War Crimes Trials in China
The war crimes trials in China were negotiations against Japanese as category B or C (Japanese: BC j 戦 犯 ) war criminals who had committed crimes against the customs of war in the Second Sino-Japanese War between 1937 and 1946 . These were procedures that were carried out under the direction of the National Government of China before 1949. These trials are to be distinguished from the US courts-martial, which atoned for crimes against American aviators in Shanghai.
organization
China has been the main sufferer of Japanese imperialist aggression. The government was therefore a driving force behind the establishment of the United Nations War Crimes Commission (UNWCC) and the creation of the sub-committee on war crimes, in Chongqing , which initially only dealt with the collection of information on war crimes in China. After the creation of the Far Eastern Commission (FEC), this task went to its Committee No. 5: Criminals Was Over. The chairman was Chinese for the time of its existence.
On October 24, 1946, a law was passed regulating the conduct of war crimes trials. The legal basis was the principles of international war law and, alternatively, the provisions of the penal code. In addition to “crimes against peace”, 38 acts were specifically named, including “forced use” of poisons or drugs, hostage killings, starvation, mass torture and aspects of psychological warfare. These regulations, which applied to crimes from September 1931, covered a much larger area than the z. B. by SCAP in Yokohama . The defense that a defendant acted “under orders of higher order” (i.e. when there was an emergency ) was not recognized, nor was it considered an attenuating circumstance. The law specifically mentions the responsibility of a superior for all acts committed by his subordinates. In contrast to the Anglo-American legal system, there are penalties for individual crimes with minimum sentences that cannot be fallen short of. The most common charge was murder, and in many cases the charge was also a violation of international law.
The courts-martial were under the control of the Ministry of Justice and Defense. They usually consisted of five judges (more were allowed but not common) and one to three prosecutors. A total of 13 tribunals have been set up in different regions. The judgments all contained reasons.
Processes
The first suspects, mostly soldiers or members of the gendarmerie, were arrested in the Beijing / Tientsin area when the Chinese national government regained control of these areas. It soon became apparent that a vast number of crimes had taken place. The Shanghai District Court announced on March 3, 1946 that 11,889 cases were registered in its area alone, and 30,000 cases were estimated for the region nine days later.
The first trial began in Beijing on April 10, 1946 and ended eight days later with four death sentences and five years imprisonment for five Japanese murderers.
In Nanking the former governor of Hong Kong, Gen.-Lt. Isogai Rensuke negotiates. He was accused of undermining public health by selling opium. He was also accused of having let his troops advance on Nanking. These crimes against peace earned him a life sentence.
Due to the principle of the responsibility of a commander, which was interpreted even further than the trial of General Yamashita , Sakai Takashi was convicted. As a commander in China since 1931, he was held responsible for a variety of crimes. His public shooting took place on September 30, 1946.
Gen.-Lt. Tani Hisao ( 谷寿夫 ; 1882–1948) was charged in March 1947 as the alleged perpetrator of the Nanking massacre and sentenced to death after a month's trial.
The trial in Shanghai against Army General Okamura Yasutsugu and commander in chief in China from January 1945 received special attention. Not only was he considered to be the puller behind the government of Wang Jingwei , but he was also accused of violating Art. 46 of the Hague Land Warfare Regulations by his subordinates. The prosecutor called for the death penalty . The proceedings were suspended for several months because the defendant was seriously ill. When the verdict was announced in January 1949 Okamura was surprisingly acquitted for lack of evidence, as the court the command responsibility of a commander in chief ( command responsibility did not want to see). It cannot be ruled out that this was a politically motivated acquittal, since at that time Japan, according to the will of its American occupiers, was already to be built into a bulwark against communism.
Chinese prosecutors also appeared before the courts of other allies. In Yokohama, you were a judge on several military commissions when crimes against Chinese victims were tried. The last trials took place in March 1949, but ended earlier in Hankow, Beijing and Canton due to the liberation of these cities.
Revision
Convicts could appeal within ten days.
All convictions had to be approved by the Justice Department. President Chiang Kai-shek personally confirmed death sentences and life sentences . Both agencies were able to refer judgments that they deemed inappropriate back to the court for retrial. For the ministry, this also applied to acquittals if there were serious doubts about innocence. Occasionally it was also stated that the accused were to be sentenced to death.
Convictions
885 defendants were tried in 605 proceedings. Of these, 504 were convicted, with 149 death sentences (29.7%) and 83 life sentences. What is striking is the high number of acquittals at 350; the proceedings against 29 defendants were not concluded because they could not be found or had fled or the indictment was withdrawn.
In February 1949 260 prisoners were extradited to SCAP and transferred to the Sugamo prison in Tokyo.
In August 1952, the Japanese and National-Chinese governments, which since 1949 have ruled only Taiwan Province, ratified a peace treaty in which "China" renounced the privileges and reparations it had promised in the San Francisco Peace Treaty . The remaining 88 convicts were then released immediately.
literature
- Sheldon Harris: Japanese biological warfare experiments and other atrocities in Manchuria, 1932-1945, and the United States Subsequent cover up ... . In: Crime, Law, Social Change 15, 1991, ISSN 0378-1100 , pp. 171-199.
- Philip R. Piccigallo: The Japanese on Trial. Allied was crimes operations in the East. 1945–1951 . University of Texas Press, Austin TX et al. a. 1979, ISBN 0-292-78033-8 .
- ↑ cf. Agreement of Foreign Ministers at Moscow establishing Far Eastern Commission and Allied Council for Japan, Dec. 27, 1945; in: Political Reorientation of Japan, Part II-A, p. 421.
- ↑ Times (London) August 6, 1952
