SDHF Newsletter 451 Book Review Defending the Enemy

Defending the Enemy: Justice for the WWII Japanese War Criminals
Author: Elaine B. Fischel
Bascom Hill Books, 2009
Reviewed by David Lee

January 30, 2026

“On May 3, 1946, with glamor of artistry of Hollywood premiere, the trial was underway.”
–Elaine B. Fischel, legal stenographer, at the opening of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, p.32.

Elaine Fischel served as a legal stenographer and secretary for the defense during the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, the so called “Tokyo Trial.” Returning to America, she earned a law degree and served as a lawyer in California. The title of her book suggests she will regale readers with usually ignored defense’s case from the Tokyo Trial.

To the uninitiated, “Tokyo Trial” sounds supremely democratic: a trial by peers presided by an impartial judge, presentation of evidence, cross-examination, and robust debate over legal precedent. In fact, there was nothing democratic in the “Tokyo Trial” at all.

The defense’s argument goes against the conventional wisdom reflected in today’s mainstream media and school textbooks, that fascist-aggressors Japan and Nazi Germany engaged in a conspiracy of world domination. One will need to read elsewhere that the defense’s case includes a frank exposition of Japan’s political and strategic position during the pre-World War II era, of deeply entrenched European and American colonialism in Asia, a Russian Communist menace and intractable political instability in China. The defense’s case has been brilliantly summarized elsewhere, such as historian Richard Manear’s Victor’s Justice. Justice Radhabinod Pal of India voiced his objections to the entire proceedings in a massive volume.

Although she served as secretary for the defense and spent a very comfortable life in Japan, her perception of Japan and hatred of Japan did not change her understanding of the defense’s arguments. Her flimsy grasp of pre-war Japanese history is demonstrated in her concurrently written sentences: “Japanese militarists took over Manchuria by the end of 1931,” and by 1937, “The Japanese Army invaded China.” “Atrocities,“ Fischel sobs, “were sickening.” She echoes the horribly deficient history that most Westerners have imbibed up to the present day, that pre-war Japan was entirely focused on war and expansion.

URL: https://www.sdh-fact.com/review-article/2422/
PDF: https://www.sdh-fact.com/CL/EnemyE.pdf

MOTEKI Hiromichi, Chairman
Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact