Trials and Tribulations of International Prosecution by Carey Henry F.;Mitchell Stacey M.;

Author:Carey, Henry F.;Mitchell, Stacey M.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1315692
Publisher: Lexington Books

The Failure to Prosecute the Emperor

The United States wished to keep the emperor out of court. By protecting him, and using his unequaled prestige and influence, they hoped to follow the path of least resistance in their subsequent occupation. Its desire fortuitously coincided with the Japanese government’s; to prevent the prosecution of the embodiment of the nation. The defendants, Japanese defense lawyers, Japanese government officials, and even the American prosecutors coordinated their efforts to achieve this goal. Only the judges were kept completely “out of the loop.” It was a prime example of the Japanese custom of nemawashi, the holding of informal, behind-the-scenes discussions among the key people involved in making and implementing a decision.

However, in 1989 a stunning discovery was made. In the home of the daughter of Terasaki Hidenari, a pre-war diplomat and the emperor’s trusted advisor in the post-war period, was found the emperor’s Monologue. The Monologue, was a summary of his recollection of memorable events during his tenure which he dictated to five members of his entourage, including Terasaki, in the spring of 1946.19 From the beginning, there were disagreements among readers concerning the motive behind the creation of this document, but the consensus now is the emperor narrated his “autobiography” not out of a nostalgic need to reminisce, but out of a necessity to eliminate the possibility of his prosecution.

In the Monologue, the emperor recounted his thinking and his decision-making at pivotal moments both before and during the war. Ironically, in addition to revealing his “human” side, it included many confessions that would unquestionably have caused him to be regarded as an accomplice to the “conspiracy” had Terasaki provided a faithful translation to SCAP.20

In light of the situation in the late 1940s, the United States seems to have been not only sincere, but well-motivated, in its efforts to keep the emperor out of court. Furthermore, with communism spreading throughout China, it became of the utmost importance to check the spread of the ideology and, in furtherance of that aim, to nurture Japan as an ally in the Far East.

It was feared that prosecution of the emperor would generate animosity toward the US and create a chaotic situation that would allow homegrown communists an opportunity to gain a foothold. For the United States, the choice was either to hang Hirohito now and risk losing the Cold War in Asia, or protect him and secure Japan as a firm anticommunist bulwark in the future. MacArthur estimated in a cable message to Eisenhower, that, if the emperor was destroyed, “[a] minimum of [a] million troops would be required which would have to be maintained for an indefinite number of years.”21 It appears that this appraisal was based merely on his personal assessment, for there is no record that indicates any analysis of this subject was conducted by his office. To relieve of all legal and moral responsibilities a head of the state who had unleashed unspeakable atrocities had the unwanted by-product of engendering in the popular mind a

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