Abstract
The Australian government was an enthusiastic participant in the postwar prosecution of Japanese class B and C war criminals. Almost 1000 war criminals faced Australian military courts between 1945 and 1951. Around 100 of those convicted were former Japanese colonial subjects of Korean or Taiwanese origin who had served in the Japanese military during the war. Japan lost its empire immediately after it surrendered to the Allies in 1945 and Korean and Taiwanese ‘Japanese’ subjects had their nationality restored to that of their country of origin. Nonetheless, the Australian government continued to regard war criminals of Korean and Taiwanese origin as Japanese subjects for the duration of their prosecution and imprisonment, since they had been so at the time of their crimes. Some argued that the prosecution and imprisonment of war criminals of Korean and Taiwanese origin was unjust because it failed to recognize the difficult circumstances that colonial subjects serving in the Japanese military were in.
The Australian government maintained its position on the Korean and Taiwanese war criminals until they were released from prison in the late 1950s, despite being under diplomatic pressure from the Japanese, Korean and Nationalist Chinese governments to change its stance on the war criminals at various times in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The government maintained that these war criminals needed to be punished for their crimes, regardless of the circumstances of their nationality. When the government did eventually show leniency to the Koreans and Taiwanese and release them, it was in line with leniency shown to all ‘Japanese’ war criminals and was for diplomatic gain, rather than acknowledgement of the war criminals’ claims of injustice.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Notes
- 1.
For details of the Tokyo trials see Timothy Maga, Judgment at Tokyo: The Japanese War Crimes Trials (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2001); Yuma Totani, The Tokyo War Crimes Trials: The Pursuit of Justice in the Wake of World War Two (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008); Richard Minear, Victor’s Justice: The Tokyo War Crimes Trial (Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1971); Neil Boister and Robert Cryer, The Tokyo International Military Tribunal: A Reappraisal (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2008).
- 2.
Utsumi Aiko, ‘The Korean guards on the Burma–Thailand railway,’ in Gavan McCormack and Hank Nelson, eds., The Burma–Thailand railway (St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 1993), 134. Utsumi Aiko has written extensively in Japanese on Korean prisoners. Her major work on this subject is Utsumi Aiko, Kimu wa naze sabakareta no ka: Chōsenjin BC-kyū senpan no kiseki (Tokyo: Asahi Shinbun Shuppan, 2008). See also the chapter by Sandra Wilson in this volume.
- 3.
I have noted elsewhere the influence that the Cold War had on policy for war criminals: Dean Aszkielowicz, ‘Changing Direction,’ in Tim McCormack, Narrelle Morris, Georgina Fitzpatrick, eds., The Australian Class B and C War Crimes Trials (Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff, 2016); Dean Aszkielowicz, ‘Repatriation and the Limits of Resolve: Japanese War Criminals in Australian Custody,’ Japanese Studies, 31, (2011).
- 4.
Utsumi, Chōsenjin BC-kyū senpan no kiseki, 7. The exact number of Taiwanese prosecuted varies across different sources.
- 5.
As discussed later, this did not include around 60 war criminals who were convicted by Australian courts in Singapore and Hong Kong.
- 6.
Christopher Waters, ‘War, Decolonisation and Post-war Security,’ in David Goldsworthy, ed., Facing North: A Century of Australian Engagement with Asia (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2001), 97–8, 121–5, 132–3.
- 7.
On the shift in relations between Japan and Australia see Alan Rix, The Australia–Japan Political Alignment: 1952 to Present, (London: Routledge, 1999), 1–12.
- 8.
National Archives of Australia (hereafter NAA), Canberra, A10943, 1580069, ‘A Report on Japanese Atrocities and Breaches of the Rules of War’ (1944).
- 9.
See for example the speeches of Herbert V. Evatt, Australia in World Affairs (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1946), 141–6. For press reaction see for example Rohan Rivett, ‘War Correspondent Indicts Japanese POW Authorities,’”The Argus, 15 September 1945, 8. Rivett also produced a book, Behind Bamboo (Victoria: Angus & Robertson, 1946).
- 10.
A full list of sentences including those handed down at each venue is in NAA Melbourne, MP927/1, A336/1/29, ‘Japanese War Criminals Charged Under the War Crimes Act 1945 by Australian Military Authorities 30 Nov 1945 to Apr 1951 Against Whom Findings and Sentences were Confirmed.’
- 11.
Caroline Pappas, ‘Law and Politics: Australia’s War Crimes Trials in the Pacific 1943–1961’ (PhD diss., University of New South Wales, 2001), 59.
- 12.
‘Initial Post Surrender Policy for Japan 29 August 1945,’ in Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, Government Section, Political Reorientation of Japan September 1945 to September 1948, Vol. II (Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Company, 1970), 423–6 and Peter Duus, Modern Japan, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998), 253–73.
- 13.
Richard Rosecrance, Australian Diplomacy and Japan 1945–1951 (Victoria: Melbourne University Press, 1962), 103; Waters, ‘War, Decolonisation and Post-war Security,’ 118–21.
- 14.
NAA, Canberra, A1838, 551834, ‘Memo to Department of External Territories,’ (21 February 1950); Commonwealth of Australia, Parliamentary Debates, House of Representatives, Vol. 206, 24 February 1950, ‘Prime Minister Menzies February Speech in Parliament,’ 101–2; NAA, Canberra, 1334903 ‘Coalition Cabinet Agendum on Continuation of War Crimes Trials’ (January 1950); Decimal 290-12-04-06, SCAP Legal Section, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington D.C. (hereafter NARA), RG331, Box 1435, ‘Chief of Legal Section – Memo for Record’ (February 1950).
- 15.
NAA, Canberra, A1838, 140817, ‘Cabinet Agendum No. 347’ (September 1952).
- 16.
NAA, Canberra, A1838, 140817, ‘Cabinet Agendum No. 347 – Korean and Formosan Prisoners’ (September 1952).
- 17.
NAA, Canberra, A1838, 273128, ‘External Affairs letter’ (24 March 1948).
- 18.
NAA, Canberra, A1838, 273128, ‘External Affairs note Formosan war criminals at Manus’ (12 November 1951).
- 19.
NAA, Canberra, A1838, 273128, ‘External Affairs – Record of Conversation with Chinese Charge d’Affaires’ (9 November 1951).
- 20.
NAA, Canberra, A1838, 273128, ‘Protocol note external affairs’ (12 November 1951). See also NAA, Canberra, A1838, 273128, ‘Chinese Embassy request for Releases’ (18 September 1951).
- 21.
‘External Affairs – Record of Conversation with Chinese Charge d’Affaires.’
- 22.
NAA, Canberra, A1838, 273128, ‘Appendix A to 1951 letter updating previous correspondence from 1948’ (12 September 1951).
- 23.
For release campaigns in Japan see Sandra Wilson, ‘Prisoners in Sugamo and Their Campaign for Release, 1952–53,’ Japanese Studies 31 (2011): 172–3.
- 24.
‘External Affairs – Record of Conversation with Chinese Charge d’Affaires.’
- 25.
NAA, Canberra, A1838, 140817, ‘Memo from Japanese Foreign Minister to Australian Government’ (10 July 1952).
- 26.
NAA, Canberra, 273128, ‘British Consulate to Australian Mission Tokyo’ (18 June 1951). See also NAA, Canberra, A1838, 273128, ‘Article from Hsin Sheng Pao’ (19 February 1952).
- 27.
‘British Consulate to Australian Mission Tokyo.’
- 28.
NAA Canberra, A1838, 273128, ‘Chinese Embassy to External Affairs’ (25 March 1952).
- 29.
RG331 SCAP Legal Section Law Division Parole Board Documents 1946–51, Chinese, Dutch and American Convictions to Parole Office memo, Box 1392, ‘Cho Sung-Ki – SCAP Legal Section’ (26 June 1950).
- 30.
‘Article 11, Treaty of Peace with Japan,’ in John M. Maki, ed., Conflict and Tension in the Far East: Key Documents, 1894–1960 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1961), 136–7.
- 31.
NAA, Melbourne, MP729/8, 452817, ‘Cabinet Agendum – Release of war criminals by Nationalist China’ (20 August 1952).
- 32.
The National Archives of the UK (hereafter TNA), FO 371/99516, ‘War Criminals of Nationality other than Japanese’ (8 May 1952).
- 33.
TNA, FO371/99516, ‘British Embassy letter’ (28 April 1952).
- 34.
TNA, FO371/99516, ‘Pilcher to Tokyo’ (10 May 1952).
- 35.
TNA, FO371/99516, ‘Foreign Office to Washington’ (27 June 1952).
- 36.
TNA, FO371/99516, ‘Washington to Foreign Office’ (27 June 1952).
- 37.
NAA, Canberra, A1838, 140815, ‘Cabinet Agendum No. 347 – Korean and Formosan Prisoners’; ‘Cable from External Affairs to Australian Mission in Tokyo’ (23 June 1952). See also Utsumi Aiko, ‘Korean “Imperial Soldiers”: Remembering Colonialism and Crimes Against Allied POWs,’ Mie Kennedy, trans., in Takashi Fujitani, Geoffrey M. White, Lisa Yoneyama, eds., Perilous Memories: The Asia-Pacific War(s) (Durham: Duke University Press, 2001), 209.
- 38.
Utsumi, ‘Korean “Imperial Soldiers”,’ 200.
- 39.
TNA, FO371/99516, ‘Koreans and Formosans Sentenced as War Criminals’ (31 July 1952); TNA, FO371/99516, ‘British Embassy Tokyo’ (11 August 1952).
- 40.
NAA, Canberra, A1838, 246874, ‘External Affairs to Australian Embassy in Tokyo Regarding the Repatriation of War Criminals’ (7 July 1953); NAA, Melbourne, MP729/8, 452815, ‘Cabinet Minute Decision No. 731’ (2 July 1953); NAA, Canberra, A1838, 140817, ‘Cabinet Agendum No. 347’ (September 1952).
- 41.
TNA, FO371/110514, ‘Reply to Parliamentary question’ (9 February 1954).
- 42.
TNA, FO371/110514, ‘Clemency for Class B and C War Criminals: War criminals of the Korean race’ (25 May 1954).
- 43.
TNA, FO371/110514, ‘Note From Crowe’ (7 May 1954).
- 44.
TNA, FO371/110514, ‘Letter from Seoul Legation’ (5 August 1954).
- 45.
TNA, FO371/110514, ‘Press article and attached commentary’ (30 December 1954).
- 46.
See Military Board (Australia), Australian Edition of Manual of Military Law 1941 (Including Army Act and Rules of Procedure as Modified and Adapted by the Defence Act 1903–1939 and the Australian Military Regulations), (Canberra: Commonwealth Government Printer, 1941), 288; NARA, Decimal 290-15-15-05, SCAP Legal Section. Monographs, RG331, Box 3676, ‘The Trial of Class B and C War Criminals (includes forward)’ (19 May 1952); Phillip R. Piccigallo, The Japanese on Trial: Allied War Crimes Operations in the Far East 1945–1952 (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1979), 39; Sheldon Glueck, War criminals: their prosecution and punishment (New York, NY: Knopf, 1944), 140–2. See also the chapter by Sandra Wilson in this volume that shows the prosecuting countries did make significant allowances for the lowest ranking personnel in the Japanese forces outside the courtrooms.
- 47.
NAA, Melbourne, MT1131/1, 3250205, ‘Korean Mission in Japan to Australian Mission’ (28 January 1954). This perspective on the Korean prisoners is also explored in Yi Hak-Nae, ‘The man between: a Korean guard looks back,’ in Gavan McCormack and Hank Nelson, eds., The Burma–Thailand railway (St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 1993), 120–6 and Utsumi, ‘The Korean guards on the Burma-Thailand railway,’ 127–38.
- 48.
NAA, Melbourne, MP729/8, 444972, ‘War criminals of Korean and Formosan origin’ (25 July 1955).
- 49.
Ibid.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Open Access This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License, which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
Copyright information
© 2016 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Aszkielowicz, D. (2016). Australia’s Pursuit of the Taiwanese and Korean ‘Japanese’ War Criminals. In: von Lingen, K. (eds) War Crimes Trials in the Wake of Decolonization and Cold War in Asia, 1945-1956. World Histories of Crime, Culture and Violence. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42987-8_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42987-8_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-42986-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-42987-8
eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)