CHUSHICHI TSUZUKI
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205890
- eISBN:
- 9780191676840
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205890.003.0016
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, Political History
This chapter describes the new constitution and the Tokyo War Crimes Trial. It talks about the ‘unconditional’ surrender. It also presents some characteristics of the reform period of the American ...
More
This chapter describes the new constitution and the Tokyo War Crimes Trial. It talks about the ‘unconditional’ surrender. It also presents some characteristics of the reform period of the American occupation. Democracy was not to be imposed. The chapter then explains the sabotaged democracy. In addition, it discusses the war crimes and the Far Eastern Military Tribunal. The revival of political parties under the occupation period is reported. The major concern of the Shidehara government was to put an end to the ‘aberration’ of wartime military rule and to return to pre-war parliamentary politics or what was known as Taisho democracy. Political parties took advantage of the Potsdam Declaration.Less
This chapter describes the new constitution and the Tokyo War Crimes Trial. It talks about the ‘unconditional’ surrender. It also presents some characteristics of the reform period of the American occupation. Democracy was not to be imposed. The chapter then explains the sabotaged democracy. In addition, it discusses the war crimes and the Far Eastern Military Tribunal. The revival of political parties under the occupation period is reported. The major concern of the Shidehara government was to put an end to the ‘aberration’ of wartime military rule and to return to pre-war parliamentary politics or what was known as Taisho democracy. Political parties took advantage of the Potsdam Declaration.
Phyllis Birnbaum
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231152181
- eISBN:
- 9780231526340
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231152181.003.0016
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter focuses on the testimony of Tanaka Ryūkichi, an officer in Japan's Kwantung Army in China and Kawashima Yoshiko's lover, during the Tokyo War Crimes Trial after World War II. There was ...
More
This chapter focuses on the testimony of Tanaka Ryūkichi, an officer in Japan's Kwantung Army in China and Kawashima Yoshiko's lover, during the Tokyo War Crimes Trial after World War II. There was much speculation about why Tanaka decided to appear at the trial. A major general in the Imperial Japanese Army, he cooperated with U.S. Occupation authorities and testified against his military colleagues. Accused of turning against his fellow officers in retaliation for being denied a wartime post or to escape indictment himself, Tanaka rejected any suggestions of base intent. Tanaka appeared before the tribunal a number of times, sometimes for the defense and sometimes for the prosecution. He admitted that he was entirely responsible for the Shanghai Incident of 1932, claiming that it had been hatched as a distraction from bigger doings in Manchuria, and talked about Yoshiko's involvement in it. Yoshiko was a cross-dressing Manchu princess who turned into a Japanese spy and commanded her own army during the Japanese occupation of China in 1931.Less
This chapter focuses on the testimony of Tanaka Ryūkichi, an officer in Japan's Kwantung Army in China and Kawashima Yoshiko's lover, during the Tokyo War Crimes Trial after World War II. There was much speculation about why Tanaka decided to appear at the trial. A major general in the Imperial Japanese Army, he cooperated with U.S. Occupation authorities and testified against his military colleagues. Accused of turning against his fellow officers in retaliation for being denied a wartime post or to escape indictment himself, Tanaka rejected any suggestions of base intent. Tanaka appeared before the tribunal a number of times, sometimes for the defense and sometimes for the prosecution. He admitted that he was entirely responsible for the Shanghai Incident of 1932, claiming that it had been hatched as a distraction from bigger doings in Manchuria, and talked about Yoshiko's involvement in it. Yoshiko was a cross-dressing Manchu princess who turned into a Japanese spy and commanded her own army during the Japanese occupation of China in 1931.
