Judgement at Tokyo

The definitive account of the Tokyo war crimes trials of 1946-8, WWII and the beginning of the end of the European empires in Asia and the impact the settlement has had on post-war China and Japan, the wider history of East and South Asia - and of the world - to this day.

A landmark, magisterial history of the trial of Japan''s leaders as war criminals-the largely overlooked Asian counterpart to Nuremberg. In the weeks after Japan finally surrendered to the Allies, the world turned to the question of how to move on from years of carnage and destruction. For Harry Truman, Douglas MacArthur, and their fellow victors, the questions of justice seemed clear: Japan''s leaders needed to be tried and punished for the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor; shocking atrocities against citizens in China, the Philippines, Korea, and elsewhere; and rampant abuses of POWs. For the Allied Forces, the trial was an opportunity to achieve justice against the defendants, but also to create a legal framework for the prosecution of war crimes and to prohibit the use of aggressive war, and to create the kind of liberal international order that would prevail in Europe. For the Japanese leaders facing trial, it was their chance to argue that their war had been waged to liberate Asia from Western imperialism. For more than two years, lawyers for both sides presented their cases before a panel of judges from China, India, the Philippines, and Australia, as well as the US and Europe. The testimony ran from horrific accounts of brutality and the secret plans to attack Pearl Harbor to the Japanese military''s threats to destabilize the government if it sued for peace. Yet rather than clarity and unanimity, the trial brought division and complexity; these tensions and contradictions could also be seen playing out across Asia as the trial unfolded, from China''s descent into civil war to India''s independence and partition to Japan''s first successful democratic elections and the rewriting of a new, liberal constitution. Judgement at Tokyo is a riveting story of wartime action, dramatic courtroom battles, and the epic formative years that set the stage for the Asian postwar era.

Autorentext
Gary J. Bass is a professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University. He is the author of Judgement at Tokyo and The Blood Telegram, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction, Freedom's Battle: The Origins of Humanitarian Intervention, and Stay the Hand of Vengeance: The Politics of War Crimes Tribunals. A former reporter for The Economist, Bass has written for The New York Times, The New Yorker and The Washington Post amongst others. He holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University and lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

Klappentext

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2024 CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE

'Magisterial' - Max Hastings, The Sunday Times
'Monumental'- Rana Mitter, Times Literary Supplement

'Every so often, a new work emerges of such immense scholarship and weight that it really does add a significant difference to our understanding of the Second World War and its consequences. Judgement in Tokyo is one such, a monumental work in both scale and detail, beautifully constructed and written, leaving the reader not only moved but disturbed as well.' - James Holland, The Sunday Telegraph**

*'A work of singular importance . . . balanced, original, human, accessible, and riveting' - Philippe Sands, author of East-West Street*

'Breathtakingly ambitious and unlikely to be bettered as a portrait of the trials and their place in postwar global history' - History Today**

A landmark history of the postwar trials of Japan's leaders as war criminals, and their impact on the modern history of Asia and the world.

In the weeks after Japan finally surrendered to the Allies to end World War II, the victorious powers turned to the question of how to move on from years of carnage and destruction. For the Allied powers, the trials were an opportunity both to render judgment on their vanquished foes and to create a legal framework to prosecute war crimes and prohibit the use of aggressive war. 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 no more than victors' justice.

Gary J. Bass' Judgement at Tokyo is a magnificent, riveting story of wartime action, dramatic courtroom battles, and the epic formative years that set the stage for the postwar era in the Asia-Pacific.

'A comprehensive, landmark and riveting book' - The Washington Post, 'The 10 Best Books of 2023'