The Eastern Edge

(This was actually written on Aug.15th but I didn't get around to publishing it until now cause I'm a lazy bum).

This morning, on the 61st anniversary of Japan's surrender to end WWII, Prime Minister Koizumi visited the Yasukuni shrine on the actual surrender date (5 years later than he promised, I might add) in a "kiss my ass" final move to cap his term as PM and his political career, which ends next month.

Now, if you know anything about Japan or Asian politics, you know that China and Korea are going to raise hell and Japan, perpetually split on the issue, will see a new peak in the endless debate.

I don't really care about the rights and wrongs of Koizumi visiting the shrine because it really doesn't have much to do with me, and I think Koizumi is an egotistical, trying-to-please-everyone, Bush ass-kissing for a free trip to Graceland, half-promises half-followed through on, media-whore disgrace anyway.

What bugs me, and has for years now, is the one thing that I keep hearing and reading (nearly daily, actually, every year since Koizumi's first visit 5 years ago) and can't get over is the constant reference to "14 class A war criminals" when mentioning the Yasukuni's enshrined war dead.

There are various reasons why; not the least of which is the fact that classes B & C, by definition, are in theory far worse than A. Yet, no one ever mentions them!
People scream and bitch about the "class A criminals" without even knowing what the hell they are screaming about.

In fact most people can't even name more than one or two of these "class A criminals" and most people don't know that one, Shigemitsu Mamoru, was released early and took up his old position as foreign minister (his position during the war) in Prime Minister Ichirō Hatoyama's cabinet in the 50's; and Kishi Nobusuke, who was held as a suspected Class A criminal but never tried, later became Prime Minister.

I wager that 90% - and I am being generous here - of Japan and Japanofiles (damn, I hate that word!) don't know that.
Which leads me to my point. The fact that most Japanese and people interested in Japan (including co-called scolars, who tend to be the most vocal anyway) really don't know anything about the war and its consequences.

So, instead of just ranting on and on about a contentious issue that will never die and no one will ever agree on, I would like to present some interesting facts about the Tokyo tribunal, which I intend to later expand upon on my website(when I get around to updating the history section, that is).

As there is far too much for a single entry I'll do this in parts.
So here goes;

Follow up:

Interesting facts about the Tokyo Tribunal & War Crininals and some commentary: part 1

Introduction: WTF was the Tokyo Tribunal?

The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), also known as the Tokyo Trials, the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, was convened on May 3, 1946, and was adjourned on November 12, 1948 to try the leaders of the Empire of Japan for three types of crimes committed during World War II:

"Class A" (crimes against peace)
"Class B" (war crimes)
and "Class C" (crimes against humanity)

Twenty-five Japanese military and political leaders were charged with Class A crimes, and more than 300,000 Japanese were charged with Class B and C crimes, mostly over prisoner abuse.

The crimes perpetrated by Japanese troops and authorities in the occupation of Korea and China (Manchukuo) were not part of the proceedings. (I will get into this another in a future post)

The Japanese Emperor Hirohito and Prince Asaka were not prosecuted for any alleged involvement in any of the three categories of crimes.

That is a basic overview.

In part two I will look at the classes, A, B and C and talk about why the harping on Class A is incredibly ingnorant and pointless.

To be continued...

(Note: part of my general overveiw description of the trials I got from wiki and edited because, again, I am a lazy bum. For future entries, and related articles on my history site, I won't be doing this and will site any and all sources I quote as well as add suggested reading.)