The Evening Star (July 9, 1946)
Emperor knew of plan to occupy Manchuria, Tokyo court is told
TOKYO (AP) – Emperor Hirohito was in silent attendance at a 1931 Privy Council meeting during which it was decided to “pacify and occupy” Manchuria, the International Military Tribunal heard today.
The prosecution in the trial of former Premier Hideki Tojo and 26 other accused war plotters disclosed this in reading prison interrogations of former Gen. Sadao Araki, one-time war minister and now one of the defendants.
Emperor Hirohito knew about the occupation plan, Araki answered when asked if the monarch had approved the scheme. Araki said he himself decided soon after becoming war minister that the four North China provinces (Manchuria) should be occupied by Japanese troops.
Blamed Kwantung Army
Earlier the prosecution introduced three telegrams sent the morning after the “Mukden incident” by the Japanese consul at Mukden to the then foreign minister, Baron Kijuro Shidehara, at Tokyo, blaming the Kwantung Army for the affair and asking the government to halt the aggression.
The consul “presumed” the Kwantung Army was “planning to start positive operations” in Manchuria.
Former Maj. Gen. Ryukichi Tanaka, who was a Kwantung Army officer, concluded his testimony by saying anti-Communism was adopted as the slogan for advances of the Japanese armies into Manchuria.
He said the Japanese-Manchukuoan treaty for “inseparable relationship” was actually only “window dressing” for Nipponese control of that puppet state.
Under defense questioning Tanaka admitted he had lived for a time next door to Chief Prosecutor Joseph B. Keenan and that he had received some supplies and rations from the prosecution. There was no further questioning along this line, and Tanaka was dismissed.
Defense attorney rebuked
A defense attorney was sharply rebuked for “impertinence” by the president of the tribunal.
Sir William Webb, chief justice, declared that the “peace and tranquility” which Japanese defendants say followed their conquests could not be considered a defense for the 27 accused war plotters.
When Lt. Col. George Furness, an American defense attorney, asked if the statement was a decision on aggression and whether the tribunal held that previous treaties between nations made no difference, Sir William replied: “You completely missed the point I said the peace and tranquility brought about by Japanese forces. You are very impertinent. We will deal with you if necessary.”
The Pittsburgh Press (July 9, 1946)
Jap says Hirohito knew of invasion
TOKYO (UP) – The Jap expansion into Manchuria was ordered with the sanction of the Cabinet and the Privy Council at a meeting attended by Emperor Hirohito himself, former War Minister Sadao Araki testified today in the war crimes trial.
In an affidavit introduced by the prosecution, Araki said he had ordered the army to move into four provinces only after the government decided that the occupation was necessary to “pacify” those areas.
In February or March 1932, Araki said, the Cabinet met to form an administrative committee to set up the independent state of Manchukuo at the request of the Kwantung Army in Manchuria.
Wiener Kurier (July 10, 1946)
Tokio borgt sich Nürnbergs Methoden aus
Auch Japans Kriegsverbrecher handelten ‚auf Befehl‘
Tokio (INS) - Nach den bisher vorliegenden Berichten über den Kriegsverbrecherprozeß gegen die 27 Verantwortlichen der früheren japanischen Regierung und des japanischen Heeres ergibt sich ein ähnliches Bild wie in dem Prozeß gegen die deutschen Hauptkriegsverbrecher in Nürnberg.
Hier wie dort wird die Schuld auf bereits verstorbene Personen geschoben oder die eigene Verantwortung durch Hinweis auf erhaltene Befehle abzuleugnen versucht.
In Fortsetzung des Verhörs der von der Anklagevertretung namhaft gemachten Zeugen wurde in der gestrigen Sitzung der frühere japanische General Baron Ryukichi Tanaka vernommen. Er bezeichnet« die Stellung, die er im Jahre 1937 als Generalstabschef des ehemaligen japanischen Ministerpräsidenten und Hauptkriegsverbrechers Nr. 1, Tojo, eingenommen hatte, als unwesentlich und einflußlos.
Im Gleichklang zu den Nürnberger Kriegsverbrechern hatte auch Tanaka bereits im September 1940 angeblich dringend zur Aufgabe der japanischen Kriegspolitik gedrängt.
Die Verhandlung wird morgen fortgesetzt.
The Evening Star (July 10, 1946)
War crimes tribunal in Tokyo won’t bow to Nuernberg rules
TOKYO (AP) – The International War Crimes Tribunal has the “greatest respect” for decisions handed down in the trial of Nazi war criminals at Nuernberg, but it will not be bound by those decisions, Chief Justice Sir William Webb declared today.
Addressing his remarks to an American defense attorney, Sir William said: “You are wrong if you think we are slavishly going to follow” precedents set at Nuernberg. There were four nations prosecuting at Nuernberg, he added, while “those four and seven others are here.”
The defense attorney, William Logan of New York, had requested that when the prosecution reads excerpts from a defendant’s confession, the defense be allowed at that time to read any part that explains further the excerpts. Mr. Logan cited a Nuernberg precedent.
While he reacted sharply to the reference to the Nuernberg precedent, Sir William said it was the duty of the prosecution “to read the whole of an answer or it may otherwise mislead the court.”
The chief justice announced that the court would adjourn at noon until Monday morning to permit completion of an air-conditioning system in the sweltering courtroom.
“The heat is interfering with the proper discharge of our duties,” Sir William said, after another tiff with defense counsel.
Evidence was presented today that fully two years before Japan created the 1937 China incident the Kwantung Army prepared a plan of propaganda “to convince the whole world of our lawfulness.”
A secret army document introduced by the prosecution sought to show that some of the 27 alleged war plotters now on trial were deeply involved in plans for Japanese expansion of the Asiatic mainland.
Wiener Kurier (July 11, 1946)
Hirohito war an der Invasion in China mitschuldig
Tokio (INS) - Dem Internationalen Kriegsgerichtshof zur Aburteilung von 27 japanischen Kriegsverbrechern wurde eine schriftliche Aussage vorgelegt, in der es heißt, daß Kaiser Hirohito Mitwisser an der Planung der japanischen Invasion in China war, die vor 15 Jahren begann.
Diese Feststellung wurde in einem Verhör mit dem angeklagten früheren Kriegsminister Sadao Araki gemacht. Araki hatte ausgesagt, daß der Kaiser bei einer Sitzung des japanischen Kabinetts und des geheimen Rates Im Dezember 1931 anwesend war. In dieser Sitzung seien die Geldmittel zur Deckung der Besatzungskosten von vier nordchinesischen Provinzen bewilligt worden.
The Daily Alaska Empire (July 18, 1946)
Courtroom air is bad; Jap trial at Tokyo postponed
TOKYO – The war crimes trial of former Premier Tojo and 26 other high Japanese may not be resumed until next Monday. Sir William Webb, president of the International Tribunal for the Far East, said the postponement was necessary because the courtroom’s air conditioning had broken down.
The Evening Star (July 23, 1946)
China defense official retracts charge of Jap law violation
TOKYO (AP) – China’s vice minister of national defense backed down today at Tokyo’s big war crimes trial from his testimony that Japan violated international law when her troops maneuvered in Peiping’s outskirts on the historic night of July 7, 1937.
Japan has claimed that the maneuvers were interrupted by shots – precipitating the Marco Polo bridge incident which sent Japan and China to war.
Gen. Chin Teh-chun admitted he was in error after the defense for 27 accused Japanese war criminals established that a Boxer protocol of 1901 gave foreign garrisons the “right to maneuver and rifle practice without notifying the Chinese government.”
Local agreement cited
Gen. Chin conditioned his retraction by saying there was a local agreement between Chinese and Japanese commanders.
“Why did you advise your subordinates that night that the Japanese were violating international treaty?” asked Defense Attorney Lt. Col. Franklin Warren of Tucumcari, New Mexico.
“I told them that because the Japanese did not keep their promise to notify of maneuvers in advance,” Gen. Chin replied. “Maybe I did not have reference to the literal interpretation of international law.”
“What made you believe that an agreement between two battalion commanders or whatever they were – a sort of gentlemen’s agreement – could broach international law?” Mr. Warren pressed.
“The agreement was made because the Japanese maneuvers were so intensive, with real gunfire, and residents might be injured and become violent,” Gen. Chin explained.
“The agreement between commanders was not contrary to the spirit of international law.”
Mr. Warren pleaded to the court to instruct Gen. Chin to quit making speeches after a long, rambling reply met the defense attorney’s question whether Japanese residents in the bridge area had been killed and terrorized by disorderly Chinese troops.
Translation difficulties are ensnarling trial procedure. Each question must be put into English by the attorney, into Japanese for the defendants, into Chinese for the witness. Gen. Chin’s reply, spoken in Chinese, then is put into English for the attorneys and into Japanese for their clients. An actual time check showed 12 questions and as many answers required one hour.
The Evening Star (July 24, 1946)
Tojo defense move is halted by court
TOKYO (AP) – The International Tribunal today refused to permit the defense for Hideki Tojo and 26 other accused war criminals to present evidence intended to show that the notorious Tanaka Memorial, a pamphlet outlining a plan for world conquest, was written by Chinese Communists.
The president, Sir William Webb, halted Capt. Samuel Kleiman when the defense attorney attempted to prove that Russia used its consulate in Harbin to spread Communist propaganda in 1929.
Capt. Kleiman explained that he wanted to establish that the Tanaka Memorial was not written by Baron Tanaka, as the prosecution charges, but rather by Chinese Communists. Sir William refused to permit Capt. Kleiman to continue the cross-examination on that basis of China’s vice minister of national defense, Gen. Chin Teh-chung.
Throughout the afternoon, the defense peppered Gen. Chin with questions aimed at showing that the Tanaka pamphlet, calling for four stages of world conquest, actually was a fraud perpetrated to inspire hatred of the Japanese. Gen. Chin admitted he “never had seen the original of the memorial” and that the pamphlet, widely circulated in China, had not been traced to Japanese origin.
The Evening Star (July 25, 1946)
Nanking atrocities described to court
TOKYO (AP) – Six weeks of criminal attacks, bayonet attacks and burning of gasoline-covered Chinese after the Japanese seized Nanking December 12, 1937, were described in all their horror today by a prosecution witness in Tokyo’s war crimes trial.
“A man came to the hospital with a bullet in the jaw and two-thirds of his body burned,” said Dr. Robert O. Wilson, surgeon at Nanking’s University Hospital.
“He had been seized by Japanese soldiers, shot, covered with gasoline and set afire. He died two days later. Another man, severely burned about the head and shoulders, was the only survivor of a large group bound together, drenched with gasoline and set afire.”
His testimony marked the first prosecution move to bring atrocities into the case against Hideki Tojo and 26 other accused top flight war criminals.
The international tribunal today sharply squelched a defense attempt to blame American and commercial interests for the start of the war.
Sir William Webb, president of the tribunal, quickly interrupted Alfred W. Brooks, defense attorney from Kansas City, when he argued “there was a growing apprehension among Japanese and other Asiatics over the economic aggression of these commercial interests.”
The Pittsburgh Press (July 25, 1946)
Nanking atrocities told in war trial
American physician testifies in Tokyo
TOKYO (UP) – Twenty-seven Japs accused of aggression and war crimes today heard an American describe in gruesome detail the Nanking atrocities in 1937, when blood-crazed Jap troops staged one of history’s most dreadful orgies of murder.
Bespectacled Dr. Robert O. Wilson, of Arcadia, California, told what he saw when Chinese civilians, who suffered unspeakable atrocities at the hands of the Japs were brought to the hospital where he was a surgeon.
Among the defendants was Gen. Iwane Matsui, commander of the Jap forces in the Nanking area at the time.
Dr. Wilson was born in Nanking and returned there in 1936 after attending universities in the United States. He related that a Chinese named Liang escaped to the hospital, the only survivor of a group bayonetted and machine-gunned by the Japs. Liang told Dr. Wilson he had to feign death until the Japs went away in search of other victims before he could flee his persecutors.
A girls six or eight years old told Dr. Wilson that her parents were murdered before her eyes by Japs who then partly severed her arm with a slashing sword thrust. Her left elbow was shattered and the joint exposed when she came to the hospital for treatment.
Wiener Kurier (July 26, 1946)
Tojos Verteidiger:
‚Japans Einmarsch in China gerechtfertigt‘
Tokio (ACA.) - Der Verteidiger General Hideki Tojos und anderer bedeutender japanischer Befehlshaber suchte gestern den Beweis zu erbringen, daß Japans Einmarsch in China im Jahre 1937 zur Unterdrückung des Kommunismus gerechtfertigt gewesen sei. Der Verteidiger suchte zu beweisen, daß die 1936 erfolgte Entführung des Generalissimus Tschiangkaischek in Sian im Nordosten Chinas durch Marschall Tschan Hsuch Liang, den „jungen Marschall“ der Mandschurei, sowie die radikale Studentenbewegung Teilerscheinungen der Japan bedrohenden Kommunistenverschwörung gewesen seien.
The Pittsburgh Press (July 27, 1946)
Reds bar release of puppet emperor
TOKYO (UP) – Allied war crimes prosecutors revealed today that efforts to present testimony by Henry Pu Yi, puppet emperor of Manchuria under the Japs, had been blocked so far by their inability to get him from the Russians.
Informants said the prosecution section of the international tribunal had tried to get custody of Pu Yi, who fell into Russian hands at the end of the war, but had made no progress so far.
S. A. Golunsky, Soviet member of the international prosecution section, said he had no information regarding Pu Yi.