, 2014 "People's Political Consultative Conference"

③ "Research on the Chinese Prosecution Team and the Tokyo Trial" Shanghai Jiao Tong University Master's Thesis 2016 Sun Yi