Wiener Kurier (June 18, 1946)
Japan wollte die Weltherrschaft
Der Kriegsverbrecherprozeß in Tokio
Tokio (AND.) - Japans Kriegsverschwörer haben die Schule als Instrument dazu mißbraucht, der japanischen Jugend die Idee einzupflanzen, daß die Nation infolge göttlicher Sendung zur Herrschaft über Ostasien bestimmt sei, erklärte gestern der erste Zeuge der Anklagevertretung im Kriegsverbrecherprozeß gegen den früheren Ministerpräsidenten Tojo und seine 27 Komplicen. Der Zeuge, Oberstleutnant Donald R. Nugent, der Chef der Abteilung des amerikanischen Oberkommandos für Aufklärung und Erziehung der Zivilbevölkerung, sagte weiters, den japanischen Studenten sei erzählt worden, ihre Nation würde schließlich die Weltherrschaft erringen.
Dem Volk wurde Militarismus eingeimpft
Zum erstenmal seit Prozeßbeginn hatte sich gestern Tojo nach vorne gebeugt, den Zeugen angestaunt und so ein gewisses Interesse an der Verhandlung bezeigt. Nugent gab weiter an, daß die Schüler zu Felddienstübungen mitgenommen worden seien und daß ihnen Unterricht über das Verhalten im Straßenkampf, im Bajonettfechten sowie in der Handhabung des Maschinengewehrs erteilt worden sei. „Durch diese Art Erziehung wurde ihnen Ultranationalismus und Militarismus eingeimpft“, erklärte der Zeuge, „und ihnen eine fanatische Unterwürfigkeit dem Staate gegenüber sowie blinder Gehorsam gegen die Behörden beigebracht.“
Vorher hatte der Stellvertreter des Anklägers, Valentine C. Hammack, die Angeklagten beschuldigt, Japans Kriegsvorbereitungen bereits im Jahre 1928 eingeleitet zu haben. Er erklärte, daß die japanische Propaganda das Volk gegenüber Großbritannien und Amerika in einen Zustand der Raserei zu versetzen getrachtet habe, und wies darauf hin, daß diese feindliche Einstellung als Erklärung dafür hingestellt worden sei, daß China imstande war, Japan Widerstand zu leisten.
The Evening Star (June 18, 1946)
Prosecution witness gives wrong replies, upsets Tokyo trial
TOKYO (AP) – A Japanese professor, called as a prosecution witness in the international trial of Hideki Tojo and 27 others, gave the “wrong” answers today and upset proceedings.
Expected to testify that Japan’s warmakers used the nation’s schools to whip young men into aggressive fanaticism, Prof. Tokiomi Kaigo declared on the stand that military training originally had only peaceful purposes.
When questioning failed to elicit anticipated answers, Assistant Prosecutor Valentine Hammack asked for permission to impeach the testimony of his own witness. Later he withdrew the request.
Great social unrest cited
Under cross-examination Kaigo testified that military training was increased in 1925-6 because “after World War I there was great social unrest in Japan” and “we can consider that putting into execution of military training did a great deal to check this tendency.”
Kaigo, 45, a professor of educational history at the Imperial University in Tokyo, also said graduate students were required to train only a year and a half whereas nationwide military training was compulsory for two years.
“I agree with you that was a peaceful step to cut down training,” he told Defense Attorney Utaka Sugawara.
Kaigo testified military training was increased after the Manchurian incident, and “came to have great influence on Japanese action.”
“The education given to the effect that Japan was supreme was very effective in secondary schools, colleges and universities,” he said in summary.
Tojo intent on testimony
Whether Kaigo’s apparent change of attitude after conferring with the prosecution and before testifying was influenced by the cool stares he received from the prisoners’ box was a matter for conjecture.
Tojo followed the testimony intently. In a written statement issued: in his own defense from his prison cell, he told the Associated Press today, that military training was among “points out of the question” in the trial. Anyhow, he added, Japan only followed the American pattern in teaching military science in schools.
Marine Lt. Col. Donald R. Nugent of San Francisco, the first witness to take the stand, had testified to “excessive” military instruction in Japanese schools.
The Pittsburgh Press (June 18, 1946)
Attorneys for Japs claim setback
Prosecution to quiz witnesses privately
TOKYO (UP) – Attorneys defending major Jap war criminal suspects complained today they had suffered an “irretrievable blow” because of a new ruling allowing the prosecution to submit affidavits from its witnesses in place of direct testimony.
The ruling culminated a series of sharp setbacks for the defense. It drew such a barrage of heated objections that Sir William Webb, president of the tribunal hearing the trials, accused a defense witness of insulting the court.
Seeks to save time
A motion supporting the use of affidavits had been offered by Justice Alan J. Mansfield of Australia, an associate prosecutor. He claimed that direct testimony would require 360 days and that written statements would materially shorten the trial.
Franklin Warren, a defense attorney from Tulsa, Oklahoma, then requested that the defense be allowed to submit its witnesses to private cross-examination and present the testimony also in the form of affidavits.
“That’s just to taunt this tribunal,” Justice Webb retorted.
Mr. Warren apologized to the court. He then went on to state that Jap witnesses would be totally incapable of giving unbiased testimony if they were questioned privately by prosecutors.
Overrules objection
He pointed out that the witnesses were members of a defeated nation and would be inclined to say what the Allies might want them to say.
Justice Webb overruled the objections.
Meanwhile, the prosecution called another witness to testify about Japan’s pre-war education which it claims was designed to inculcate the spirit of military aggression and fanaticism in Jap youth.
The Evening Star (June 19, 1946)
Jap trial prosecution rebuffed by court on education emphasis
TOKYO (AP) – The prosecution in the international war crimes trial of Hideki Tojo and 27 others received a mild rebuff from the court today in its attempt to show that the schools were used to help lead Japan off to war.
After testimony of Japanese educator Yukitoki Takikawa, dean of law at Kyoto University, Tribunal President Sir William Webb commented that the line of testimony was “not very helpful to the court.” He suggested that the remaining 28 witnesses on the educational phase of the charges be thinned out.
Takikawa testified that after the Manchurian incident military training officers grasped control of Japan’s educational system and steeped students in contempt and hatred for potential enemies.
Ousted from Kyoto in 1933
He termed the Japanese form of education “very bad” and said “it completely omitted free thought and liberal ideas and was devoted to justifying Japanese aggressive warfare in Manchuria and China.”
Takikawa said he was ousted from Kyoto in 1933 because he wrote articles opposing the Manchurian incident, Hitler, and prosecution of students.
Teachers were required to spread the doctrine that dying in combat for the emperor was glorious, Dr. Hyoe Ouichi, an educator once jailed as overly liberal, testified earlier today.
Pacifism among professors was grounds for dismissal, Ouichi asserted, explaining that he himself had spent more than 18 months in prison because of his reported sympathy “to peace ideals.”
Procedure streamlined
The tribunal moved yesterday to streamline its judicial procedure. Chief Justice Webb remarked Monday that the trial might “go on for years” at this rate.
Over strenuous protests by the defense the court ruled that the prosecution may submit affidavits instead of oral testimony. The defense will be allowed to cross-examine on the stand, however.
David F. Smith of Washington, appearing tor former Premier Koki Hirota, said he wanted to “take exception” to the affidavit form of presenting testimony, but Chief Justice Webb brusquely cut him off with: “Take all the exceptions you like – you won’t be heard any further.”
Tojo denies 3 demands
Tojo denied in a statement today that he sent Special Envoy Saburo Kurusu to Washington in the fall of 1941 with three demands as the price of peace.
Through his attorney, Tojo took issue with Chief Prosecutor Joseph B. Keenan, who said in Washington he had been told by Kurusu that Tojo laid down three conditions for the withdrawal of troops from Indo-China.
These were: The unfreezing of Japanese assets by the United States, unlimited shipments of high-octane gasoline to Japan and the halting of all gasoline shipments to China.
“I do not deny I had such an idea in mind,” said a statement from Tojo given out by Attorney Ichiro Kiyoso, who is defending the fallen dictator at the international war crimes trials here.
“But I did not instruct Kurusu specifically to propose such conditions to America, nor did I suggest them to him informally.”
The Evening Star (June 20, 1946)
Tokyo war crimes court given result of fight
TOKYO (AP) – The International War Crimes Court had just recessed for lunch and Marshal Donald S. van Meter of Raton, New Mexico, gave the usual instructions to the audience – then added:
“For the benefit of the English-speaking persons in the court, Louis knocked out Conn in the eighth round.”
The Evening Star (June 21, 1946)
25 more Jap suspects put in Sugamo Prison
TOKYO (AP) – Lt. Col. Shigeji Mori, former commander of Camp O’Donnell and Cabanatuan prison camps in the Philippines, and 25 other war crimes suspects were admitted to Sugamo Prison in the week ending June 30.
The announcement of their apprehension said Mori was charged with responsibility for the death of four Americans and atrocities against others.
The Evening Star (June 25, 1946)
Shidehara supports 3 Tokyo defendants
TOKYO (AP) – Former Premier Kijuro Shidehara testified today that three of the 28 war crimes defendants backed him in 1931 when he tried to buck the Japanese Army’s campaign of conquest in Manchuria.
The aged, post-surrender premier, who was foreign minister in those days, appeared as a prosecution witness before the international tribunal. but his testimony under cross-examination bolstered the defense.
Shidehara said Defendant Toshio Shiratori, former ambassador to Italy and one of the alleged architects of the tripartite pact with Hitler and Mussolini, and Defendant Gen. Jiro Minami supported his conciliatory policy.
Shiratori then was acting chief of the Bureau of Information, and Minami was minister of war. Shidehara insisted that the 1931 war minister tried to “keep order” in the army but the government was without a direct voice in army affairs.
The Pittsburgh Press (June 25, 1946)
Early Jap plans for war revealed
Manchurian conquest plotted in 1931
TOKYO (UP) – The prosecution scored its most telling blow on the 26 defendants in the war crimes trials today when former Premier Baron Kijuro Shidehara testified he knew in advance that the Jap army planned to attack in Manchuria in 1931.
Shidehara’s testimony marked the second phase of the prosecution case which will deal with actual Jap aggression in Manchuria. The first phase exposed how the Jap government used every propaganda device at its disposal to prepare and incite the people to war.
The aging Shidehara was until recently Japan’s first post-war premier. When Shigeru Yoshida was appointed premier, Shidehara became minister without portfolio.
Shidehara, in an affidavit, told how he received confidential reports from the Kwantung Army (the Jap army in Manchuria) which advised him the military was amassing troops and bringing up “ammunition and materials for some kind of military purpose.
“I knew from such reports that action of some kind was contemplated by the military clique,” he said.
The Evening Star (June 26, 1946)
Duties in U.S. forced Higgins resignation
TOKYO (AP) – Duties in Massachusetts make it necessary that Justice John Higgins resign from the International War Crimes Tribunal and return to his home State, he said today.
He denied flatly that dissension in the court was responsible for his action.
He issued a prepared statement, saying:
“The death since my departure of my successor. Acting Chief Justice Brown, and the illness of his successor, successorship being determined by law, makes it imperative that I return to my duties as chief justice (of Massachusetts) at the earliest possible date. When I took this assignment I was assured that the trial would be completed by September.
“The best opinion is that it cannot finish before early 1947 and I could not when I accepted the appointment, or much less now, justify being away so long a period from my duties as chief justice of the Supreme Court of the State of Massachusetts.
“I have complete confidence in my colleagues, all of them are sincere and competent men.”
Asked how all the evidence he has heard would be conveyed to his successor, Justice Higgins said: “There have been only seven trial days. He can read the transcript. This trial will last at least a year.”
Tokyo trial witness tells of 1931 plot by army to ‘bomb’ Diet
TOKYO (AP) – A witness in the war crimes trial of 28 fallen Japanese leaders testified today that militarists in 1931 plotted to bomb the Diet and seize power, but said under cross-examination the bombs actually were “firecrackers” designed only to scare the lawmakers.
The prosecuting witness, Konosuke Shimizu, in whose home the “bombs” were hidden, told the International War Crimes Tribunal they would “make a loud noise and not hurt anyone.”
Another witness, Marquis Yoshichika Tokugawa, a pacifist, said he helped avert the incident by persuading Dr. Shumei Okawa, a plot ring leader now on trial, to give up the conspiracy.
Tokugawa declared he then induced Shimizu to return the “bombs” to the army because it was “too early” to seize the government.
Mukden incident substituted
In direct testimony, Shimizu asserted the plot was designed as a forerunner for the Japanese Army’s grab in Manchuria, but it was abandoned and the infamous Mukden incident was substituted.
Shimizu’s testimony, read from an affidavit that did not make his own background clear, gave this version of the alleged plot:
Okawa was to have led a mob into the Diet. Okawa, with Col. Kingoro Hashimoto, also a defendant, and other army leaders had planned the coupe.
Okawa later told Shimizu that the plot had failed because the military had backed out – and that Gen. Kuniaki Kioso (another of the defendants) reported, “It is a direct order from the army that this plot be abandoned.”
Later, in August 1931, Okawa told Shimizu that Okawa and three army colonels – including Seishiro Itagaki, vice chief of staff of the Kwantung army (now a defendant) – would “bring about an incident in Mukden.”
Could not discipline army
It came in September 1931. Okawa subsequently promoted ultranationalist movements, “with the ultimate purpose of expelling the white race from Asia…”
Baron Kijuro Shidehara, then foreign minister, told the court today that neither he nor War Minister Jiro Minami, now on trial, were informed immediately of the Manchurian incident, and “the cabinet was not in a position to discipline the army, in Manchuria or anywhere else.”
The Japanese Army in Korea sent reinforcements into Manchuria not only without informing the cabinet, but also without the sanction of the emperor, Shidehara testified.
The Evening Star (June 27, 1946)
Matsuoka, ex-foreign minister who forged Jap-Axis tie, dies
War crimes defendant regrets inability to complete defense
TOKYO (AP) – Yosuke Matsuoka, the onetime foreign minister who formally linked Japan with the Axis, died early today with “great regrets” that he could not defend himself in the International War Crimes Court.
The disease-wasted University of Oregon graduate realized for days that death was near, and frequently told his eldest son, Kenichiro, that he had many things to say to the court – a defense that probably never will be told in full. War crimes charged against him were officially withdrawn after his death, which cut the number of defendants in the trial now in progress from 58 to 27.
Tuberculosis, which brought his death at 66 in unkempt odorous Tokyo Imperial University Hospital, first afflicted him in 1941 on his return from Europe with a Soviet neutrality pact. German Gestapo Chief Alfred Meisinger said Matsuoka obtained the treaty by revealing to Stalin Nazi plans for attacking Russia.
It was the high point of his career for Matsuoka, who loved the limelight and worshiped power. He was removed from office as foreign minister in 1941, and sank quickly into disease-ridden obscurity, his health broken during the strenuous months in power.
When Americans moved into Japan last fall, he was living in a tiny mountain lodge – his luxurious, foreign-style home in Tokyo completely gutted by firebombs.
He wrote no will, but left his family a classic Japanese poem translated roughly as: “With no regret, no hate, down the dark road do I go.”
Matsuoka, born of Samurai stock in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Western Japan, on March 4, 1880, spent his formative years on the American Pacific Coast. He was 13 when he arrived at Portland, Oregon, to enroll in the Atkinson Public School. Thence he went to Oakland, California, for four years of high school; then back north to the University of Oregon Law School, from which he graduated with honors in 1902.
Nine years in the United States fixed an indelible imprint on the mind of the young Japanese. He returned home – to enter the diplomatic service two years later – with a knowledge he never lost of the faiths, sentiments and biblical and literary phrases that stir American hearts.
For three decades after 1902 he followed a varied career, diplomacy, business, politics, which brought him eminence among his own people and the beginnings of an international reputation. Much of that time he spent in Manchuria as director and vice president of the South Manchuria Railway, the most powerful nonmilitary organ of Japanese expansion on the Asiatic continent. Later, from 1935 to 1939, he was its president.
Walked out of League
As head of the Japanese delegation at League of Nations sessions through the winter of 1932-33, he conducted a dramatic rear-guard oratorical campaign. The climax came February 24, 1933, when Japan confronted the full assembly, called to vote on a report that censured Japan for the seizure of Manchuria. Eloquently and plausibly Matsuoka defended his country’s course and concluded, “I ask you not to adopt this report.”
Forty-three nations voted condemnation of Japan.
After the vote Matsuoka rose once more. “The Japanese government are obliged to feel that they now have reached the limit of their endeavors to cooperate with the League of Nations in regard to China-Japanese differences,” he said.
Then he gathered his papers from the table, drew his stocky five feet four to its full stature strode from the chamber, followed by his suite.
Tokyo trials scored by Denver attorney, ex-prosecution aide
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – The Allied prosecution of Japan’s accused warmakers has “fallen victim to maladministration, neglect and inefficiency which, in view of the issues at stake, is tragic,” a former member of the prosecution staff asserted today.
It was the first public criticism by any officer connected with the trials.
Naval Reserve Cmdr. Bentley M. McMullin, returning to Denver to resume a private law practice, declared in a written statement that Chief Prosecutor Joseph B. Keenan and aides had been “rushed precipitously to Japan… Personnel were selected on the run. … There was little else than a series of spasmodic and frenzied efforts, first in one direction and then in another.”
“In spite of this,” he added, “much has been accomplished. The United States supplied Mr. Keenan with some good assistants, and the Allied nations sent some of their best men.
“But the trials will not have accomplished their purpose unless they are the means by which the East, and Japan in particular, may learn exactly what the Japanese leaders did. The facts must be brought out so clearly that the subjects of the emperor cannot escape a consciousness of guilt. It might also be hoped that there might emerge new and progressive principles of international law.
“These tasks require leadership of the highest order… such leadership has, unfortunately, not been provided.”
Cmdr. McMullin, who was an investigator and case lawyer with the prosecution staff, concerned primarily with Netherlands Indies and French Indo-China areas, added orally that:
“This is an opportunity that must not be muffed. For the situation is delicate over there. These Japanese like Tojo (wartime premier). They liked Matsuoka (former foreign minister who died today). At least, they had confidence in them. They must be shown that these leaders were wrong…
“It is going to take a good deal bigger guns than have ever been trained on the defendants to date!”