military trial definition

Military Trial Definition - The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), also known as the Tokyo Tribunal or Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, was a military tribunal held on April 29, 1946 to indict leaders of the Empire of Japan for crimes against peace, conv . crimes and crimes against humanity leading up to and during World War II.

It was modeled after the International Military Tribunal (IMT) that had been formed a few months earlier in Nuremberg, Germany to prosecute high officials of Nazi Germany.

Military Trial Definition

After the defeat of Japan and the occupation by the Allies, the Supreme Allied Commander, General Douglas MacArthur of the United States, issued a special proclamation establishing the IMTFE. A charter was drawn up, which determines the composition of the court, jurisdiction, procedures; crimes are defined based on the Nuremberg Charter. The Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal was composed of judges, prosecutors, and personnel from a number of countries that fought against Japan: Australia, Canada, China, France, India, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, the Soviet Union, the United States Kingdom, and the United States; the defense consisted of Japanese and American lawyers.

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The Tokyo trial had a broader temporal jurisdiction than its Nuremberg counterpart, beginning with the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria. The court tried 28 high-ranking Japanese military and political leaders, including Curt and former prime ministers, foreign ministers and military commanders. They are accused of fifty-five different charges, including waging wars of aggression, murder, and various war crimes and crimes against humanity (such as torture and forced labor) against prisoners of war, civilian internees and residents of occupied territory; eventually, 45 counts, including all charges of murder, were declared either redundant or without jurisdiction under the IMTFE Charter.

By the time the trial was adjourned on November 12, 1948, two of the defendants had died of natural causes, and one had been declared unfit to stand trial. All remaining defendants were found guilty of at least one count, seven of whom were sentenced to death and sixteen to life imprisonment. Thousands of other "minor" war criminals were tried by domestic tribunals convened by Allied nations throughout Asia and the Pacific, and most were completed by 1949.

However, Japanese imperial leaders responsible for some of the worst war crimes committed during World War II have not been punished. Because the US government covered up some Japanese war crimes and classified incriminating evidence, as well as blocking the prosecution's access to key witnesses, the trials failed to bring the Imperial Japanese leaders responsible for Unit 731 to justice.

The Tokyo trial lasted more than twice as long as the more famous Nuremberg trials, and its impact had a similar impact on the development of international law; similar international war crimes tribunals would not be established until the 1990s.

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The International Military Tribunal for the Far East was convened at the Ichigaya Court, formerly Building H of the Imperial Japanese Army, in Ichigaya, Tokyo.

The tribunal was established to enforce the Cairo Declaration, the Potsdam Declaration, the Surrender Order and the Moscow Conference. The Potsdam Declaration (July 1945) stated, "Strict justice will be meted out to all war criminals, including those who have committed atrocities against our prisoners," although it did not specifically allude to trials.

The terms of jurisdiction of the Tribunal are contained in the Charter of the IMTFE, issued on 19 January 1946.

There was great disagreement, both among the Allies and within their administrations, about whom to visit and how to visit them. Despite the lack of consus, General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Allied Commander, decided to begin arrests. On September 11, a week after the surrender, he ordered the arrest of 39 suspects - most of them members of General Hideki Tojo's war cabinet. Tojo tried to commit suicide, but he was resuscitated with the help of American doctors.

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On January 19, 1946, MacArthur issued a special proclamation ordering the establishment of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE). On the same day, he also approved the Charter of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (CIMTFE), which prescribes the manner of its formation, the crimes to be considered and how the tribunal was to function. The Charter largely followed the model set by the Nuremberg Trials. On April 25, in accordance with the provisions of Article 7 of the CIMTFE, the original Rules of Procedure of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East were published with amendments.

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A view of the Tribunal in session: on the right is the judge, on the left is the accused, and in the back the prosecutors

After months of preparation, the IMTFE met on April 29, 1946. The trials were held at the War Ministry office in Tokyo.

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On May 3, the prosecution opened its case, charging the suspects with crimes against peace, war crimes under the law and crimes against humanity. The trial continued for more than two and a half years, hearing the testimony of 419 witnesses and accepting 4,336 exhibits, including the testimony and sworn statements of 779 other persons.

Following the model used at the Nuremberg trials in Germany, the Allies established three broad categories. "Class A" charges, for crimes against peace, would be brought against top Japanese leaders who planned and directed the war. Class B and C charges, which could be brought against Japanese of any rank, dealt with war crimes and crimes against humanity, respectively. Unlike the Nuremberg trials, the charge of crimes against peace was a condition precedent to prosecution – the tribunal could only prosecute those whose crimes included crimes against peace. In that case, no Class C charges were heard in Tokyo.

[Killing, mutilation and ill-treatment of prisoners of war (and) interned civilians ... (execution of) mass murders, rape, robbery, banditry, torture and other barbaric cruelties against the defenseless civilian population of the invaded countries.

Kean issued a press release along with the indictment: "War and treaty breakers must be stripped of the glamor of national heroes and exposed for what they really are - plain, simple murderers."

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As leaders, organizers, instigators or accomplices in the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to wage wars of aggression, war or wars in violation of international law

Waging an aggressive war against the British Commonwealth (crown colonies and protectorates of the United Kingdom in the Far East and South Asia, Australia and New Zealand)

All possible evidence incriminating Emperor Hirohito and his family was excluded from the International Military Tribunal for the Far East because the United States believed it had to maintain order in Japan and achieve its postwar goals.

The prosecution began giving statements on May 3, 1946, and it took 192 days to go through the evidentiary proceedings, which ended on January 24, 1947. It presented its evidence in five stages.

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The best evidence rule dictates that the "best" or most authentic evidence must be presented (eg, a map instead of a map description; an original instead of a copy; and a witness instead of a description of what the witness might say). Judge Pal, one of the two judges who voted for acquittal on all counts, observed, "in a proceeding where we had to allow the prosecution to introduce any amount of hearsay evidence, it was a somewhat misplaced caution to allow this best-case rule to introduce evidence, especially if it practically only acted against the defense."

To prove its case, the prosecution team relied on the doctrine of "command responsibility". This doctrine was not evidence of criminal orders. The prosecutor had to prove three things: that the war crimes were systematic or widespread; the accused knew that soldiers were committing crimes; and the accused had the power or authority to stop the crimes.

Part of Article 13 of the Charter states that evidence against the accused may include any document "without proof of issue or signature", such as diaries, letters, press releases and affidavits or extrajudicial statements relating to the charges.

Article 13 of the Charter reads in part: "The Tribunal is not bound by technical rules of evidence ... and accepts any evidence it considers to have probative value."

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The prosecution claimed that a document from 1927 known as the Tanaka Memorial showed that a "common plan or conspiracy" to commit "crimes against the peace" the accused. Thus, the prosecution claimed that the conspiracy began in 1927 and lasted until the end of the war in 1945. Most historians today consider the Tanaka Memorial an anti-Japanese forgery; however, it was not considered such a time.

The war declarations of the Allies were accepted as evidence by the prosecution, while those requested by the defense were excluded. The memory of a conversation with a long-dead man is acknowledged. Letters supposedly written by Japanese citizens were

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