For the first time, the complete court records from the Tokyo Trial have been published in Chinese, offering the public in China a detailed look at Japanese war crimes, according to state media.
The translation, which spans 40 volumes, took a team of hundreds more than a decade to produce. It filled “a critical gap in domestic historical records”, state news agency Xinhua reported on Thursday.
The International Military Tribunal for the Far East – also known as the Tokyo Trial – lasted from May 3, 1946, to November 12, 1948. Judges and prosecutors from 11 countries attended the trial, producing almost 50,000 pages of trial transcripts, witness testimonies, exhibit lists, prosecution and defence records, and judgment documents, Xinhua reported.
Until the new volumes’ publication on April 30, the records were only available in English and Japanese, the report said.
The Chinese public actually had little awareness of the trial, with most people only knowing basic facts, such as that Japan’s wartime prime minister Hideki Tojo was executed, said Wang Zhongyi, vice-president of the China Society of Sino-Japanese Relations History.
“Relying on the complete Chinese translation, readers can clearly trace the step-by-step progression of the aggression plans, comprehend the interlocking chain of evidence behind the Nanking massacre, and witness the protracted struggle between the forces of justice and the war criminals’ attempts to deny their crimes,” he said
