S8 Ep293: ARRESTING THE CABINET AND DEFINING CLASS A CRIMES Colleague Professor Gary J. Bass. As MacArthur's occupation forces arrived in a ruined Tokyo, they began arresting suspects, including former Prime Minister Tojo Hideki, who botched a suicide attempt. The

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🗓️ 10 January 2026

⏱️ 13 minutes

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Summary

ARRESTING THE CABINET AND DEFINING CLASS A CRIMES Colleague Professor Gary J. Bass. As MacArthur's occupation forces arrived in a ruined Tokyo, they began arresting suspects, including former Prime Minister Tojo Hideki, who botched a suicide attempt. The upcoming International Military Tribunal for the Far Eastcategorized offenses into Class A (aggressive war), Class B (conventional war crimes), and Class C (crimes against humanity). Prosecutors utilized the discovered diary of Kido Koichi, the Emperor's advisor, to map decision-making, though the Emperor himself remained untouched. Notably, while General Matsui was charged for the Nanjing Massacre, the Emperor's uncle, Prince Asaka, who was also commanding troops there, escaped prosecution entirely. NUMBER 3
1930 TOKYO

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm John Baxter with Professor Gary Bass.
0:07.4	His new book is Judgment at Tokyo, World War II on trial and the making of modern Asia.
0:13.3	Douglas MacArthur, five-star general, the American occupation force in place in September, October, November, December of 1945. What is to be done?
0:25.4	Democratization, Christianization, a rebuilding of the Japanese society. It's not only in tatters,
0:32.6	it's in ashes. McArthur rides in from the airport when he first lands in August of 45, and he rides past what the professor reports is 22 miles of ruins, charred ruins.
0:46.8	Curtis LeMay has burned Tokyo, burned Japan.
0:51.1	There's nothing there.
0:52.3	They're beginning again.
0:53.9	The Hiroshima and Nagasaki
0:55.7	war of destruction resembles what the rest of Japan looked like. Now we come to the fact that
1:02.8	there are men who are waiting for their own fate. And it's important to mention, as the
1:09.3	professor does, that the army and the Navy and the
1:12.5	ministry started burning papers immediately upon the day of surrender, immediately, burning
1:18.1	what is estimated to be 70% of the documents about the Nanjing massacres. So the trial ahead
1:25.5	is going to struggle to recover information.
1:28.8	We need to go now to the arrest of Tojo Hideki, a very vivid military man who became prime minister.
1:38.5	And there's a photograph in the professor's book of Tojo bowing to the emperor.
1:44.0	You can understand the formality of his relationship to his, the Meiji emperor.
1:49.5	Tojo tries to kill himself.
1:50.8	Do we believe it, Professor?
1:52.0	Because he does a very bad job of it.
1:54.0	And this is a very precise man.
	...

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