This magnificent study of Australia's prosecution, from 1945 to 1951, of 800 Japanese, Formosan and Korean individuals accused of war crimes was made possible through funding by the Australian Research Grants Council, the Australian War Memorial and the Australian Department of Defence's Legal Division. It is the result of five years of intensive work, although the broader project can be dated back to an inspired initial approach by co-editor Tim McCormack to the Australian War Memorial in 2000. This present work is a precursor to the forthcoming Law Reports of Australia's War Crimes Trials 1945–1951. It is dedicated to the late former war crimes interpreter and researcher David Sissons, ‘upon whose shoulders all who research Australia's war crimes trials stand’. Within months of its publication, Australia's War Crimes Trials 1945–1951 was shortlisted for the New South Wales Premier's Australian History Prize 2017, awarded to a major work of non-fiction on an Australian history topic of national significance.
The 300 Australian trials were part of the wider Allied programme of war crimes prosecutions conceived of in the latter years of the Second World War. In the Australian situation, they were facilitated by evidence uncovered in the course of secret national investigations into allegations of Japanese war crimes (the Webb inquiries). In occupied Europe, trials were eventually held in the zones of the German Reich occupied by the Allies and of course, very famously, at Nuremberg. In the Asia-Pacific region, trials were held by China (Kuomintang and Communist), the Dutch in the East Indies, the British in their colonies (eg Singapore, Malaya, Burma, Hong Kong), the USA, the Philippines, the French in Vietnam and Australia; it was not just the Tokyo trial. Australia's proceedings against these 800 ‘minor’ war criminals were conducted on the basis of legislation adopted by Parliament, the War Crimes Act 1945 (Cth) and the Regulations for the Trials of War Criminals 1945. The legal basis and procedure were, understandably, very similar to that employed by the British. Two notable exceptions were the inclusion of the war crime of cannibalism and the war crimes of rape and enforced prostitution in the War Crimes Act 1945. These and related matters are extensively analysed in Tim McCormack's ‘Jurisdiction of the Australian Military Courts 1945–1951’, his co-authored chapter on ‘The Australian War Crimes Trials, 1945–1951’ (with Narelle Morris), Michael Paes’ contribution on ‘The Australian Military Courts under the War Crimes Act 1945—Structure and Approach’ and the chapter on ‘The Prosecution of Crimes against Civilians’ by Bridget Dunne and Helen Durham.
The 17 authors have successfully situated their work in the broader political, social and legal context of the time. They tackle, with objectivity and vigour, challenging issues such as historical and legal reconstruction, whether these trials were about revenge rather than justice, politicization, racism, allegations of cannibalism, assertions that low-ranking Korean guards were unfairly treated and a number of questionable trials and procedures. Superb scholarship is presented in these pages. This is the result of fine editorship, mastery of law, history and socio-political context, open minds, gifted drafting skills as well as hours spent sieving through the mountains of materials held in the National Australian Archives. These have been further enhanced with many remarkable photographs of the individuals who people the book's pages, the events of which authors have written and the exotic locations in which the trials took place (Morotai, Wewak, Labuan, Darwin, Rabaul, Singapore, Hong Kong and Manus Island). We see cadaverous survivors, some of whom would eventually testify. From New Guinea, there is a photograph of an emaciated Japanese soldier at his interrogation, eventually to be tried for cannibalism. We see many accused being interviewed, often surrounded by strapping, moustachioed, khaki-clad Australians. The defence and prosecution teams can be seen marching on Labuan beach to the makeshift court. There are photographs of the members of the court on the ‘bench’ and the accused on trial, and both prosecution and defence teams in action. We see an accused demonstrating ‘log torture’ for the court in Darwin. From Manus Island, there are captives working the War Criminals’ Camp's vegetable garden, and labouring on camp construction projects. From Morotai, we see the prisoners’ compound and condemned men taking part in sumo wrestling. We see a condemned man on the way to his execution in Singapore, as well as the gallows themselves. Further enhancing the reader's navigation of this complex body of work (there are 23 chapters, divided into three sections – ‘Trial Context, Issues and Perspectives’, ‘Trial Locations’ and ‘Post Trial Reflections’) are nine helpful maps and four appendices of relevant legislation.
There is a profound sense of humanity alongside depravity in Australia's War Crimes Trials 1945–1951. The reader is presented with visions of paradise and hell on earth. In lush and remote tropical islands, fanned by palm trees and rich with the music of the waves, tales were told in makeshift courts of how the Japanese occupying forces conducted themselves with inexplicable cruelty and cavalier viciousness. Yet for many of them, the Korean and Formosan soldiers in particular, they seem to have lashed out at the captives in their custody because they themselves were being mistreated. The lesson is that dehumanizing treatment breeds abuse of others. The chapters written by Georgina Fitzpatrick both contribute to, and ride, this challenge to the senses. They are intellectually rigorous, meticulously researched, and yet deeply sensitive. Fitzpatrick contributed 10½ of the 23 chapters. Her work is exceptional for other reasons too. Firstly, in her study of the eight trial locations (Chapters 12–19), Fitzpatrick brings the Australian war crimes trials to life in an exquisite way. She has foraged through personal papers, official correspondence, memoranda, carried out interviews, and done pretty much all that is possible to reconstruct the past. The individuals, whether the accused, witnesses, investigators, prosecutors, defence counsel, interpreters, guards, politicians or military leaders, almost leap out of the pages. In many instances, we even know what they looked like. Fitzpatrick's work is rich with anecdotes, yet packed with substance. She is critically observant, and ferociously fair. Secondly, in Chapter 10, Fitzpatrick engages with the matter of cannibalism as a war crime, taken up in two trials at Wewak on New Guinea's north-eastern coast. This is a unique feature of the Australian war crimes trials. Fitzpatrick has made an important and original contribution in uncovering the alleged events for a modern audience, and in analysing the trials and the context within which the cannibalism took place.
Another outstanding chapter among this collection of excellence is ‘The ‘Post-War’ of the BC-Class War Criminals: How Did War Criminals React to the Australian Trials?’ by Utsumi Aiko and Udagawa Kōta and translated by Steven Bullard. This reinforces the book's ‘humanity amidst depravity’ aspect noted earlier. Japanese public perception of the war crimes trials and the individuals who were tried, and the views of the convicted war criminals, have been discussed in Japan and in very restricted circles outside of Japan for some time. In this chapter, Aiko and Kōta engage with the trial experience as narrated by the ‘last testaments’ penned by executed war criminals. They also mined the ‘BC Class War Crimes Questionnaire’ compiled by prisoners at the Sugamo Prison (now held in the Japanese National Archives) for how they felt about the trials and their ‘understandings gained from war, trial and incarceration’. Aiko and Kōta also address the abuse of Japanese prisoners at Singapore's Changi Gaol, and how that impacted on the perceptions of the men held there. This really is a ‘must-read’ chapter for anyone interested in matters of justice, truth, peace and reconciliation. The chapter also highlights a gap in the collection, namely a companion chapter on ‘How did the survivors and families of victims react to the Australian Trials?’. The scattering of references to such views in the book does not suffice, given that war crimes trials are meant to seek justice for victims and survivors. In part at least.
Closing Australia's War Crimes Trials 1945–1951 are a fine chapter by Dean Askielowicz on the repatriation of the convicted Japanese war criminals which fills in many gaps in our understanding of how the early return of the Japanese took place, and a final chapter by co-authors Narelle Morris and Tim McCormack that asks the question vital to our modern minds: Were the Australian trials fair? On balance, Morris and McCormack conclude that, despites the warts and all, it was a fair process. This author is inclined to agree.
While additional chapters on reparations, the Australian approach to the waiver in the San Francisco Peace Agreement and what survivors felt would have truly completed the collection, their absence does not detract from the great contribution which the editors and authors of Australia's War Crimes Trials 1945–1951 have made.
