(YourDigitalWall Editorial):- Beijing, China May 8, 2026 (Issuewire.com) – Editor’s Note:
The just trial of Japanese war criminals by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (also known as the Tokyo Trial), through a vast number of eyewitness accounts, material evidence, and court testimonies, has fixed the criminal course of the war of aggression and delivered an unalterable and irrefutable historical verdict on Japan’s atrocities of aggression.
To mark the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Tokyo Trial, the Global Times highlights the core evidence from the trial. Based on court testimonies from witnesses in China, the US, the UK, Canada, and Japan, the report presents many historical details of the Lugou Bridge Incident, atrocities in prisoner-of-war concentration camps, crimes against humanity on the Hong Kong battlefield, and the destructive impact of militaristic education.
These testimonies, coming from diverse sources and mutually reinforcing one another, together prove that Japan’s aggression was a deliberate and premeditated state act, that militaristic education served as its ideological foundation, and that brutal violence and disregard for human dignity were its consistent practices.
‘They oscillated between fighting and peace-making in order to gain time’
Wang Len-ch’ai (1891-1960), a native of Fuzhou, Fujian Province, served as executive supervisor for the Third District of Hebei Province and concurrently magistrate of Wanping county in Beijing in 1937. Following the outbreak of the Lugou Bridge Incident, he conducted multiple rounds of negotiations and representations with the Japanese side as the chief Chinese representative. In August 1946, he appeared as a witness before the Tokyo Trial. Below is an excerpt from the court evidence he submitted.
At around 11 o’clock on the night of July 7, 1937, a few shots were heard to have been fired from the outskirts of Wan-ping city. Investigation reports showed that the Japanese troops were then staging maneuvers. I directed close attention to this matter. Soon Mayor Ching Teh-tsun telephoned me to inform me that a protest had been lodged by Matsui, commander of the Japanese Special Service Corps. He said that one of the Japanese soldiers was found missing after the Chinese garrison forces at Wanping had opened fire at the Japanese maneuvering troops, and demanded that the Japanese troops should be allowed entry into the city to conduct searches. I was instructed to investigate into the matter straight away and submit a report. A number of my men were detailed and sent out to investigate inside as well as outside of the city. But no missing soldier was ever found.
When we approached Sha-k’an, Han-tung on the Lukouchaio Railway, about a mile from Wanping, I observed a unit of Japanese troops under the direction of Morita, deputy regiment commander, already taking up field positions at Sha-k’an. Terahira [a Japanese investigator] then asked me to alight from the car and said that, having seen this, I must now be able to realize the seriousness of the situation. He further threatened that there was no time left for conducting any investigation and that I should give the order for the city gates to be opened. Without letting the Japanese troops enter into the city, he said, no settlement could be affected. Morita even threatened me with physical violence.
I had just ordered the Director of Police Bureau to write up a report, when we heard a number of gunshots, and bullets flew overhead. Undoubtedly, the Japanese troops had already opened fire. A few minutes later, our guards on the city walls began to return fire. The duel lasted for about another hour.
Abiding with the agreement, our units under the command of Lt Colonel Chi Hsin-wen retreated to their original line. The Japanese units were then withdrawn toward Fengtai. But it was later discovered that some 100 Japanese soldiers along the railway tunnel were not withdrawn. On being asked, Nakashima [advisor of the Japanese army] promised that they would all be withdrawn and guaranteed that no fighting would ever be resumed. At around midnight, once again the Japanese troops fired at the city for almost half an hour. With the Japanese refusing to withdraw their troops along the railway, I knew for sure that they were not going to be easy to deal with. The Japanese, having built some military constructions there, would surely try to stand their ground. With this ambition unabated, I was afraid that the truce was a scheme devised by the Japanese to gain time.
Then, we received telephone messages from various sources, informing us that the Japanese army had sent some reinforcements from Kupeikou [Gubeikou], Shanhaikwan [Shanhaiguan] and other places, totaling no less than two Japanese Divisions. Some airplanes were reported to have arrived at Tientsin [Tianjin]. A part of the Japanese troops was observed marching toward Lukouchiao [Lugouqiao]. Meanwhile, communications between Peiping and Wanping were also broken up. The Japanese frequently oscillated between fighting and peace-making in order to gain time.
Judging from the above accounts, one would readily realize that the Japanese invasion was a studied and systematic scheme which was not meted out overnight. They should be made to shoulder the full responsibilities of the war.
“It is a horrible story to try to relate; I know not where to begin nor [where] to end”
During the Nanjing Massacre, a number of expats witnessed the atrocities committed by the Japanese army and left written records. James H. McCallum from the US documented what he saw and heard in his diary. He came to China in 1921. During the massacre, he stayed in Nanjing as an administrator at the University of Nanking Hospital and for refugee relief work. His diaries and letters, written between December 1937 and January 1938, were used by the court as evidence for the Nanjing Massacre at the Tokyo Trial of Japanese war criminals.
Dec. 19, 1937. It has been just one week now since the collapse of the Chinese army in its Nanking defense. Japanese soldiers came marching down Chung Shan Road past the Hospital on Monday, and Japanese flags began to appear here and there. We all breathed a sigh of relief, thinking new order would be restored after the panic and stampede caused by the retreating Chinese army. Airplanes could fly over our heads without causing apprehension or tension. But a week has passed and it has been a hell on earth.
It is a horrible story to try to relate; I know not where to begin nor [where] to end. Never have I heard or read of such brutality. Rape! Rape! Rape! We estimate at least 1000 cases a night, and many by day. In case of resistance or anything that seems like disapproval there is a bayonet stab or a bullet. We could write up hundreds of cases a day.
Dec. 30, 1937. Before dinner a 12-year old girl was abducted by two Japanese soldiers who drove up in a yellow taxi. Several men were forcibly carried away from Gingling, Magee’s [John G. Magee, American Episcopal priest] place, as well as other places, accused of being soldiers. The men had friends among the group who could identify them as civilians, but because they had calouses on their hands they were branded without further investigation as soldiers in spite of the protests voiced. Many ricksha and sampan men, as well as other laborers have been shot simply because they have the marks of honest toil upon their hands. An old caretaker in a German residence near the Kiang An bus station is reported to have been killed yesterday. Soldiers found no young men on the place to conscript for labor and he protested about going himself.
‘The screams never ceased, whether day or night’
Exhibit No. 1894 is the affidavit of William Slade Bungey, a director of Yee Tsoong Tobacco Co., Ltd in Shanghai. In his testimony, he recounts the torture and inhumane treatment he suffered at the hands of Japanese military police in the Bridge House, the Haiphong Road Prisoner of War Camp and the Fengtai Prisoner of War Camp in Beijing.
Above my cell was the interrogation room. The screams never ceased, whether day or night. At times, groans of agony could also be heard from nearby. Prisoners, when escorted to the interrogation room, would generally pass in front of my cell. Each time they returned after interrogation, almost all of them appeared utterly exhausted and in unbearable pain.
I told the Japanese that I would only tell the truth and never speak falsehoods. If they wished to execute me, they could go ahead, but I would never comply with their demands to give false testimony. My words enraged the Japanese military police. They seized sticks and belts and viciously beat my head, neck, shoulders and arms.
I was surrounded and beaten by three Japanese military policemen, and knocked to the ground several times. On one occasion, I fell onto a table and it broke apart. I once lost consciousness and, after an unknown period of time, slowly awoke. After I awoke, I found myself lying amid broken debris. At that moment, a Japanese military policeman wearing studded boots entered the room and kicked my shin. He then dragged me up from the ground and forced me to write a farewell letter to my wife and children.
After I finished the letter and handed it to them, I was taken to another room. Upon entering, the Japanese military police ordered me to remove my shirt, then bound me face-up to a low table. One end of the table was shaped in a semicircle, fitting snugly around my head. They brought several large containers filled with water. While interrogating me, they tortured me by continuously pouring cold water into my mouth and nose. My neck, upper body, and legs were tightly bound with ropes, leaving me completely unable to move, only my head could still move.
When I regained consciousness, I found a Japanese military policeman in uniform and boots sitting on my abdomen, pressing up and down to force the water in my stomach out. Due to nausea, I eventually vomited bile and filth, covering my eyes, ears, face and hair with vomit.
‘We were flying the Red Cross Hospital sign but it was shot down at least twice’
On December 8, 1941, Japanese troops invaded Hong Kong, and the main building of St. Stephen’s College was urgently converted into a temporary military hospital. Between December 24 and 26, 1941, Japanese soldiers broke into St. Stephen’s College and perpetrated the heinous “St. Stephen’s College Massacre.” The following is an excerpt from the court testimony given by Captain James Barnett of the Canadian Army, as a prosecution witness.
About 6 o’clock in the morning of Christmas Day, 1941, the Japanese troops entered St. Stephens College Hospital. I saw five Japanese soldiers bayonet 15 to 20 wounded men while they were still in bed.
After that, the Japanese herded all those who could walk, patients and staff, and put them into a storeroom. After we had been there for about an hour, the Japanese moved us to a smaller room. Until this point, the nurses had been with me, but as we were being moved from the storeroom to the small room, the nurses were separated from me. I saw a Japanese soldier beat one of the nurses over the head with a steel helmet, and then he kicked and slapped her in the face. There were 90 men with me in the small room – some of the hospital staff and some of the wounded men. The room was so small that we couldn’t all sit down together. The very sick and wounded men had to lie down as best they could and when they could.
After we had been in the room a little while, an unknown Japanese soldier came to the door, made us put up our arms, and took away my watch, my ring and some money which I had in my pocket. Later on, a different Japanese soldier came with a sack of ammunition and threw bullets into our faces, and soon after that, another Japanese soldier came and took a rifleman out of the room and as soon as he got into the corridor we heard screams which I believe came from the rifleman. Then, another Japanese soldier came and took another rifleman out of the room. When they got out of the room, we heard more screams which I also believe came from the rifleman.
The hospital was in a dreadful state. I found the two men who had been taken out of our room. Their bodies had been badly mutilated, their ears, tongues, noses and eyes cut away from their faces; about 70 men, wounded men, killed by bayonet in their beds; many more were even more seriously wounded.
None of the patients were armed nor, yet, was the hospital staff, nor were there any armed troops in the hospital or around the grounds.
“We were flying the Red Cross Hospital sign but it was shot down at least twice.”
‘All expressions of thought in favor of the ideals of peace or in opposition to the policy of preparation for aggressive warfare being rigidly suppressed in the schools’
From the Meiji Restoration to the end of World War II, Japan continuously imposed militaristic education by enacting and revising education-related laws and regulations, attempting to plant the seeds of aggression and expansion in the minds of its people, especially students, so as to fully militarize the nation. Court Exhibit No. 130 is the affidavit by Ouchi Hyoe, a professor at the Imperial University of Tokyo. Based on his personal experience and observations, he detailed the infiltration and domination of Japanese schools by militaristic education throughout the war.
The foundation of the effort to inspire a militaristic and ultra-nationalistic spirit in the students was based upon a rescript of Emperor Meiji on education [“Imperial Rescript on Education”], published in 1890, which rescript provided that the most important duty of a subject was to the country and the Emperor, together with a rescript issued by the Emperor to military end naval officers, soldiers and sailors on their duties. These rescripts, together with the textbooks, lectures, military training and teachings, were used by the military instructors to teach and inculcate in the students a belief in the great glory of Japan, and the duty of the Japanese to aid and further the Holy Mission of Japan to gain control of and rule the Far East, and thereafter the world, and that in the accomplishing of this Holy Mission the greatest glory of all for a Japanese was the privilege of dying in the service of the Emperor.”
From 1931, domination by the military of the universities and schools increasingly became more apparent, such domination having reached such proportions in 1937 following the “China Incident” [Lugou Bridge Incident] that professors and teachers were required to cooperate fully and wholeheartedly in the program of inculcating in the students a fanatical militaristic and ultra-nationalistic spirit. Failure to cooperate fully in this program would bring punishment by dismissal from the school or imprisonment. Furthermore, all expressions of thought in favor of the ideals of peace or in opposition to the policy of preparation for aggressive warfare were rigidly suppressed in schools. This suppression was directed at students as well as teachers and professors.
In 1937, three professors from Tokyo Imperial University, three from Hosei University, one from Tohoku, some assistant professors and myself were discharged, after being suspected of being sympathetic to peace ideals. Following the discharge of these professors and assistant professors, all were arrested by the police, charged under the Public Peace Law of suspicion of being in opposition to the political structure of the Empire of Japan. I was arrested by the police on this charge and spent 11 months in the police station where I was questioned in relation to this charge from time to time by police officers, later being sent to another jail to await trial, where I spent seven more months. I was then tried before the Preparatory Court and as they had no evidence against me, I was conditionally released as a suspect. I was again tried in 1940 by a higher court where I was found not guilty. Following my trial in the higher court and being found not guilty, I made every effort to be restored to my position as a professor at the university, but was unsuccessful. In October 1945, the war then being over, I was requested to return and resume my professorship, which I did.
As an educator in the universities for the past 27 years and from my own personal experience as a student in the various grade schools in Japan, it is my opinion that the military training, lectures and teaching given to students in all grade schools and universities had the effect of creating in the students a militaristic and ultra-nationalistic spirit. It also glorified war and instilled a belief that the Japanese as a race were superior to all other peoples and that wars were productive and necessary for the future welfare of Japan. This all had the effect of preparing the students for future wars of aggression.
Photos and literature on this page: Database of Tokyo Trials Literature, Shanghai Jiao Tong University; “One Item a Day” Compilation of Historical Materials on Japanese War Criminals Trials, National Library of China
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202605/1360339.shtml
(YourDigitalWall Editorial):- Beijing, China May 8, 2026 (Issuewire.com) – Editor’s Note:
The just trial of Japanese war criminals by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (also known as the Tokyo Trial), through a vast number of eyewitness accounts, material evidence, and court testimonies, has fixed the criminal course of the war of aggression and delivered an unalterable and irrefutable historical verdict on Japan’s atrocities of aggression.
To mark the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Tokyo Trial, the Global Times highlights the core evidence from the trial. Based on court testimonies from witnesses in China, the US, the UK, Canada, and Japan, the report presents many historical details of the Lugou Bridge Incident, atrocities in prisoner-of-war concentration camps, crimes against humanity on the Hong Kong battlefield, and the destructive impact of militaristic education.
These testimonies, coming from diverse sources and mutually reinforcing one another, together prove that Japan’s aggression was a deliberate and premeditated state act, that militaristic education served as its ideological foundation, and that brutal violence and disregard for human dignity were its consistent practices.
‘They oscillated between fighting and peace-making in order to gain time’
Wang Len-ch’ai (1891-1960), a native of Fuzhou, Fujian Province, served as executive supervisor for the Third District of Hebei Province and concurrently magistrate of Wanping county in Beijing in 1937. Following the outbreak of the Lugou Bridge Incident, he conducted multiple rounds of negotiations and representations with the Japanese side as the chief Chinese representative. In August 1946, he appeared as a witness before the Tokyo Trial. Below is an excerpt from the court evidence he submitted.
At around 11 o’clock on the night of July 7, 1937, a few shots were heard to have been fired from the outskirts of Wan-ping city. Investigation reports showed that the Japanese troops were then staging maneuvers. I directed close attention to this matter. Soon Mayor Ching Teh-tsun telephoned me to inform me that a protest had been lodged by Matsui, commander of the Japanese Special Service Corps. He said that one of the Japanese soldiers was found missing after the Chinese garrison forces at Wanping had opened fire at the Japanese maneuvering troops, and demanded that the Japanese troops should be allowed entry into the city to conduct searches. I was instructed to investigate into the matter straight away and submit a report. A number of my men were detailed and sent out to investigate inside as well as outside of the city. But no missing soldier was ever found.
When we approached Sha-k’an, Han-tung on the Lukouchaio Railway, about a mile from Wanping, I observed a unit of Japanese troops under the direction of Morita, deputy regiment commander, already taking up field positions at Sha-k’an. Terahira [a Japanese investigator] then asked me to alight from the car and said that, having seen this, I must now be able to realize the seriousness of the situation. He further threatened that there was no time left for conducting any investigation and that I should give the order for the city gates to be opened. Without letting the Japanese troops enter into the city, he said, no settlement could be affected. Morita even threatened me with physical violence.
I had just ordered the Director of Police Bureau to write up a report, when we heard a number of gunshots, and bullets flew overhead. Undoubtedly, the Japanese troops had already opened fire. A few minutes later, our guards on the city walls began to return fire. The duel lasted for about another hour.
Abiding with the agreement, our units under the command of Lt Colonel Chi Hsin-wen retreated to their original line. The Japanese units were then withdrawn toward Fengtai. But it was later discovered that some 100 Japanese soldiers along the railway tunnel were not withdrawn. On being asked, Nakashima [advisor of the Japanese army] promised that they would all be withdrawn and guaranteed that no fighting would ever be resumed. At around midnight, once again the Japanese troops fired at the city for almost half an hour. With the Japanese refusing to withdraw their troops along the railway, I knew for sure that they were not going to be easy to deal with. The Japanese, having built some military constructions there, would surely try to stand their ground. With this ambition unabated, I was afraid that the truce was a scheme devised by the Japanese to gain time.
Then, we received telephone messages from various sources, informing us that the Japanese army had sent some reinforcements from Kupeikou [Gubeikou], Shanhaikwan [Shanhaiguan] and other places, totaling no less than two Japanese Divisions. Some airplanes were reported to have arrived at Tientsin [Tianjin]. A part of the Japanese troops was observed marching toward Lukouchiao [Lugouqiao]. Meanwhile, communications between Peiping and Wanping were also broken up. The Japanese frequently oscillated between fighting and peace-making in order to gain time.
Judging from the above accounts, one would readily realize that the Japanese invasion was a studied and systematic scheme which was not meted out overnight. They should be made to shoulder the full responsibilities of the war.
“It is a horrible story to try to relate; I know not where to begin nor [where] to end”
During the Nanjing Massacre, a number of expats witnessed the atrocities committed by the Japanese army and left written records. James H. McCallum from the US documented what he saw and heard in his diary. He came to China in 1921. During the massacre, he stayed in Nanjing as an administrator at the University of Nanking Hospital and for refugee relief work. His diaries and letters, written between December 1937 and January 1938, were used by the court as evidence for the Nanjing Massacre at the Tokyo Trial of Japanese war criminals.
Dec. 19, 1937. It has been just one week now since the collapse of the Chinese army in its Nanking defense. Japanese soldiers came marching down Chung Shan Road past the Hospital on Monday, and Japanese flags began to appear here and there. We all breathed a sigh of relief, thinking new order would be restored after the panic and stampede caused by the retreating Chinese army. Airplanes could fly over our heads without causing apprehension or tension. But a week has passed and it has been a hell on earth.
It is a horrible story to try to relate; I know not where to begin nor [where] to end. Never have I heard or read of such brutality. Rape! Rape! Rape! We estimate at least 1000 cases a night, and many by day. In case of resistance or anything that seems like disapproval there is a bayonet stab or a bullet. We could write up hundreds of cases a day.
Dec. 30, 1937. Before dinner a 12-year old girl was abducted by two Japanese soldiers who drove up in a yellow taxi. Several men were forcibly carried away from Gingling, Magee’s [John G. Magee, American Episcopal priest] place, as well as other places, accused of being soldiers. The men had friends among the group who could identify them as civilians, but because they had calouses on their hands they were branded without further investigation as soldiers in spite of the protests voiced. Many ricksha and sampan men, as well as other laborers have been shot simply because they have the marks of honest toil upon their hands. An old caretaker in a German residence near the Kiang An bus station is reported to have been killed yesterday. Soldiers found no young men on the place to conscript for labor and he protested about going himself.
‘The screams never ceased, whether day or night’
Exhibit No. 1894 is the affidavit of William Slade Bungey, a director of Yee Tsoong Tobacco Co., Ltd in Shanghai. In his testimony, he recounts the torture and inhumane treatment he suffered at the hands of Japanese military police in the Bridge House, the Haiphong Road Prisoner of War Camp and the Fengtai Prisoner of War Camp in Beijing.
Above my cell was the interrogation room. The screams never ceased, whether day or night. At times, groans of agony could also be heard from nearby. Prisoners, when escorted to the interrogation room, would generally pass in front of my cell. Each time they returned after interrogation, almost all of them appeared utterly exhausted and in unbearable pain.
I told the Japanese that I would only tell the truth and never speak falsehoods. If they wished to execute me, they could go ahead, but I would never comply with their demands to give false testimony. My words enraged the Japanese military police. They seized sticks and belts and viciously beat my head, neck, shoulders and arms.
I was surrounded and beaten by three Japanese military policemen, and knocked to the ground several times. On one occasion, I fell onto a table and it broke apart. I once lost consciousness and, after an unknown period of time, slowly awoke. After I awoke, I found myself lying amid broken debris. At that moment, a Japanese military policeman wearing studded boots entered the room and kicked my shin. He then dragged me up from the ground and forced me to write a farewell letter to my wife and children.
After I finished the letter and handed it to them, I was taken to another room. Upon entering, the Japanese military police ordered me to remove my shirt, then bound me face-up to a low table. One end of the table was shaped in a semicircle, fitting snugly around my head. They brought several large containers filled with water. While interrogating me, they tortured me by continuously pouring cold water into my mouth and nose. My neck, upper body, and legs were tightly bound with ropes, leaving me completely unable to move, only my head could still move.
When I regained consciousness, I found a Japanese military policeman in uniform and boots sitting on my abdomen, pressing up and down to force the water in my stomach out. Due to nausea, I eventually vomited bile and filth, covering my eyes, ears, face and hair with vomit.
‘We were flying the Red Cross Hospital sign but it was shot down at least twice’
On December 8, 1941, Japanese troops invaded Hong Kong, and the main building of St. Stephen’s College was urgently converted into a temporary military hospital. Between December 24 and 26, 1941, Japanese soldiers broke into St. Stephen’s College and perpetrated the heinous “St. Stephen’s College Massacre.” The following is an excerpt from the court testimony given by Captain James Barnett of the Canadian Army, as a prosecution witness.
About 6 o’clock in the morning of Christmas Day, 1941, the Japanese troops entered St. Stephens College Hospital. I saw five Japanese soldiers bayonet 15 to 20 wounded men while they were still in bed.
After that, the Japanese herded all those who could walk, patients and staff, and put them into a storeroom. After we had been there for about an hour, the Japanese moved us to a smaller room. Until this point, the nurses had been with me, but as we were being moved from the storeroom to the small room, the nurses were separated from me. I saw a Japanese soldier beat one of the nurses over the head with a steel helmet, and then he kicked and slapped her in the face. There were 90 men with me in the small room – some of the hospital staff and some of the wounded men. The room was so small that we couldn’t all sit down together. The very sick and wounded men had to lie down as best they could and when they could.
After we had been in the room a little while, an unknown Japanese soldier came to the door, made us put up our arms, and took away my watch, my ring and some money which I had in my pocket. Later on, a different Japanese soldier came with a sack of ammunition and threw bullets into our faces, and soon after that, another Japanese soldier came and took a rifleman out of the room and as soon as he got into the corridor we heard screams which I believe came from the rifleman. Then, another Japanese soldier came and took another rifleman out of the room. When they got out of the room, we heard more screams which I also believe came from the rifleman.
The hospital was in a dreadful state. I found the two men who had been taken out of our room. Their bodies had been badly mutilated, their ears, tongues, noses and eyes cut away from their faces; about 70 men, wounded men, killed by bayonet in their beds; many more were even more seriously wounded.
None of the patients were armed nor, yet, was the hospital staff, nor were there any armed troops in the hospital or around the grounds.
“We were flying the Red Cross Hospital sign but it was shot down at least twice.”
‘All expressions of thought in favor of the ideals of peace or in opposition to the policy of preparation for aggressive warfare being rigidly suppressed in the schools’
From the Meiji Restoration to the end of World War II, Japan continuously imposed militaristic education by enacting and revising education-related laws and regulations, attempting to plant the seeds of aggression and expansion in the minds of its people, especially students, so as to fully militarize the nation. Court Exhibit No. 130 is the affidavit by Ouchi Hyoe, a professor at the Imperial University of Tokyo. Based on his personal experience and observations, he detailed the infiltration and domination of Japanese schools by militaristic education throughout the war.
The foundation of the effort to inspire a militaristic and ultra-nationalistic spirit in the students was based upon a rescript of Emperor Meiji on education [“Imperial Rescript on Education”], published in 1890, which rescript provided that the most important duty of a subject was to the country and the Emperor, together with a rescript issued by the Emperor to military end naval officers, soldiers and sailors on their duties. These rescripts, together with the textbooks, lectures, military training and teachings, were used by the military instructors to teach and inculcate in the students a belief in the great glory of Japan, and the duty of the Japanese to aid and further the Holy Mission of Japan to gain control of and rule the Far East, and thereafter the world, and that in the accomplishing of this Holy Mission the greatest glory of all for a Japanese was the privilege of dying in the service of the Emperor.”
From 1931, domination by the military of the universities and schools increasingly became more apparent, such domination having reached such proportions in 1937 following the “China Incident” [Lugou Bridge Incident] that professors and teachers were required to cooperate fully and wholeheartedly in the program of inculcating in the students a fanatical militaristic and ultra-nationalistic spirit. Failure to cooperate fully in this program would bring punishment by dismissal from the school or imprisonment. Furthermore, all expressions of thought in favor of the ideals of peace or in opposition to the policy of preparation for aggressive warfare were rigidly suppressed in schools. This suppression was directed at students as well as teachers and professors.
In 1937, three professors from Tokyo Imperial University, three from Hosei University, one from Tohoku, some assistant professors and myself were discharged, after being suspected of being sympathetic to peace ideals. Following the discharge of these professors and assistant professors, all were arrested by the police, charged under the Public Peace Law of suspicion of being in opposition to the political structure of the Empire of Japan. I was arrested by the police on this charge and spent 11 months in the police station where I was questioned in relation to this charge from time to time by police officers, later being sent to another jail to await trial, where I spent seven more months. I was then tried before the Preparatory Court and as they had no evidence against me, I was conditionally released as a suspect. I was again tried in 1940 by a higher court where I was found not guilty. Following my trial in the higher court and being found not guilty, I made every effort to be restored to my position as a professor at the university, but was unsuccessful. In October 1945, the war then being over, I was requested to return and resume my professorship, which I did.
As an educator in the universities for the past 27 years and from my own personal experience as a student in the various grade schools in Japan, it is my opinion that the military training, lectures and teaching given to students in all grade schools and universities had the effect of creating in the students a militaristic and ultra-nationalistic spirit. It also glorified war and instilled a belief that the Japanese as a race were superior to all other peoples and that wars were productive and necessary for the future welfare of Japan. This all had the effect of preparing the students for future wars of aggression.
Photos and literature on this page: Database of Tokyo Trials Literature, Shanghai Jiao Tong University; “One Item a Day” Compilation of Historical Materials on Japanese War Criminals Trials, National Library of China
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202605/1360339.shtml
This article was originally published by IssueWire. Read the original article here.
