Judgment at Tokyo - SFBA Book Club

No cover — Gary J. Bass: Judgment at Tokyo (2023, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group)

English language

Published Sept. 21, 2023 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

ISBN:: 978-1-101-94710-4

(1 review)

A landmark, magisterial history of the trial of Japan’s leaders as war criminals—the largely overlooked Asian counterpart to Nuremberg

In the weeks after Japan finally surrendered to the Allies, the world turned to the question of how to move on from years of carnage and destruction. For Harry Truman, Douglas MacArthur, and their fellow victors, the questions of justice seemed clear: Japan’s leaders needed to be tried and punished for the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor; shocking atrocities against citizens in China, the Philippines, Korea, and elsewhere; rampant abuses of POWs. For the Allied Forces, the trial was an opportunity to achieve justice against the defendants, but also to create a legal framework for the prosecution of war crimes and to prohibit the use of aggressive war, and to create the kind of liberal international order that would prevail in Europe. For the Japanese leaders facing trial, it was their …

A landmark, magisterial history of the trial of Japan’s leaders as war criminals—the largely overlooked Asian counterpart to Nuremberg

In the weeks after Japan finally surrendered to the Allies, the world turned to the question of how to move on from years of carnage and destruction. For Harry Truman, Douglas MacArthur, and their fellow victors, the questions of justice seemed clear: Japan’s leaders needed to be tried and punished for the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor; shocking atrocities against citizens in China, the Philippines, Korea, and elsewhere; rampant abuses of POWs. For the Allied Forces, the trial was an opportunity to achieve justice against the defendants, but also to create a legal framework for the prosecution of war crimes and to prohibit the use of aggressive war, and to create the kind of liberal international order that would prevail in Europe. For the Japanese leaders facing trial, it was their chance to argue that their war had been waged to liberate Asia from Western imperialism.

For more than two years, lawyers for both sides presented their cases before a panel of judges from China, India, the Philippines, and Australia, as well as the US and Europe. The testimony ran from horrific accounts of brutality and the secret plans to attack Pearl Harbor to the Japanese military’s threats to destabilize the government if it sued for peace. Yet rather than clarity and unanimity, the trial brought division and complexity; these tensions and contradictions could also be seen playing out across Asia as the trial unfolded, from China’s descent into civil war to India’s independence and partition to Japan’s first successful democratic elections and the rewriting of a new, liberal constitution.

Judgment at Tokyo is a riveting story of wartime action, dramatic courtroom battles, and the epic formative years that set the stage for the Asian postwar era.

3 editions

Phil in SF reviewed Judgment at Tokyo by Gary J. Bass

Thorough and critical

5 stars

The earlier parts of the book cover the progress of the war, focusing on the situations that would be the subject of the Tokyo trial. Then the book moves to the machinations behind the scenes that set up the trial, decided how it would be run, and who would judge. Particularly interesting was the thinking and politicking behind the decision not to prosecute Emperor Hirohito. However, as the trial progresses it is explained that prosecutors, defendants, and judges alike also wanted to avoid blaming Hirohito for the war, which led to some very awkward exchanges throughout the trial. What was never explained is why the prosecution wanted to maintain the fiction that Hirohito was tricked into the war by war-loving generals, rather than simply acknowledging that it was a political decision or in the alternative, simply noting that prosecuting him would be difficult. I'm sure the powers that be had …

The earlier parts of the book cover the progress of the war, focusing on the situations that would be the subject of the Tokyo trial. Then the book moves to the machinations behind the scenes that set up the trial, decided how it would be run, and who would judge. Particularly interesting was the thinking and politicking behind the decision not to prosecute Emperor Hirohito. However, as the trial progresses it is explained that prosecutors, defendants, and judges alike also wanted to avoid blaming Hirohito for the war, which led to some very awkward exchanges throughout the trial. What was never explained is why the prosecution wanted to maintain the fiction that Hirohito was tricked into the war by war-loving generals, rather than simply acknowledging that it was a political decision or in the alternative, simply noting that prosecuting him would be difficult. I'm sure the powers that be had reasons that made sense to themselves, but I came away from the book not understanding that choice. After an exhaustive recounting of the trial from the perspectives of nearly everyone involved, the book gives a few chapters to the aftermath, including a long epilogue on the legacy of the trial in some of the major countries that were involved (the US, China, Japan, and Russia).

Crucially, throughout the book, the author does not spare anyone from criticism. Every country involved comes under the microscope, and none escapes blemish. Everyone from Truman to MacArthur has their faults exposed. Perhaps the only person involved to escape with his honor intact is Mei Ruao, the American educated Chinese judge. During the war, he experienced the Japanese bombing his city firsthand. After the war, he threw in with the Communists rather than accept exile in Taiwan. At first lauded, he was denounced during the Cultural Revolution, and then had his reputation posthumously restored by the Chinese Communist Party.

Be forewarned though, that not only is the book long, but many parts are repetitive. The book repeats descriptions of many episodes with the same wording and even the same quotes. A minor quibble, however.