On August 23, 1948, the entrance to the Shanghai Municipal Senate Auditorium was bustling with people. More than a thousand journalists and people gathered here, and the purpose of their trip was to prepare to witness the Japanese war criminal Ninji Okamura being tried by the Military Tribunal of the Republic of China and bringing the war criminals to justice.
The scene of the trial
Okamura, a Japanese megaloman who has been active in China for 35 years, has committed countless crimes. During his tenure as supreme commander of the Japanese army in North China, he formulated the appalling "Three Lights Policy", that is, killing, burning, and robbing the light. Throughout the war of resistance against Japanese aggression, millions of Chinese soldiers and civilians died because of him, he was a naked executioner, a war demon who destroyed humanity, and his hands were stained with the blood of Chinese.
As a high-ranking war criminal, the crimes committed by Okamura Ninji are bound to be paid in blood, which is the common wish of the people of Chinese and the people of the world!
On the morning of August 23, the trial of Okamura Ninji officially began under the full attention. However, at the scene of the trial, Okamura Ningji looked at ease and appeared confident, ignoring the voices of the audience reprimanding him. The eyes of the people were focused on him, and their hearts were itching with hatred, and they were eager to kill him and then quickly. But at the same time, they also vaguely felt that something was wrong in their hearts.
The plaintiff's lawyer sent by the National Government spoke first, and he described and summarized the crimes committed by Okamura Ningji, but tried his best to erase Okamura Ningji's major mistakes, including many words such as "not present" and "unaware", which avoided the important and light, which made the people in the audience extremely disappointed.
The accused's lawyer then spoke. The lawyer in charge of defending Okamura Ninji is Jiang Yiping, a leader in Shanghai's legal profession, who is very prestigious in the local area, and people are eagerly looking forward to him as a Chinese to accuse Okamura of his crimes. But the first sentence Jiang Yiping said immediately caused everyone to be shocked, and he said in a calm tone:
Mr. Okamura is not guilty and should be released.
”
One of the Chinese of the hall actually demanded the acquittal of Okamura Ninji? Where did he come from? And what is the motivation? What was the outcome of the trial? All this must start from the life of Jiang Yiping.
Jiang Yiping
The clouds went straight up, and the name shook the beach
On May 30, 1925, the "May Thirtieth Massacre" that shocked China and foreign countries broke out, and countless students in Shanghai took to the streets to protest against the aggression and oppression of Japanese imperialism, but they were ruthlessly suppressed by the local government, many students fell in a pool of blood, and many students were arrested.
At the critical moment, a lawyer named Jiang Yiping stepped forward to defend the arrested students without charging a penny.
Under Jiang Yiping's efforts, all the students were released, and he himself rose to fame on the beach.
Jiang Yiping was born in 1899 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, and his father, Jiang Menghua, was a famous patriotic literati in Hangzhou with a well-to-do family. Jiang Menghua often taught her son to uphold justice and serve the country faithfully. Under his influence, Jiang Yiping quickly stood out from his peers and went to Shanghai to study, studying at St. John's University, Fudan University and Soochow University, choosing a law major. In 1925, with the righteous deed of bravely saving students in the "May Thirtieth Movement", he successfully gained a foothold in Shanghai.
At this time, Jiang Yiping was full of ambition, angry and strong, and ran for Chinese. His efforts were also rewarded, and the people with heads and faces on the beach came to him to fight a lawsuit, and his fame grew, becoming a leader in the shanghai legal profession.
Shanghai Beach Dance Hall
Such a young talent has naturally been pursued by many young women. But Jiang Yiping had a lot of ideas, he looked down on those vulgar fans, and chose to marry the daughter of Yu Qiaqing, a huge rich man in Shanghai.
Yu Qiaqing's daughter is ten years older than Jiang Yiping and looks very average, but What Jiang Yiping cares about is her father-in-law's huge financial and network support.
Under the promotion of Yu Qiaqing, Jiang Yiping's status in Shanghai Beach became higher and higher, and he could enter and leave the major concessions at will, and also obtained a doctorate degree from Fudan University. Under the temptation of money and power, Jiang Yiping gradually gave up his self-made and self-improvement, living a luxurious life and going in and out of major entertainment venues. Not only that, but he also stopped moving forward in his business, suppressing and squeezing out young lawyers of his age, and speaking harshly to old lawyers with high moral standing, and losing hearts and minds.
Although Jiang Yiping's life was corrupt and he was willing to degenerate, he still maintained a little conscience of Chinese. After the establishment of the "Wang puppet government" by the traitor Wang Jingwei, he admired Jiang Yiping's talent and ability and invited him to serve as minister of justice, but Jiang Yiping rejected him. At the same time, he was also joining the Shanghai Refugee Association, paying for the relief of the victims out of his own pocket and making many contributions to the War of Resistance.
However, when the curtain of the War of Resistance Slowly fell, Jiang Yiping still revealed his true face.
Okamura Ninji
Go astray and defend war criminals
In 1945, after 14 years of arduous struggle, the Chinese military and people won a great victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan, and Jiang Yiping also returned to Shanghai from Chongqing to continue to work as a lawyer.
One day in 1948, Jiang Yiping was sitting idly at home when a stranger suddenly came to visit. The stranger told Jiang Yiping that he had come "on orders" and hoped that Jiang Yiping would come forward to defend Okamura Ningji.
For Okamura Ninji, all Chinese will not be unfamiliar. In 1913, Okamura came to China and served as a staff officer under the warlord Sun Chuanfang, who was actually a spy, secretly drawing maps of various parts of China and transmitting them back to Japan. During the Battle of Wuhan, Okamura took these maps and commanded the Japanese army to inflict heavy casualties on the Chinese army.
After the End of the Hundred Regiments War, Okamura was transferred to North China as the supreme commander of the Japanese army. At his behest, the Japanese army launched the infamous "Three Lights Policy" against the soldiers and civilians of North China. The land of North China wailed all over the field, and suffered heavy losses, all thanks to Okamura Ningji.
As one of the Japanese war criminals who have been lurking in China for the longest time, invaded China for the longest time, and committed the greatest crimes, Okamura Ninji deserves to be tried by Chinese and sentenced to capital punishment.
Therefore, after the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China listed Okamura Ninji as the first war criminal and demanded severe punishment. At the same time, the Far Eastern Military Tribunal also listed Ninji Okamura as the premier war criminal, and several requests were made to take him to Tokyo for trial, but there was no response. So, where is Ninji Okamura hiding?
At this time, Okamura Ningji was living freely, and although he was no longer a senior Japanese general, he was honored as a guest by Chiang Kai-shek, who was bent on dictatorship, and served as a senior adviser to the Nationalist government to assist Chiang Kai-shek in waging a civil war. At this time, Chiang Kai-shek disregarded the will of the people, did not hesitate to hire Japanese war criminals to serve himself, and repeatedly tried to protect Okamura Ningji.
But water can carry boats, but it can also overturn boats, and his plot to defeat Chinese with the power of the Japanese is doomed to drown in the ocean of the people.
In March 1948, when an angry people demanded that the Nationalist government hand over Okamura Ningji, Chiang Kai-shek could not suppress the repeated condemnations and reluctantly announced that Okamura Ningji would be taken to Shanghai for trial. In order to save this notorious war criminal, Chiang Kai-shek racked his brains and came up with a ruse to hire a lawyer to defend Okamura Ningji's innocence, and Jiang Yiping, who is famous in Shanghai, is the most suitable candidate.
After learning of the stranger's intentions, Jiang Yiping agreed to the request of the National Government, left the national righteousness behind, and gladly agreed to defend Okamura Ningji. When Jiang Yiping's father learned of this, he bitterly persuaded his son, hoping that he would not cooperate with the National Government and stand against the people.
But at this time, Jiang Yiping had long been blinded by the money that was about to arrive, and completely forgot the blood feud between Chinese and the Japanese.
Japan surrendered
Excuse Okamura Ninji and be willing to be a historical sinner
On August 23, 1948, Okamura was taken to the Shanghai Municipal Council of Councillors Auditorium for the first time in public, a full three years after Japan's surrender.
In the past three years, China, as the victorious power and the country most persecuted by Japan, has tried more than 2,000 cases of Japanese war criminals, of which 110 Japanese war criminals have been sentenced to death.
The Chinese people standing at the trial are eagerly awaiting the moment when Okamura Ninji is sentenced to death.
However, Okamura was reluctant to admit his crime and tried to excuse himself. The plaintiff's lawyer sent by the Nationalist government also avoided the serious and deliberately ignored the facts of Okamura's crime. At this time, Okamura Ninji's defense lawyer Jiang Yiping appeared.
The first words Jiang Yiping said caused public outrage, saying: "Mr. Okamura Ningji is not guilty and should be released." Immediately after, Jiang Yiping put forward his own "evidence":
After Okamura Ningji went to North China, he took the initiative to help the people restore production, crack down on profiteers, save the old and help the weak, and did a lot of things to love the people.
Stand trial
As soon as these words came out, the scene of the trial was in an uproar, and the people could not suppress the anger in their hearts, and they scolded Okamura Ningji and Jiang Yiping. The jury members also shouted in unison: rebuttal, refute, this is a paradox!
The Nationalist government saw that Jiang Yiping's defense had achieved the desired effect, so it granted the court an adjournment and a later judgment.
A few months later, the court continued to hear Okamura's case, but this time it chose the method of trial in order not to provoke a popular uprising. This time, Jiang Yiping continued to exonerate Okamura Ningji, and even claimed that Okamura Ningji had made meritorious contributions to the war under the pretext of "assisting the Chinese army in receiving when surrendering", and recommended that he be acquitted.
Eventually, under chiang kai-shek's behind-the-scenes manipulation, China's Supreme Military Tribunal acquitted Okamura and released him.
Such a result, even Okamura Ningji himself did not expect, open his mouth and could not speak.
Seek skin with the tiger, and it will be difficult to protect yourself
After Okamura's release from prison, he continued to work for the Nationalist government and advise the Kuomintang army. In 1949, the Kuomintang army was defeated, and Chiang Kai-shek sent someone to escort Okamura Ningji back to China for the safety of Okamura Ningji and the plot with the tiger skin not to be exposed. On the ship back to China, Okamura was grateful to Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang. In his later years, Okamura continued to develop Japan's right-wing forces, "visited" Taiwan on behalf of Japan on many occasions, and formulated a counter-offensive strategy for the mainland.
Although Okamura Ningji escaped the trial of the Chinese people, the evening scene was very miserable. His two sons, one died of illness in China and the other died violently at the age of 70.
By the time he was dying in his 80s, he did not have anyone around him and got the end he deserved.
Jiang Yiping and Okamura Ningji were in cahoots, and the end was surprisingly similar. After Okamura fled China, the people vented all their anger on Jiang Yiping, who defended him, and denounced his traitorous behavior. Jiang Yiping's father broke off the father-son relationship with him in a fit of rage, and died soon after.
Jiang Yiping's wife, who really could not stand the criticism of the outside world, filed for divorce from Jiang Yiping.
In 1949, Jiang Yiping was defeated in Taiwan with the Kuomintang, and he was already alone at this time.
Jiang Yiping thought that he had defended Okamura Ningji and made great contributions to the Kuomintang. However, shortly after arriving in Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek casually found a reason to dismiss him from his post and only arranged for him to take an idle post.
Jiang Yiping is lonely and bitter in Taiwan, and the only person who can be called a "friend" is Okamura Ningji in Japan.
In 1961, Okamura visited Jiang Yiping, who had been ill for a long time in bed, in Taiwan, and was grateful for his rescue of him and left him some money.
In 1971, Jiang Yiping died in misery, ending his sinful life.
Jiang Yiping's one thought finally pushed him down the bottomless abyss. As a Chinese, a lawyer who should have strictly adhered to the moral bottom line, he abandoned his personality, abandoned his faith, and eventually lost everything he had, forever nailed to the column of shame of history.