Quartermasters can also fight the devils

During the Tokyo Trial of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, through the efforts of the judges of the Chinese government delegation, more than one hundred witnesses were summoned to testify in court.

Among these witnesses, the first one who left the deepest impression was Puyi. On the day when he attended the International Military Tribunal for the Far East to testify, Puyi was wearing a blue suit and a dark brown tie, which immediately attracted the attention of the entire audience.

Puyi excitedly accused Japan of invading Northeast China, Itagaki Seishirō sending people to threaten him to establish the puppet state of Manchukuo in Northeast China, poisoning his wife Tan Yuling, and Doihara Kenji forcing him to leave Tianjin to become the emperor of the puppet state of Manchukuo.

Another witness who left the deepest impression on me was Wu Changde. In his testimony at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, he explained that during the bloody days of the Nanjing Massacre, he was escorted to the Hanzhong Gate in Nanjing by the Japanese army. At that time, there were more than 2,000 people escorted there with him, most of whom were strong men.

These people were taken to the outskirts of Nanjing in batches by the Japanese army, and then shot with machine guns. Wu Changde was also escorted by the Japanese army to the pile of corpses and fell to the ground. Although he was not shot by the Japanese machine guns, he was still stabbed by a Japanese bayonet.

Because the Japanese soldiers stabbed those who were not completely dead in the pile of corpses, Wu Changde's testimony made everyone present at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East shudder. The evidence presented by the Chinese government delegation played a very important role in the final verdict of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East.

In fact, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East also had a fierce debate within the court on the final sentencing of Japanese war criminals. Mei Ruoyu, a judge of the Chinese government delegation, also argued in the debate within the International Military Tribunal for the Far East: "If the Japanese war criminals cannot be severely punished according to law at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, it will be contrary to the purpose of establishing the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and violate the spirit of the Potsdam Declaration."

Mei Ruoyu, a judge of the Chinese government delegation, also found President Weber of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and said passionately: "Mr. President, my companions and I have been entrusted by 450 million Chinese people to punish the Japanese war criminals who have brought serious harm to the Chinese people. If the International Military Tribunal for the Far East cannot make a convincing judgment, all members of the Chinese government delegation will be ashamed to face the people of Jiangdong. The only way to thank the people is to jump into the sea and die together."

It was thanks to the Chinese government delegation's arguments that the seven main war criminals, Hideki Tojo, Hirota Koki, Doihara Kenji, Itagaki Seishirō, Kimura Heitaro, Matsui Iwane, and Muto Akira, were sentenced to death by hanging by a narrow margin of six votes to five. Sixteen people including Araki Sadao were sentenced to life imprisonment, and two people including Togo Shigenori were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment.

On November 22, 1948, General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Japan, approved the verdict of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, but the sentence on the death row was not immediately executed.

Instead, the appeals of Hirota Koki and Doihara Kenji were forwarded to the Supreme Court of the United States. Subsequently, the Supreme Court of the United States actually agreed to the defendants' appeal by a vote of five to four, which caused public opinion around the world to condemn this action.

Mei Ruoyu, a judge of the Chinese government delegation, also expressed anger: "If the decision made by the International Military Tribunal representing 11 countries is to be reviewed by a court of a certain country, no matter how high the court is, it will cause people to worry. In the future, any international decision and action will also be subject to review and change by a country."

Under pressure from world public opinion, the Deputy Minister of Justice of the United States also wrote to the Supreme Court of the United States, pointing out that the courts of the United States had no right to interfere with the judgment of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in the Tokyo Tribunal.

On December 20, 1948, the Supreme Court of the United States finally refused to re-examine the appeals filed by Hirota Koki and Doihara Kenji by a vote of six to one.

In this way, after the verdict of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East was delayed for more than a month, seven major war criminals including Hideki Tojo were hanged in Sugamo Prison in Tokyo between 0:00 and 0:30 Tokyo time on December 23.

Since the trials of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo were conducted in accordance with the Anglo-American legal system, the prosecution stage came first, followed by the sentencing stage by the judge, so the prosecutors and judges had to work independently.

However, with less than three months before the trial, prosecutors from the Chinese government delegation and their colleagues from the Procuratorate of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East had two urgent issues to resolve.

The first question is, when did the crimes of Japan's Class A war criminals begin to be counted?

Some people believe that it should be counted from December 7, 1941, because that was the day when the Japanese army attacked the American naval base Pearl Harbor. On December 9, the United States, England, China and other countries declared war on Japan.

However, the prosecutor of the Chinese government delegation believed that Japan had already launched a full-scale invasion of China as early as the "Lugouqiao Incident" in North China on July 7, 1937, and that the "Lugouqiao Incident" was a continuation and extension of the "September 18th Incident" in Northeast China in 1931. Before the "September 18th Incident", on June 4, 1928, the Japanese Kwantung Army bombed and killed Zhang Zuolin, the highest administrative chief of the Northeast region, in Huanggutun in Northeast China. There is evidence that the same group of people from the Japanese Kwantung Army who conspired to carry out the "Huanggutun Incident" and plan the "September 18th Incident" in China were the same group of people from the Japanese Kwantung Army.

Therefore, the "Huanggutun Incident" that occurred in Northeast China should be regarded as the starting point for clearing up Japanese war criminals. The prosecutors of the Chinese government delegation persuaded their colleagues in the Procuratorate of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and finally determined that in the trial of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo, the crime date of the accused Japanese war criminals should be counted from January 1, 1928.

The second important question was how to determine who were the Japanese Class A war suspects. Finally, the countries submitted a list of Japanese Class A war suspects to the Allied General Headquarters, and arrested them after a preliminary selection. Finally, Chief Prosecutor Kinan of the International Military Tribunal of the Movement consulted with prosecutors from various countries and selected 28 Japanese Class A war suspects as defendants for trial.

After the establishment of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, the first batch of Japanese war criminals nominated by the Chinese government delegation consisted of 18 people, nine of whom were included in the list of Japanese Class A war criminals.

After these two problems were solved, the next task was to write and submit the indictment before the opening of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. The biggest difficulty faced by the prosecutors of the Chinese government delegation was the tight time schedule and limited staff.