The Tokyo Trials and the Truth of “Pal’s Judgment”
By Watanabe Shoichi,
Abstract
Radhabinod Pal was one of the judges at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (the “Tokyo Trials”) held in Japan in 1946 to judge those Japanese officials and officers charged by the Allies as Class-A War Criminals. Pal, unlike his colleagues on the bench, was a specialist in international law. Unlike his colleagues, Pal questioned the very legitimacy of the trial itself, and found himself forced to conclude, “I would hold that each and everyone of the accused must be found not guilty of each and everyone of the charges in the indictment and should be acquitted of all those charges.”Prof. Watanabe eloquently demonstrates the truth of Pal’s observation and the rightness of his position in his book The Toyo Trials and the Truth of “Pal’s Judgment.”