Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II

In “Victor’s Justice, Loser’s Justice,” Dower explores the details and the complexities of The International Military Tribunal (1946-1948) for the Far East, also known as the Tokyo War Crimes Trials or the Tokyo Tribunal. He provides statistical information about the proceedings; discusses the way colonialist thinking played into the trials; offers contemporary criticism; and compares the trials to their counterpart in Nuremberg.

In the early postwar period, the Allies were motivated both by hatred and by hope, which was evident during the war-crimes trials. In light of the Japanese atrocities carried out in all military theaters, such as the Rape of Nanking, the Allies desired both vengeance and retributive justice. The war crimes included three categories, “Class A,” “Class B,” and “Class C.” “Class A” referred to crimes against peace, such as planning a war of aggression. “Class B” crimes included “conventional” war crimes—violating the established rules of war such as shooting POWs. “Class C” included crimes against humanity; these include various types of wartime inhumanities such as murder, enslavement, and persecution on the grounds of racial or political affiliation, among others. There were some exceptions to these proceedings: The US military tried Generals Masaharu Homma and Tomoyuki Yamashita in the Philippines.