ENG-1946 — Page 112

M

72

War Crimes Trials.

War crimes courts were, during the year, set up in Hong Kong by Royal Warrant with authority to try Japanese war criminals in respect of any war crime committed in the South East Asia Command theatre, as directed by H.Q., ALFSEA. The courts were also competent to try cases of war crimes committed against British Empire nationals elsewhere, e.g. in China, Formosa, Japan or on the high seas, by arrangement with the Allied power concerned. The first court was set up

on 20th March, 1946, under the presidency of a Scottish lawyer later succeeded by a British barrister from India who was still sitting at the end of the year. The second court was set up in September with an English barrister as chairman. The prosecutors are a Canadian, an Australian and an Indian, all qualified lawyers, and the legal officer of the investigation team is a Chinese qualified in English law and commissioned in the British Army.

Out of the 10,000 Japanese who surrendered in Hong Kong in August, 1945, 239 were in July, 1946, still detained in the Colony as war crimes suspects. Others were later recovered from other territories and some of those detained were sent for trial to other parts of south-east Asia. Many were released and repatriated to Japan as no case could be proved against them. During the latter half of 1946, 58 Japanese and Formosans were sent to Hong Kong to face charges of atrocities against British prisoners of war in Formosa. Ten Japanese who had been repatriated from China to Japan were brought from Japan to Hong Kong and charged with crimes committed against British nationals in the Shanghai area during the war. At the end of the year, arrangements had been made for the recovery from Japan of a further 31 Japanese to face similar charges.

The accused are defended by qualified Japanese lawyers assisted in matters of procedure by British advisory officers. In only one case tried before the Hong Kong war crimes courts has any novel point of law or procedure arisen; this point concerned the difference between Japanese and Allied custom in the allocation of responsibility for the safety and lives of the passengers between the captain of a transport vessel and the officer commanding the troops carried in such a vessel.

Up to the end of 1946, 50 Japanese had been tried, 9 condemned to death, 9 to imprisonment for ten years or longer, 26 to shorter terms of imprisonment and 6 had been acquitted. Sentences of imprisonment are served in the civil prison at Stanley. With 78 prisoners still awaiting trial at the end of the year, it appeared likely that the courts would remain in being until the end of 1947.

The Hong Kong war crimes trials included those of Colonel Noma, who was head of the Japanese Gendarmarie in the Colony during the greater part of the occupation; Colonel Tokunaga, the officer-in-charge of all prisoner of war