1/8: Judgment at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia Hardcover – by Gary J. Bass
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 14 December 2023
⏱️ 11 minutes
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Summary
1/8: Judgment at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia Hardcover – by Gary J. Bass
https://www.amazon.com/Judgment-Tokyo-World-Making-Modern/dp/1101947101
In the weeks after Japan finally surrendered to the Allies to end World War II, the world turned to the question of how to move on from years of carnage and destruction. For Harry Truman, Douglas MacArthur, Chiang Kai-shek, and their fellow victors, the question of justice seemed clear: Japan’s militaristic leaders needed to be tried and punished for the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor; shocking atrocities against civilians in China, the Philippines, and elsewhere; and rampant abuses of prisoners of war in notorious incidents such as the Bataan death march. For the Allied powers, the trial was an opportunity to render judgment on their vanquished foes, but also to create a legal framework to prosecute war crimes and prohibit the use of aggressive war, building a more peaceful world under international law and American hegemony. For the Japanese leaders on trial, it was their chance to argue that their war had been waged to liberate Asia from Western imperialism and that the court was victors’ justice.
1933 Hirohito Tokyo
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is CBS I on the world with John Bachelor. |
| 0:10.0 | Here's John Bachelor. |
| 0:12.0 | Judgment at Tokyo World War II on trial and the making of a modern Asia. |
| 0:18.0 | I welcome Professor Gary Bask. |
| 0:20.0 | The book is overwhelming and we begin with an overwhelming day. |
| 0:25.0 | April 12, 1945. |
| 0:28.0 | Harry Truman is beckoned to the White House late in the afternoon. |
| 0:32.0 | He's been at Congress, that's his job as Vice President, to sit in over |
| 0:37.0 | the U.S. Senate, but he's now beckoned to the White House, taken upstairs, Eleanor Roosevelt greets him to say, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is dead. |
| 0:48.0 | Harry Truman, at that moment, is President of the United States. |
| 0:52.4 | I welcome Professor Bass to comment on Harry Truman's |
| 0:56.1 | understanding of what we're about to take on, which is the Tokyo War Crimes Trial. |
| 1:01.5 | Professor, congratulations and very good evening to you. |
| 1:06.3 | You make it very clear that Harry Truman had not been well briefed at all about foreign |
| 1:11.7 | policy, but especially about Asia and be and that moment he has all |
| 1:17.1 | of the war on him it's still underway in Europe still underway in Japan, across the Pacific. |
| 1:24.4 | What do we know about his understanding of the Japanese Empire |
| 1:28.2 | and the Chinese War and the Philippines devastation, was he at that moment starting to learn? |
| 1:37.3 | Did he come to some revelation that's important to understand? |
| 1:40.7 | Good evening to you. Good evening and thank you for having me on. |
| 1:45.0 | For Truman, it's this shocking moment where all of a sudden |
| 1:49.0 | presidency falls on him and he's not at all prepared for it. |
... |
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