This book charts comprehensively the various discoveries in Southeast Asia and the Pacific of Japanese soldiers still fighting the Second World War many years after it had ended. It explores their return to Japan and their impact on the Japanese people, revealing changing attitudes to war veterans and war casualties' families, as well as the ambivalence of memories of the war.

This book charts comprehensively the various discoveries in Southeast Asia and the Pacific of Japanese soldiers still fighting the Second World War many years after it had ended. It explores their return to Japan and their impact on the Japanese people, revealing changing attitudes to war veterans and war casualties' families, as well as the ambivalence of memories of the war.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203480473

Beginning in late 1945, the United States, Britain, China, Australia, France, the Netherlands, and later the Philippines, the Soviet Union, and the People's Republic of China convened national courts to prosecute Japanese military personnel for war crimes. The defendants included ethnic Koreans and Taiwanese who had served with the armed forces as Japanese subjects. In Tokyo, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East tried Japanese leaders. While the fairness of these trials has been a focus for decades, Japanese War Criminals instead argues that the most important issues arose outside the courtroom. What was the legal basis for identifying and detaining subjects, determining who should be prosecuted, collecting evidence, and granting clemency after conviction? The answers to these questions helped set the norms for transitional justice in the postwar era and today contribute to strategies for addressing problematic areas of international law. Examining the complex moral, ethical, legal, and political issues surrounding the Allied prosecution project, from the first investigations during the war to the final release of prisoners in 1958, Japanese War Criminals shows how a simple effort to punish the guilty evolved into a multidimensional struggle that muddied the assignment of criminal responsibility for war crimes. Over time, indignation in Japan over Allied military actions, particularly the deployment of the atomic bombs, eclipsed anger over Japanese atrocities, and, among the Western powers, new Cold War imperatives took hold. This book makes a unique contribution to our understanding of the construction of the postwar international order in Asia and to our comprehension of the difficulties of implementing transitional justice.

Key decisions and events of the Pacific War are explored in this work by juxtaposing Allied and Japanese accounts, giving voice to both sides in this epic confrontation. Competing Voices from the Pacific War: Fighting Words covers the period from July 1937 to September 1945, touching briefly on the post-war Allied occupation of Japan. Although it emphasizes American and Japanese accounts, it also includes perspectives from other nations. Materials covering political and strategic issues, the experiences of combatants and prisoners of war, the experiences of civilians caught up in the various war zones, and the impact of the war on the various home fronts, are also included. By including a range of primary sources representing the experiences and views of participants and commentators of all sides and setting them in their historical contexts, this unique anthology promotes an understanding of the Pacific War, the events that led up to it, and its legacies. Alongside sources that reflect traditional military history, material that considers the war from the perspective of the "new military history" is also included.