The Japanese Army committed numerous atrocities during its
pitiless campaigns in China from 1931 to 1945. When the Chinese
emerged victorious with the Allies at the end of World War II, many
seemed ready to exact retribution for these crimes. Rather than
resort to violence, however, they chose to deal with their former
enemy through legal and diplomatic means. Focusing on the trials
of, and policies toward, Japanese war criminals in the postwar
period, Men to Devils, Devils to Men "analyzes the complex
political maneuvering between China and Japan that shaped East
Asian realpolitik during the Cold War.
Barak Kushner examines how factions of Nationalists and
Communists within China structured the war crimes trials in ways
meant to strengthen their competing claims to political rule. On
the international stage, both China and Japan propagandized the
tribunals, promoting or blocking them for their own advantage. Both
nations vied to prove their justness to the world: competing groups
in China by emphasizing their magnanimous policy toward the
Japanese; Japan by openly cooperating with postwar democratization
initiatives. At home, however, Japan allowed the legitimacy of the
war crimes trials to be questioned in intense debates that became a
formidable force in postwar Japanese politics.
In uncovering the different ways the pursuit of justice for
Japanese war crimes influenced Sino-Japanese relations in the
postwar years, Men to Devils, Devils to Men "reveals a Cold War
dynamic that still roils East Asian relations today.
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