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January 19

International Military Tribunal for Far East Created (1946)


On January 19, 1946, US General Douglas MacArthur created the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo, Japan to try the senior Japanese war criminals of WWII.

The judges of the International Military Tribunal of the Far East ("IMTFE") were composed of leading legal scholars from many countries including the US, USSR, UK, China, Canada, and Australia. The Tribunal tried 28 defendants. The Tribunal also created three separate classes of crimes:
Class A – crimes against peace
Class B – war crimes
Class C – crimes against humanity
Class A crimes were the most severe and referred to acts intended to stage conspiracy to wage war. Class B and Class C crimes were composed of different types of heinous massacres.

Of the 28 defendants, 7 were sentenced to death by hanging, 16 received life in prison, 2 died while awaiting trial, and the remaining defendants were sentenced to a certain number of years in prison.

The junior personnel were tried in other smaller tribunals throughout Asia. According to one study, 5,700 junior Japanese individuals were indicted for Class B and Class C war crimes. Of these defendants, 984 were sentenced to death, 475 received life in prison, 2,944 were given finite sentence terms, 1,018 were acquitted, and 279 were not brought to trial or sentenced.


Sources:
en.allexperts.com
John Dower, Embracing defeat, 1999, p.447