LESSONS LEARNED OF WAR CRIMES TRIBUNALS: 2/8: 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
🗓️ 1 April 2024
⏱️ 7 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 Hiroshima
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm John Batschre with Professor Gary Bass, his new book is judgment at Tokyo, |
| 0:09.2 | World War II on trial in the making of modern Asia. |
| 0:13.2 | September 2nd, 1945, on the deck of the U.S. |
| 0:16.6 | Missouri, chosen, of course, because the President of the United States is from Missouri. |
| 0:21.8 | The signatures of the nine allies together led by |
| 0:26.8 | General MacArthur and the signatures of Japanese representatives, a man in |
| 0:31.6 | uniform, a man in a top hat, and that is the end of the war |
| 0:38.2 | as we understand it. |
| 0:39.5 | However, it's the beginning of the challenge of what to do about that language from the Potsdam |
| 0:45.2 | Declaration, all war criminals. |
| 0:49.0 | Most importantly, we now begin what you'd have to say is historical editing. |
| 0:55.0 | Hereahito is the Emperor of Japan. |
| 0:58.0 | Douglas MacArthur knows this. |
| 1:00.0 | During the firebombing of Tokyo, 9 and 10, it is the record that Curtis LeMay chose not to bomb the palace, not to attempt to kill the Emperor. Why? The understanding was the Japanese people need an |
| 1:16.8 | organizing principle if there is to be an end of this war. Douglas MacArthur has |
| 1:21.6 | some of that in him as he stays away from meeting the |
| 1:24.9 | Emperor but finally on September 27th he has an audience with Hirohito. There's a |
| 1:29.9 | photograph in Gary's book that gives you a glimpse of what's what's presenting everyone |
| 1:35.6 | right now which is what is to be done with the Emperor who vouchsafed all of |
| 1:40.2 | the brutality that the professor is identifying in his book. |
| 1:44.0 | Gary, to this day, Hirohito is understood as a controversial figure in Japan, in China, in India, in the United States when we come to it. |
| 1:55.8 | What do we need to understand about his relationship with his own conduct during the |
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