Quartermasters can also fight the devils

In the end, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East accepted the evidence presented by the Chinese government delegation and sentenced Itagaki Seishirō to death by hanging.

When searching for evidence, members of the Chinese government delegation discovered that the task of seeking human evidence was more difficult than finding physical evidence.

This was also fully reflected in the interrogation of Kenji Doihara by the Chinese government delegation at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. Kenji Doihara, one of the masterminds of the "September 18th" Incident in Northeast China, remained silent since he went to court, and did not even answer the judge's questions.

Finally, a Chinese witness was brought to the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, and this Chinese witness was also the trump card in the hands of the Chinese government delegation.

The tall, thin, middle-aged Chinese man walked slowly to the witness stand. He was wearing a dark suit, a white shirt, a black tie, a pair of round glasses, and a strand of hair hanging on his forehead. Unlike other witnesses, the others were escorted into the trial of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East by only one military policeman, while behind this middle-aged Chinese man stood two court military policemen and a Soviet officer.

"I was born in Beijing, China. My name is Puyi. My original Manchu surname is Aisin-Gioro Puyi." After taking his seat in the witness stand, the middle-aged Chinese man introduced himself in a standard Beijing accent.

Puyi's appearance in court was called "a landmark day" by Japan's Asahi Shimbun.

According to Puyi's testimony, Japan established a secret agency in Tianjin in March 1931. Kenji Doihara, who was the chief of the secret agency at that time, had many contacts with Puyi. On the day of the "September 18th Incident" in Northeast China, Kenji Doihara was recalled to the Fengtian Secret Agency under the Japanese Kwantung Army Command and became one of the core commanders of the "September 18th Incident".

Puyi also told the International Military Tribunal for the Far East that he met Itagaki Seishirō for the first time in the winter of 1931. Itagaki Seishirō told him: "The old regime of Zhang Xiaoliuzi in the three northeastern provinces oppressed the people and implemented bad policies. Therefore, various incidents have occurred, which have seriously affected Japan's vested interests. In order to expel them and benefit the people, we hope to establish a new regime in Manchuria." Then, Itagaki Seishirō invited Puyi to be the head of this so-called "new country."

Joseph Keenan, chief prosecutor of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, asked Puyi: "Do you agree to become the head of the so-called new country?"

Puyi said: "I refused because Itagaki Seishirō wanted the new regime to employ Japanese officials."

Puyi did reject Itagaki at the time, but not for this reason, because Itagaki Seishirō warned Puyi, "This is not the restoration of the Qing Empire, this is a new country composed of five major ethnic groups, namely Manchu, Han, Mongolian, Japanese and Korean."

When Puyi found out that he was not sitting on the Dragon Court of the Qing Dynasty, he expressed his objection, but he soon gave in.

According to Puyi's explanation of his change of heart, he really wanted to refuse at that time. However, firstly, Itagaki Seishirō threatened him with force; secondly, the advisers around Puyi persuaded Puyi to agree on the grounds of life-threatening danger; thirdly, Puyi was already in Lushun, which meant that he was already in the hands of Japan. If he refused Japan's proposal, the Japanese government would certainly kill Puyi to silence him, so Puyi gave in.

Puyi testified in court for eight days. Combined with Puyi's testimony at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and referring to physical evidence such as the investigation report of the League of Nations "Lytton Commission" after the "September 18th" Incident, Kenji Doihara was eventually found guilty by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and sentenced to death by hanging.

The President of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East declared all the defendants guilty in the final verdict and no longer read out the individual opinions of the judges. In the end, 23 of the 25 defendants were sentenced to hanging or life imprisonment, and two were sentenced to 20 years and 7 years in prison respectively.

Among the seven Japanese war criminals sentenced to death by hanging were Kenji Doihara and Seishirō Itagaki, who committed numerous crimes against China, and Iwane Matsui, who was responsible for the atrocities in Nanjing, China.

On November 12, 1948, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East concluded its case and announced its adjournment.

On November 24, 1948, the American defense lawyers of the defendants Kenji Doihara and Hirota Koki appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States, requesting the release of the defendants. Subsequently, the defendant Koichi Kido and five others also appealed.

The Supreme Court of the United States accepted the case by a narrow majority, but later, under pressure from international public opinion and its own government, announced that it would no longer hear the appeal of Kenji Doihara and other defendants. On December 23, Kenji Doihara and seven other defendants were executed at the Sugamo Prison.

The trials of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo had both achievements and regrets.

On November 12, 1948, the trial of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo officially ended after two and a half years. The trial of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo was held 881 times, more than 4,300 pieces of evidence were accepted, and the verdict was 1,213 pages long.

The prosecutors in the Chinese government delegation had a fierce battle of evidence and questioning techniques with the defendant's lawyers. The mental tension between the prosecution and the defense was no less than that of hand-to-hand combat on the battlefield.

However, the Chinese government delegation also had regrets during the trial at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo. As the victorious country that suffered the longest and made the greatest sacrifices in Japan's war of aggression, 44 of the 55 crimes involved in the trial were related to China.

However, the Chinese government delegation consisted of only seventeen people, and the number of people from the Chinese government delegation who participated in the court trial did not exceed ten from beginning to end. In sharp contrast, the Soviet delegation had more than seventy people, and the American delegation had hundreds of people.

Therefore, during the trial of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, the Chinese government delegation was at a disadvantage in terms of knowledge reserves, energy, and physical strength.

Later, as the world situation changed rapidly, the final fate of Japanese war criminals also changed. As the Cold War Iron Curtain between the United States and the Soviet Union began, the United States needed to vigorously safeguard its own rights and interests in East Asia. As a result, Japan changed from an enemy that needed to be liquidated to an ally that needed to be won over.

The direct consequence of this was that not all Japanese war criminals received the punishment they deserved. Under the protection of the United States, all Japanese war criminals who had not served their full sentences were pardoned in 1958.