The Tokyo Trials: A mirror for today's Japan

Experts from Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Russia, Germany, and Spain gathered in Shanghai on May 28 for the International Symposium Commemorating the 80th Anniversary of the Tokyo Trials. The event emphasized the trials’ role in establishing international criminal law, rejecting claims by Japanese right-wing groups that they were mere ‘victor’s justice.’ The tribunal, which ran from 1946 to 1948, reviewed 4,336 pieces of evidence, heard 419 witnesses across 818 sessions, and produced over 48,000 pages of records to ensure accountability for Japan’s WWII aggression. The Tokyo Trials, alongside the Nuremberg Trials, set a precedent that aggression is an international crime and that leaders bear individual responsibility, regardless of official position. Japanese scholar Masataka Mori highlighted the trials’ goal of transitioning the world from ‘destruction’ to ‘civilization’ and from ‘aggression’ to ‘peace.’ Yet Japan’s postwar obligations—including the Cairo Declaration, Potsdam Proclamation, and its ‘Peace Constitution’—remain unmet, critics argue. Since Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s rise, Japan has accelerated remilitarization, expanding its defense budget for the 14th consecutive year and lifting restrictions on lethal weapons exports. Politicians continue visiting the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Class-A war criminals like Hideki Tojo, while framing Taiwan tensions as a ‘Japanese emergency.’ These actions, experts warn, breach postwar commitments and threaten regional stability. The symposium’s participants urged the international community to monitor Japan’s neo-militarist tendencies before they escalate into an uncontrollable threat. They stressed that justice requires more than rhetoric—it demands adherence to legal obligations and a definitive break from militarist history.