In May 1946, in the Ichigu area of Tokyo's Shinjuku ward, the Japanese Army Non-Commissioned Officer School, which had trained countless senior officers, was filled with foreigners from China, the Soviet Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India, and the Philippines.
They are the panel of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, which came here to try the war criminals of World War II.
On May 3, the trial team was officially opened, lasting 2 years, 6 months and 9 days, holding more than 800 trials, more than 400 witnesses appearing in court, and more than 1,000 crimes were sentenced.
A total of 25 criminals were found guilty at the trial, including seven Japanese Class A war criminals who were sentenced to death by hanging.
When they committed crimes in World War II, they were all cruel and invincible, and when it came to hanging, these people also showed all kinds of real faces.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="4" kenji toihara, >: the first to go to the gallows</h1>
The hangings were carried out at Sugamo Prison in Tokyo, a prison that once trapped many heroes of our Party and many revolutionaries who lost their lives, and now the retribution has finally come to these prisoners.
In the center of the site is a high platform with stairs connecting the ground. Directly behind the high platform stands an iron pillar with ropes and buttons for the head of the wring. When the executive opens the button, the floor under the high platform will open to the sides, and the person hanging on the rope will naturally take off and finally suffocate.
The manner in which the death penalty is carried out is determined by drawing lots and is carried out in batches.
At that time, seven people took turns drawing lots one by one, looking at their notes in horror and the rest of their lives. Obviously, they are all doomed to death, but they are still glad that the first one is not himself.
At this time, Kenji Toihara, who had just finished drawing the lottery, looked at his note with the word "1" written on it.
This proves that he will be the first of these seven to be executed to death.
Kenji Toihara naturally felt unfair, he had less blood on his hands than other criminals, and he was not a person on the front line of aggression, so why was he the first to die?
He is gentle and harmless on the surface, but in fact, the harm caused by his own hands is more far-reaching than the harm caused by killing people with his own hands.
He led the army by forbidding soldiers to burn villages and rape women; as Japan's third-generation secret service chief, he trained countless spies who had done evil things in an attempt to disintegrate our country from within, including the infamous Yoshiko Kawashima.
Not only that, but the puppet state of Manchukuo and the autonomy of the Northeast were also established by him, and even if he weaved a dream of peace and co-prosperity for many people who did not know the truth, it still could not change the fact that this was the Chinese of exploitation and slavery.
Kenji Toihara's strategy of boiling frogs in warm water is chilling, and the sinister evil behind him is evident.
Even if the inquisition sees through his plot, he can still use his gentle and harmless appearance to build sophistry.
Even when he left his last words, Kenji Toihara still did not give up his disguise. He was familiar with Chinese culture, so he chanted a poem "Dear Chinese People" in a vain attempt to gain the sympathy of the inquisitorial jury at the last moment of his life.
Of course, in the end, he still walked on the gallows, and as he stepped up the stairs step by step, he really felt the threat posed by death. It is rumored that he could not stand steadily before his death, and his calves and stomach trembled incessantly.
At this time, Kenji Toihara finally put away his posture and looked at the hemp rope hanging high, and his eyes showed a look of despair. Behind him, standing, was the second person to follow in his footsteps, Hideki Tojo.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > hideki Tojo: Still stiff before dying</h1>
Hideki Tojo was one of the initiators of the war of aggression against China and the Pacific War, and behind him was the force of Japanese militarism.
Therefore, Hideki Tojo's attitude in the trial court has become the focus of attention of many parties.
He also knew that he was saddled with more political significance than other war criminals, and before sentencing, he decided to commit suicide. In order to ensure that the suicide is foolproof, Hideki Tojo also prepared a backup plan.
However, Colonel Karas of the American Army at that time understood his intentions and would rather give him a blood transfusion himself than let Hideki Tojo go to court alive to stand trial.
Hideki Tojo's arrogant attitude has never been reduced by more than half a point.
Throughout the trial, he was still hard in the face of witnesses and evidence.
If Kenji Toihara's sophistry is roundabout, then Hideki Tojo's sophistry can be called "referring to deer as horses". He packaged Japan's invasion of China as the liberation of East Asia and the expansion of Britain and the United States as a war of self-defense.
Until the hanging, Hideki Tojo insisted that he was right and never repented.
Even if he went to the gallows, he would not admit guilt until his death.
But when this "good Japanese boy" who tried to commit suicide and whose mouth was harder than granite's, when he knew that he had been sentenced to death, his expression suddenly became tense and stiff, his face was miserable, and he unconsciously smiled bitterly.
In the period after the sentence and before the execution, he could not sleep soundly at night, woke up in a nightmare, and lost four pounds in prison.
Others say that during that period, he began to believe in Buddhism in an attempt to pin his last life on the next life.
After Kenji Toihara died, Hideki Tojo's body was carried away, and he shed tears uncontrollably.
He had vowed to dedicate his life to the Empire of Japan, and he would have been afraid of death.
He removed his dentures and glasses and felt for the first time the feelings of those who had died persecuted in the war.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="8" > Matsui Ishigen: Struggle time up to 12 minutes</h1>
The third matsui ishigen, who was hanged, committed a crime that was not smaller than the first two, and it can even be said that he deserved the title of "the Japanese who Chinese hate the most".
He led the Nanjing Massacre.
How many Chinese families were torn apart in this massacre, and how many Chinese died in pain. However, when Matsui Ishigen faced the trial, he still shirked his responsibility, believing that he was not in Nanjing at that time, and everything that happened in Nanjing had nothing to do with him.
But what the truth was, he knew. In order to escape trial, he pretended to commit suicide, thinking that he would not be taken to court.
Before he died, he said he had no regrets.
People say, "When a man dies, his words are good," and perhaps Matsui Ishigen did not have a "goodness" until he died.
For example, for the sake of the 300,000 people who were slaughtered in Nanjing, when he was vacated at the foot of Matsui Ishigen, he did not die within three or four minutes like the previous two.
It took up to 12 minutes and 30 seconds before God let this guilty person swallow.
Along with Matsui Ishigen, Hideki Tojo, and Kenji Doihara, muto was executed. In the group after them, the other three people, like Muto Akira, were like jumping beam clowns, bouncing left and right on the line of life and death.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="10" > the other four: ugly for life</h1>
Muto Akira follows the characteristics of the first three prisoners: hypocrisy, hard mouth, and love to shirk responsibility. It also includes the crimes committed by the first three prisoners: intelligence gathering for espionage activities, the mastermind of the invasion of China, and the participants in the Nanjing Massacre.
He likened himself to a generous and righteous warrior, and before he died he wrote the next poem: "In the night of frost, cross the iron heart and go out." In the world, wives and children are pitiful, and the heroes and heroes are not allowed to live in secret. ”
As he ascended to the gallows, he shouted, "Long live the Emperor." It shows that he has no remorse, and only by executing him can he appease the wrath of the people.
Itagaki Seishiro in the second batch of hanging lists was also the main force in the war of aggression against China, and his crimes were also a loss of conscience.
When he extended his butcher knife to Chinese, he did not appreciate the preciousness of life. But when he himself was sanctioned, he began to do everything he could to find a way to escape.
He tried to bribe the inquisitor and evaded the death penalty, but his crimes were too hard to change. Seeing that bribery had failed, he began to praise Sino-Japanese friendship in an attempt to whitewash his crime of invading China.
Itagaki Seishiro was followed by Hiroshi Hirota.
He was not directly involved in the war, but he was the mastermind behind the whole war.
It was the military system he single-handedly created that brought about Japan's evil deeds. With a few strokes of paper, he could kill hundreds of thousands of people.
Perhaps because he was in his prime when he was sentenced, his attitude was not as stubborn as that of the previous few people, and when he wrote the suicide note, he only mentioned his wife, and that was it.
Similar to Hirota's last words, it was the last hanger, Kentaro Kimura.
As his name suggests, Kimura Ishiro is good at artillery development, he has no opinion, and is a puppet who has been completely brainwashed by militarism.
He killed like a machine, was not soft on the people, killed countless people in Wuhan and other places in China, and committed the Yangon Massacre in Myanmar.
No matter how these most heinous war criminals expressed their longing and admiration for their wives before they died, they were nothing more than "crocodile tears."
If their remorse in the face of death deserves forgiveness, then who will do justice for those who have not had time to say goodbye to their loved ones and die under the butcher's knife of these demons?
On December 23, 1948, seven heinous sinners finally ended their sinful lives.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="12" after hanging >: ashes or into the Pacific</h1> Ocean
In the early hours of the night of the execution, the bodies of the seven criminals were taken by U.S. military trucks to the Hosan crematorium in Yokohama.
At 7:45 a.m., their bodies were sent to the crematorium for incineration, and finally the people who had played with the lives of others in the palm of their hands ended up with a frustrated and dead body.
A few hours after their deaths, the news of their deaths was announced, and some people in Tokyo were still indignant about their fate, and even wanted to revolt.
After Hideki Tojo's suicide note to his wife was published, his wife also had to show a look of her husband's righteousness, which made the people of Tokyo at that time fall into a sad madness.
In order to cooperate with this scene, Japanese Emperor Hirohito also shed tears for Hideki Tojo and other 6 war criminals, and also said that he would think behind closed doors and not see anyone.
As for the whereabouts of these ashes, there are many opinions.
Some say the U.S. military has long since scattered their ashes around the world, leaving them with nowhere to go; others say their ashes were handed over to the Japanese government.
In 1978, the Japanese authorities and government disregarded the wishes of the allies, including China, and arbitrarily placed the tablets of seven Class-A war criminals into the Yasukuni Shrine.
Many countries have accused Japan of putting such heinous sinners into shrines and enjoying incense, but the Japanese side still goes its own way and never responds.
On July 3, 2021, a flash flood broke out in Mount Izu in Atami City, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, due to heavy rains for several days, triggering a mudslide. Mudslides damaged a large number of houses, including the Konya Kannon-in Temple on Mount Izu.
Koiso Kunisaki, a Class-A war criminal who was sentenced to life imprisonment, was rumored to have had a defender named Sanji Masahira, who was very reluctant about the verdict and joined forces with two others to guard the door of the Yokohama crematorium.
After the AMERICANS and others left, they packed up the remaining ashes of the crematorium and took them away, buried them next to the Xingya Guanyin Temple on Mount Izu, and erected a "Monument of the Seven Soldiers".
The occurrence of the mudslide on Mount Izu caused the destruction of the Monument of the Seven Priests, and it is conceivable that the only remaining ashes of Hideki Tojo and others will no longer exist, and will be washed away by heavy rain along with the mudslide.
When the US military scattered its ashes in the Pacific Ocean, this was already the most compassionate destination for Hideki Tojo and others. However, the unwillingness of some people has led to the ashes being enshrined for decades, but in the end it is still the same way to the same destination, and there is no place to die.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="14" > conclusion:</h1>
No matter how the facts are covered up, the accumulated crimes committed by those Class A war criminals will never disappear. And their ending also proves that the heavens are clear and the retribution is not happy.
As a Chinese, we should never forget the national shame and be independent and self-reliant. Be thankful for the peace we have achieved today, but let us not forget the sacrifices and efforts made by our ancestors in those years to resist the Japanese captives!
bibliography:
Jing Shenghong. Matsui Ishigen, a Japanese Class-A war criminal who commanded the Nanjing Massacre[J].Yanhuang Chunqiu, 2017(09):43-49.
CHEN Qing. Class A War Criminals Invading China: Kenji Toihara[J].Yanhuang Chunqiu, 2017(07):84-88.
WANG Miao. The Criminal History of Japanese War Criminal Itagaki Seishiro's Invasion of China[J].Military Digest, 2017(01):56-60.