This book investigates the political context and intentions behind the trialling of Japanese war criminals in the wake of World War Two. After the Second World War in Asia, the victorious Allies placed around 5,700 Japanese on trial for war crimes. Ostensibly crafted to bring perpetrators to justice, the trials intersected in complex ways with the great issues of the day. They were meant to finish off the business of World War Two and to consolidate United States hegemony over Japan in the Pacific, but they lost impetus as Japan morphed into an ally of the West in the Cold War. Embattled colonial powers used the trials to bolster their authority against nationalist revolutionaries, but they found the principles of international humanitarian law were sharply at odds with the inequalities embodied in colonialism. Within nationalist movements, local enmities often overshadowed the reckoning with Japan. And hovering over the trials was the critical question: just what was justice forthe Japanese in a world where all sides had committed atrocities?

Explores the contradictory intentions embodied in bringing perpetrators to justice

JUSTICE IN TIME OF TURMOIL. WAR CRIMES TRIALS IN ASIA IN THE CONTEXT OF DECOLONIZATION AND COLD WAR  KERSTIN VON LINGEN/ ROBERT CRIBB.- COLONIALISM, ANTI-COLONIALISM AND NEO-COLONIALISM IN CHINA: THE OPIUM QUESTION AT THE TOKYO WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL  NEIL BOISTER.- THE FRENCH PROSECUTION AT THE IMTFE: ROBERT ONETO, INDOCHINA AND THE REHABILITATION OF FRENCH PRESTIGE  BEATRICE TREFALT.- DECOLONIZATION AND SUBALTERN SOVEREIGNTY:  INDIA AND THE TOKYO TRIAL   MILINDA BANERJEE.- THE LEGACY OF EXTRATERRITORIALITY AND THE TRIAL OF JAPANESE WAR CRIMINALS IN THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA  ANJA BIHLER.- THE BURMA TRIALS OF JAPANESE WAR CRIMINALS, 1946-1947  ROBERT CRIBB.- COLONIZATION AND POST-COLONIAL JUSTICE - U.S. AND PHILIPPINE WAR CRIMES TRIALS AFTER WWII IN MANILA  WOLFGANG FORM.- JUSTICE AND DECOLONIZATION: WAR CRIMES ON TRIAL IN SAIGON,  1946-1950  ANN-SOPHIE SCHOEPFEL.- NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES' WAR CRIME TRIALS IN THE FACE OF DECOLONIZATION  LISETTE SCHOUTEN.- AUSTRALIA'S PURSUIT OF THE FORMOSAN AND KOREAN 'JAPANESE' WAR CRIMINALS  DEAN ASZKIELOWICZ.- FROM TOKYO TO KHABAROVSK - SOVIET WAR CRIMES TRIALS IN ASIA AS COLD WAR BATTLEFIELDS  VALENTYNA POLUNINA.- RESURRECTING DEFEAT: INTERNATIONAL PROPAGANDA AND THE SHENYANG TRIALS OF 1956  ADAM CATHCART