Justice in Asia and the Pacific, 1945-1952

The trial of major German war criminals at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg (IMT, 1945-1946) is remembered to this day as a landmark event in the historical development of international criminal justice. What is far less known but by no means of lesser importance is the fact that the Allied Powers contemporaneously held the trial of major Japanese war criminals at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East at Tokyo (IMTFE, 1946-1948) to establish the accountability of wartime Japanese leaders for the commission of aggression and atrocity in Asia and the Pacific. Furthermore, the IMTFE trial — or commonly remembered to this day as Tōkyō saiban (“Tokyo Trial”) — was just one of more than 2,240 trials that the Allied authorities held against some 5,700 suspected war criminals at 51 separate locations across the Asia-Pacific region.

This online exhibit provides an overview of the Allied war crimes program in the Asia-Pacific region (1945-1952) to shed light on its scope, outcomes, and implications to our understanding of justice and accountability concerning the WWII-era Japanese aggression and atrocity. This exhibit allows users not only to view historical photographs of the IMTFE court scenes but also to explore data-rich maps, digitized records of some landmark Far Eastern war crimes trials, and other legal and historical documents that help us broaden our knowledge of the Allied war crimes trials and their enduring legacies to the present.