As the world marks the 70th anniversary of the commencement of the Tokyo trial, a trial that gave justice to the oppressed, the murdered, the dehumanized and traumatized people, majority of which are Chinese, we seek to highlight its relation to the current militants banditing as Boko Haram.
Emperor Hirohito of Japan on August 15, 1945 in his popular radio broadcast announcing the surrender of japan in WW2 after the US dropped bombs simultaneously on Japan’s nuclear facilities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese territory fell under the Americans and this paved way for the supreme commander Douglas MacArthur. The Potsdam declaration of July 1945had earlier called for the trials of those who had ‘deceived and misled’ the Japanese into war.
“World war II was the first major conflict in history in which the victor carried out trials and punishment of thousands of persons in the defeated nations for ‘crimes against humanity’, two new and broadly defined categories of international crime”-Richard B. Finn. One of such trials is the ‘Tokyo trial’, set up to try Japanese officials for their role in WW2. Also, in Nuremberg Germany, a similar trial was set up to try the Nazi war criminals. This was dubbed ‘Nuremberg trial’. It is pertinent to note that both Germany and Japan had an allied force in WW2.
Unlike it counterpart trial in Nuremberg which had four (4) chief prosecutors, the Tokyo trial had only one prosecutor, American Joseph B. Keenan. The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE) had prosecution team from allied nations: India, china, France, Netherlands, Philippines, New Zealand, Britain, Australia, Canada, USA and Soviet Union. The trial would last for two (2) years.
Twenty eight (28) men were brought to trial beforE IMTFE. A list that had nineteen (19) professional military men and nine (9) civilians. They were indicted on 55-counts of “crimes against peace, conventional war crimes and crimes against humanity”. On the list were:
- four former premiers
- three former foreign ministers
- four former war ministers
- two former navy ministers
- six former generals
- two former ambassadors
- three former economic and financial leaders
- one imperial adviser
- one radical theorist
- one admiral, and lastly,
- one colonel
The indictment accused the defendants of promoting a scheme of conquest that “contemplated and carried out…murdering, maiming and ill-treating prisoners of war and civilian internees…forcing them to labour under inhumane conditions…plundering public and private property, wantonly destroying cities, towns and villages beyond justification of military necessity, mass murder, rape, pillage, brigandage, torture and other barbaric cruelties upon the helpless civilian population of the over-run countries”. The chief prosecutor said “war and treaty-breakers should be stripped of the glamour of national heroes and exposed as what they really are-plain, ordinary murderers”.
In the end,
- 2 died of natural causes
- 1 had mental disorder before the trial concluded
- 7 were sentenced to death by hanging
- 16 to life imprisonment
- 2 got lesser jail times
…and that was the Tokyo trial.
There have been clamours in a lot of quarters asking for the establishment of special court with special mandate to prosecute the war against corruption as well as anyone fingered in the deliberate negligence of security operatives which undermined the war against terror, this the authority has shelved. Even before Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender, there was a plan on how to deal with the war criminals. We say that that is how a government with purpose behaves. One year after PMB won in the general election, the only war on corruption with adjoining #dasukigate, is on the pages of newspaper. No serious effort.
By the way, Mr. President, if justice is not going to be served on individuals involved in #dasukigate, release them already. Are you afraid they could scheme against your government if they be free men?
Abdulkareem “Emirates” AbdulHafeez
Kareemafeez@gmail.com
