Japanese war criminals : the politics of justice after the Second World War / Sandra Wilson, Robert Cribb, Beatrice Trefalt, and Dean Aszkielowicz.

New York : Columbia University Press, [2017]

xv, 417 pages ; 24 cm

Beginning in late 1945 national courts convened to prosecute Japanese military personnel for war crimes. The defendants included ethnic Koreans and Taiwanese who had served with the armed forces as Japanese subjects. From the first investigations during the war to the final release of prisoners in 1958, Japanese War Criminals shows how a simple effort to punish the guilty evolved into a multidimensional struggle that muddied the assignment of criminal responsibility for war crimes. Over time, indignation in Japan over Allied military actions, particularly the deployment of the atomic bombs, eclipsed anger over Japanese atrocities, and, among the Western powers, new Cold War imperatives took hold. This book makes a unique contribution to our understanding of the construction of the postwar international order in Asia and to our comprehension of the difficulties of implementing transitional justice.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

STA

KZ1181 .W55 2017

English

9780231179225 hardcover alkaline paper
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9780231542685 electronic book
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