'A급전범 심판' Tokyo Trial Questioned by Textbooks Also Passed

Detailed View of Judge Claiming All War Criminals Not Guilty
This Has Mainly Been Raised by Right-Wing Forces

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] It has been revealed that a high school textbook in Japan that questioned the Far East International Military Tribunal (Tokyo Trial), which judged Class A war criminals of World War II, also passed the government’s screening.

Meiseisha’s comprehensive history textbook included in detail the opinion of Judge Radha Binod Pal (1868?1967), who argued for the acquittal of all Class A war criminals at the Tokyo Trial, under the subtitle "Crimes Against Peace and the Challenges Left by Military Trials," and it passed the screening without issue this time.

This textbook introduced Pal’s opinion that applying "crimes against peace" retroactively to the war criminals was "a legal procedure pretended to satisfy a desire for revenge," and noted that the Allied powers’ war crime responsibilities were not questioned, stating that "there are voices doubting the validity of the Tokyo Trial itself."

This view has mainly been raised by right-wing forces within Japan, making it quite unusual for such perspectives to be detailed in a textbook.

Ultimately, the Japanese government instructed during the screening process that the acceptance of this trial in the San Francisco Peace Treaty (1951) be noted, but the right-wing perspective itself remained intact.

The textbook did not address issues such as the Japanese military’s comfort women or forced mobilization by Imperial Japan.

Meiseisha has shown right-wing tendencies, including involving the far-right commentator Sakurai Yoshiko as an author in the current high school Japanese History B textbook.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.