Chief Prosecuter Joseph Keenan arrives in Tokyo; General Patton sustains spinal injury in automobile accident in Germany; formal censorship imposed in Japan

December 6, 2015-December 12, 2015
Location: Government Documents

This week Americans reflect on the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the entry into world war four years earlier, very aware that their nation has transformed from an isolationist third world power to one engaged globally (Newsmap below).

On the other side of the Pacific, an unprecedented, hasty trial takes place in Manila. A Japanese army general is charged with a war crime--command responsibility (liable for acts committed by his troops)--not a new concept but distinctly formulated after his capture. Despite failure to directly trace General Tomoyuki Yamashita to the unspeakable atrocities committed by Japanese troops in Manila earlier the same year, the American military commission apply the "must have known," "should have known" logic to deliver a verdict December 7, 1945: death by hanging. The U.S. Supreme Court by a vote 6 to 2 will render judgment in February 1946 on the constitutional aspect and not the military commission's findings, declining to overturn the verdict. Shortly afterwards, General Douglas MacArthur, who saw first-hand his beloved Manila destroyed, enforces the judgment of the commission.

The general will be executed February 23, 1946, and the legal ramifications of an officer's personal responsibility for the actions of his subordinates will be resurrected in the Nuremberg trials; in the trial of Captain Ernest Medina for his men in the massacre of Vietnamese civilians at My Lai in 1969; in the international criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda; and the current global war on terror. Herewith the Yamashita Standard serves as notice and incentive to leaders for the control of those under their command. Read the opinion of the Supreme Court if you dare in United States Reports.

Newsmap. Monday, 17 December, 1945: week of 4 December to 11 December 

Text describes U.S. role in world affairs and is keyed to map. Map projection is "designed to minimize distortions along the 40th parallel which runs approximately through Tokyo and Washington."

• View this map in print in the Map Collection reading room, ground floor of UHM Hamilton Library, the week of 6 December 2015
• View this map online through the University of North Texas Digital Library (http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc840/)

Notes: Newsmaps were color posters issued by the U.S. Army and the Government Printing Office (GPO) on Mondays during the World War II. They combine maps, images, and news from the previous week’s war effort.