Judgement at Tokyo by Gary J Bass review of war crimes and punishment

News Snapshot:

Every lawyer, politician and historian in Europe and America remembers Nuremberg, the trial of surviving Nazi leaders after the second world war. Few remember Tokyo, the international tribunal that arraigned the surviving Japanese leadership. And yet Tokyo lasted for more than two years (1946-8), as against Nuremberg’s brisk 11 months (1945-6), produced a far taller mountain of documents and – in contrast to the German trial – found every single defendant guilty. The Tokyo judges intended to build on Nuremberg’s achievement, laying wider foundations for the code and practise of international law. But almost the only living and active memory...