On May 3, 1946, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East officially opened its trial, and a strange thing happened. A total of 28 defendants, including Hideki Tojo, Kenji Doihara, and other "original perpetrators of the 9/18 Incident", appeared in court for trial, not only did none of them admit guilt, but the judges were in the final vote; they narrowly won the victory by a narrow margin of 6 votes to 5 votes, and sentenced 7 defendants to be hanged. What's going on here?
Movie Tokyo Trial
It turned out that the Tokyo Trial was not a simple process, but focused on the evidence chain of the Anglo-American legal system, the suspect was found guilty, first assumed innocence, the plaintiff must put forward a large number of personal evidence and physical evidence, after confirming the truth and validity, in order to determine the defendant's guilt on this basis, and make a final guilty verdict.
As for the Japanese war criminals, who are old and vicious and do not leave a handle as much as possible, they have long consulted privately with the lawyers of the United States and Japan and tried their best to study countermeasures.
As for the original perpetrators of the "9/18 Incident," the chinese judges who uttered wild words and all kinds of denials did not expect that the Chinese judges who appeared in court to try Japanese war criminals did not expect.
Kenji Toihara
The first did not expect the difficulty of forensics
Unlike the victory in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in August 1945, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in early May 1946 was a different story.
Kenji Doihara, one of the original culprits who personally planned the "September 18 Incident", although shortly after Japan announced its unconditional surrender, was arrested by the Allied commander MacArthur on suspicion of being a war criminal and imprisoned in the Yokohama Penal Office awaiting trial.
However, for the court's accusations, Kenji Doihara not only scoffed, but even uttered wild words: "I want Chinese and Americans to open their eyes to see what a real Japanese samurai looks like in the face of severe tests when they fail!" ”
So a very key question is in front of us, and that is the evidence. But trouble ensued. In order to find evidence, the American gendarmes with developed limbs and simple minds actually went to search the home of Kenji Doihara, and the result was naturally a wasted effort.
You know, this very cunning Japanese war criminal is not stupid, he is not stupid enough to put the evidence proving his crime at home. And according to the Anglo-American legal system, there is no evidence to convict Kenji Hihara of the crime, what should be done?
Chinese judge Ni Zhengyi
The Chinese judge Ni Zhengyi, who participated in the trial, used his brains and decided to use the method of tainting witnesses to testify, and to use Zhao Xinbo, who was the mayor of Fengtian City, a "puppet Manchukuo" prison in the northeast war criminals prison, and he provided evidence of The crime of Dai Feiyuan and made meritorious contributions.
At first, Zhao Xinbo agreed with a full mouth, but then he thought about it and was afraid that his crime would be involved, and Zhao Xinbo simply did not do it, which directly caused the trial of Kenji Toihara to reach an impasse from the beginning.
At the crucial moment, the indomitable Chinese procurators, together with relevant domestic personnel, and after much painstaking effort, finally found two of the most powerful witnesses to identify his crimes in the vast sea of people -- Qin Dechun, who had signed the "Qin-Tu Agreement" face-to-face with Kenji Toihara, and Wang Lengzhai, the commissioner of Wanping City at the time of the "July 7 Incident".
Under the stern testimony of Qin Dechun and Wang Lengzhai, two witnesses, Ai Zecheng, an old subordinate who testified in court for Kenji Toihara, not only pierced the leaky testimony one by one, but also let the European and American judges present fully understand the nickname allusions of the ordinary people in northeast China about Kenji Toihara after the "918 Incident."
It turned out that the people of the northeast had given Kenji Toihara a very well-known nickname - 'Bandit Source'. The gist is that it is more ferocious than the bandits.
In the years when the Japanese army invaded and occupied northeast China, if anyone's children cried and disobeyed, the adults would always scare and say, 'You cry again, the source of bandits is coming!'" The child will immediately stop crying, too frightened to make a sound. ”
In the face of overwhelming human and physical evidence, Kenji Doihara was ultimately speechless, because he was afraid that his argument would expose more and more crimes, so he directly gave up his right to defend.
On December 22, 1948, this man, who had been called "the friendly ambassador of Japan-China friendship" by the Japanese side, became the first of the seven class A war criminals to go to the execution ground by drawing lots.
Seishiro Itagaki
The second did not expect to wash away the crime
Itagaki Seishiro, a Japanese war criminal, knows very well that he has committed too many unforgivable crimes in the war of aggression against China.
In order to save his own life and wash himself of his crimes, he not only worked very hard and directly submitted a self-defense statement to the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, which was as long as 48 pages; he also dispatched a huge team of witnesses with his old subordinates as the team, and secretly colluded to make corresponding preparations.
Ironically, in contrast, the number of witnesses who testified for Kenji Toihara was far less than that of Seishiro Itagaki.
At that time, according to the prescribed procedural arrangements, Chinese judges were responsible for the trial of Itagaki Seishiro. As everyone knows, the Chinese military and people fought the arduous War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression for a full 14 years, and they have a deep hatred and hatred.
If Itagaki Seishiro is not prepared to fight to the death, he will only have to finish playing. Only by successfully washing away one's own crimes can one's life be saved.
This also shows from the side that Itagaki Seishiro's desire to survive is indeed very strong.
After all, it was no longer the time when you could do whatever you wanted in the war years, and it was good to survive.
Of course, the Chinese judges who presided over the trial did not take this lightly, but took the initiative to take some contingency measures in response to the trick of Itagaki Seishiro.
It is said that "the enemy changes and I change, and the enemy does not change, I still have to change", which is the philosophy of the ghost valley in the world, and it is also respected by the soldiers of all generations! Itagaki Seishiro never dreamed that smart and capable Chinese judges would use this trick to make his overall plan in vain.
According to historical records, Shimamoto Shoichi, the japanese wing commander who led the garrison to attack the Chinese army during the "918 Incident," as the first witness to testify in court by Itagaki Seishiro, said in the courtroom that on the night of the "918 Incident," "the Japanese army only took self-defense actions, not what several aides of Itagaki, Doihara, and Ishihara could instigate," the Chinese judges were seriously observing his every word, deed, and every move.
If what he said was true, it would indeed create a favorable situation for Itagaki Seishiro. However, japanese war criminals are, after all, guilty, and even if a large number of people give false testimony for them, many flaws will still be exposed.
Chinese judge Mei Ruxuan
According to historical records, when the Chinese judge Mei Ruxuan saw that Shimamoto was proud of his words, he coldly asked him a question: "Where were you on the night of September 18?" What was done?
In response to this sudden question, Masaichi Shimamoto said without any thoughts: "I went to a friend's house for dinner that night, and I was very drunk and drunk..."
Xiang Zhejun, a Chinese procurator who reacted quickly, immediately seized on the loophole of Shoichi Shimamoto's slip of the tongue and pointed out to the presiding judge, Webb, on the spot: "Chief Judge, since the witness Shimamoto claimed that he was drunk that night, what can a drunk person prove?"
The Australian, seeing that the Chinese prosecutor was right, immediately ordered the American gendarmes at the scene of the trial to take Shimamoto out of the courtroom. As a result, itagaki Seishiro's meticulously prepared witness corps began to disintegrate, and their so-called witness testimony had no real evidence at all, and was all judged by the court on the spot to be inadmissible.
Subsequently, the court summoned a Chinese witness, "Puppet Manchukuo Emperor" Puyi, to testify in court, and finally after two years of meticulous investigation and trial, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East found that Itagaki Seishiro was not only guilty of plotting a series of crimes of aggression against China and trying to continuously expand the war against China, such as the "September 18 Incident," but also participated in the conspiracy to promote the "northward approach" to attack the Soviet Union and the Japanese army to attack Pearl Harbor in the south to attack the US Pacific Fleet.
The facts are clear, the black and white words, and the evidence is conclusive, which Itagaki Seishiro cannot deny.
Finally, on November 12, 1948, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East formally sentenced Itagaki Seishiro to death for "violating the customs of war and violating humanity."
In the early morning of December 23, 1948, Itagaki Seishiro was executed. It was not until before his death that he deeply repented: "Kneel before the gods, and beg for forgiveness of sins." ”
Although Kenji Toihara and Seishiro Itagaki and other perpetrators of the "918 Incident" were justly punished, among the 28 Class-A war criminals, in addition to 3 people who died of illness, more than a dozen other people finally saved their lives.
At the time of the September 18 Incident, The Japanese Minister of War, the first Class-A war criminal Nanjiro to be publicly arrested, ended in a life sentence.
Unrepentant, he later wrote in his diary: "I will spend the last phase of my life in prison. Looking back on my life, I firmly believe that I am innocent, and I firmly believe that all the evidence can prove my innocence. But they insisted that I was guilty. Since I have been convicted, what will my husband say?"
Until the moment of his death on December 5, 1955, this Japanese war criminal, who had lost his conscience, did not have the slightest remorse for the crimes he had committed.
There is no country in the world that does not want to be rich and strong, but Japan is an exception.
Everyone only saw that in 1931, Japan launched the "918 Incident" to occupy northeast China, but few people know that as early as the 16th century, Toyotomi Hideyoshi formulated an attempt to conquer Korea, invade China, and take India. From Sato Nobuchi's "Mixed Strategies within the Universe" to a hundred years later, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiichi Tanaka's "Tanaka Sonata" to the "918 Incident", more than 400 years have passed in a flash.
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