THE TRIAL WITHIN: NEGOTIATING JUSTICE AT THE INTERNATIONAL MILITARY TRIBUNAL FOR THE FAR EAST, 1946-1948 by JAMES BURNHAM SEDGWICK B.A. (Honours), Acadia University, 2002 M.A., The University of Canterbury, 2004 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (History) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) July 2012 © James Burnham Sedgwick, 2012 Abstract This dissertation explores the inner-workings of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE). Commonly known as the Tokyo trial, Tokyo tribunal, or Tokyo IMT, the IMTFE brought Japan’s wartime leadership to justice for aggression, crimes against humanity, and war crimes committed during World War II. Using rare sources in three languages from public and private collections in eight countries, this dissertation presents a multi-perspective experiential history of the IMTFE in operation. By placing the court in a distinct international moment that produced the United Nations, the Nuremberg trial, the Genocide Convention, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, among other outgrowths of global community, this work explores the IMTFE as both a groundbreaking judicial undertaking and a pioneering multilateral institution. Other scholars use overly reductive and judgmental constructs based on outside-looking-in perspectives to assess the court’s legal or moral legitimacy without appreciating or detailing its nuance and complexity. This dissertation prefers an inside-out view to explain the trial, not judge it. It describes the IMTFE as a collective endeavour and experience behind the scenes. Chapters review the personal, emotional, administrative, logistical, legal, political, and global dimensions of internationalism in action. Justice emerged as a contested encounter inside an involute web of intimate and external factors; transitional and transnational forces. Outside pressures – including postwar idealism, decolonisation, and the Cold War – meshed with and filtered through the intrinsic elements of ‘being international’ on the ground: social interaction, personal responses, and professional engagement. This ‘trial within’ influenced every aspect of IMTFE processes and outcomes, and the complexity of its internal dynamics best explains enduring criticism and memory of the court as a political trial or manifestation of victors’ justice. Although a unique historical moment, the IMTFE reveals basic, foundational truths about the essence of all international organisations and other modes of ambitious global governance. Ultimately, this dissertation uses the IMTFE to reinterpret modern internationalism as a complex, messy, and negotiated encounter rather than a staid set of promises and ideals: a process and experience that ultimately – inevitably – compromised principles for politics, and form for function. ii Preface Portions of this dissertation appear in modified form in various publications. It reproduces no published piece verbatim. Collateral publications based on broader research not specifically linked to the dissertation share some findings with this project. Papers arising from work presented in and research for the dissertation: Sedgwick, James Burnham. “Brother, Black Sheep, or Bastard? Situating the Tokyo Trial in the Nuremberg Legacy, 1946-1948.” In The Nuremberg Trials and Their Policy Consequences Today, edited by Beth Griech-Polelle. Baden-Baden, DE: Nomos Verlaggesellschaft, 2009: 63-76. Sedgwick, James Burnham. “Memory on Trial: Constructing and Contesting the ‘Rape of Nanking’ at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, 1946- 1948.” Modern Asian Studies 43, no. 6 (September 2009): 1229-54. Sedgwick, James Burnham. “A People’s Court: Emotion, Participant Experiences, and the Shaping of Postwar Justice at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, 1946-1948.” Diplomacy & Statecraft 22, no. 3 (September 2011): 480-99. Chapter 1 is a much expanded and detailed iteration of my Diplomacy & Statecraft article “A People’s Court Emotion, Participant Experiences, and the Shaping of Postwar Justice at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, 1946-1948.” Many of the chapter’s arguments differ from the published piece to help it fit more completely into the overall dissertation narrative and argument. Some parts of the section “Sight and Seeing: Administration, Optics, and the Perception of Victors’ Justice” in Chapter 2 build on my Modern Asian Studies article “Memory on Trial: Constructing and Contesting the ‘Rape of Nanking’ at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, 1946-1948.” However, the arguments and source details differ significantly. Check the first pages of these chapters to see footnotes with similar information. Ethical Issues The research presented in this dissertation was carried out in accordance with the standards of the University of British Columbia Behavioural Research Ethics Board, certificate # H06-03727, “The Trial Within.” iii Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................... ii Preface ................................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ................................................................................................................... iv List of Illustrations ................................................................................................................. vi List of Abbreviations ............................................................................................................ vii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. viii INTRODUCTION: The Trial Within: Historiography, Methodology, and Outline .............. 1 Historiographical Foundations and Space ........................................................................ 10 The IMTFE Literature ....................................................................................................... 17 Research Methods and Sources ........................................................................................ 25 Chapter Outlines ............................................................................................................... 33 CHAPTER 1: A People’s Court: Emotion, Acrimony, and the Participant Experience of International Justice .............................................................................................................. 43 Emotion, Law, and International History ......................................................................... 45 The Participant Experience: Unsettled, Unhappy, Uncomfortable, Under Pressure ........ 49 Who’s Left and Who’s Leaving: Departure, Disruption, and Disorder in Tokyo ............ 65 Justice in absentia: Judicial Bias in Sickness and in Health ............................................. 79 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 98 CHAPTER 2: Trial through Fire: Logistics and Victors’ Justice in Tokyo ....................... 102 Living and Working with “the Enemy”: Security, Secrecy, and the Administration of Justice .............................................................................................................................. 104 Travel, Travails, and Transnational Evidence ................................................................ 113 The longue durée: Logistics and Delay in Tokyo ........................................................... 129 Sight and Seeing: Administration, Optics, and the Perception of Victors’ Justice ......... 144 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 156 CHAPTER 3: Inventing International Justice: Law and Order as Sensibilities in Tokyo . 158 Ex officio, ad hoc, ex post facto, or sui generis? The IMTFE’s Place in Legal History (and Latin) ....................................................................................................................... 161 Leadership / Convenience / Law / Compromise ............................................................. 166 Precedent at Creation: Divisive Law, Divided Bench .................................................... 190 Principles and Practice: Negotiating International Law at the IMTFE ........................... 212 CHAPTER 4: Idealism, the Cold War, Colonial Questions, and Global Justice ............... 215 iv Ideals in Practise: The IMTFE and the “Future of World Society” ................................ 216 “I Don’t Like the Russians but I Never Met a Russian I Didn’t Like”: The Cold War IMTFE ............................................................................................................................. 227 Anti-, De -, Neo - : The Colonial Prefix and Place of the IMTFE .................................. 249 Conclusions: Global Issues, Multilateral Justice ............................................................ 270 CHAPTER 5: Constructing Internationalism: Politics and Processes inside an International Court ................................................................................................................................... 273 Situating Diplomacy: The National Politics of International Justice