5/8: 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
🗓️ 15 December 2023
⏱️ 10 minutes
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Summary
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.
1945 USS Missouri, MacArthur signing.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is a |
| 0:05.0 | This is CBS Eye on the World. |
| 0:08.0 | Here's John Bachelor. |
| 0:10.0 | Professor Gary J. Bass continues about his monumental reading of 50,000 pages of manuscripts of the |
| 0:20.2 | tribunal that was held between 1946 and 1948 in Tokyo for war crimes of the |
| 0:27.5 | Japanese Empire. The book is judgment at Tokyo World War II on trial and the |
| 0:32.3 | making of modern Asia. It is now March of |
| 0:35.2 | 1948. The trial continues. It's coming to a dramatic conclusion. However, arriving in Tokyo is a man that we know very well here in the 21st century. |
| 0:46.6 | George Cannon of the State Department, a man associated with the telegram X that is entirely about the containment of the threat of communism out of the Soviet Union. |
| 0:58.0 | Cannon is told to go meet MacArthur and express your ideas about how he is handling Japan's transformation from a |
| 1:08.4 | military cult during the wars of aggression in these last years into a modern state. |
| 1:15.0 | George Cannon and first is rebuked by General MacArthur who thinks he's just another |
| 1:22.2 | harassing State Department executive. General MacArthur who thinks he's just another harassing |
| 1:23.5 | uh... state department executive who's expecting to be treated like a prince |
| 1:28.2 | that is not can in style |
| 1:30.2 | and eventually can and staying at the Imperial Hotel, wins a second audience with MacArthur, |
| 1:36.5 | and herein is a dominant conversation for my understanding of what was happening in 1948 and what we still understand today |
| 1:45.7 | about Asia. Professor this is a spectacular scene. George Cannon and and |
| 1:52.1 | Douglas MacArthur sitting in his office talking about Japan as a bulwark. |
| 1:59.3 | Bullwork for what? |
| 2:00.5 | What was Kenan's idea and what did MacArthur make of it? Thank you. |
| 2:04.8 | Thank you. So the what I'm trying to do in the book is not just tell the story the trial but also |
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