War Trials Japan

Wahat was the diffeence between tokyo war trial in 1945 and in 2000

The first and the biggest difference between the 2000 Tokyo Tribunal and the 1946 - 1948 Tokyo war crimes tribunal is that during the latest tribunal the emperor Hirohito was himself accused and condemned. Whereas, in the Tokyo war crimes tribunal he was exempted of all responsibilities for all the atrocities made by Japan during the war. Now, that the emperor is dead his responsibility can be discussed more easily, I think and for the 2000 Tokyo tribunal, Japanese women and also women from all the countries persecuted during the war, wanted to establish the truth on the real role of the emperor during the war. He was not a puppet like the first war crime trial try to convince us but he was aware about the issue of the comfort women and the comfort station, and he did nothing or even he gave his contentment for all those atrocities. Before this new trial, the existing international systems of justice failed to bring the perpetrators of those crimes on women to justice, now, it's done.

The second difference is the fact that the 2000 Tokyo Tribunal was organized by Asian women and human rights organizations (and supported by international NGOs); whereas in the other case the Tokyo war crimes tribunal was organized by the United States and its allies during the war. This difference has a great impact on the fact that the 2000 Tokyo Tribunal had no real power to enforce its judgment, even if lots of people supported it. On the other case, the fact that the Tokyo war crimes tribunal was an official trial organized by different nation themselves gave strength to the judgment and its impact.

Another important difference I think is the mediatization of those two trials. We can see that for the 2000 Tokyo Tribunal there were more than three hundred media representatives. With all those media, it becomes impossible to hide something during the trial. Moreover nowadays with the internet, a lot of people have access to information. In the case of the Tokyo war crime tribunal it was different; a very good example is the fact that during this trial even the name of the emperor can't be enounced, however, we know today that General Kojo pronounced the name of the emperor once and accused him. In that case, the scene of the trial was "replayed". During the 2000 Tokyo tribunal, it would not have been possible.

Next difference, during the Tokyo war crime tribunal there was only a single prosecution team which was lead by an American although the members of the tribunal were composed of 11 different allied countries. In the case of the 2000 Tokyo tribunal, there were nine prosecution teams composed by each persecuted country. That makes a big difference. In fact, during the Tokyo war crime tribunal the American can lead the trial as he wanted and so the responsibility of the emperor was hidden.

To finish, one of the big difference for those two trials is the fact that they took place in 2 periods. Nowadays, the rights of the women are much more important than 50 years ago, the mediatization also is different and lots of people are concerned by Human and Women rights. Today, all those facts can't stay hidden.

Part 2:

I choose to report you on the proposal for a Women's museum.

To never forget what happened to women such as "comfort women" during the Second World War and to educate the future generations the VAWW association has decided to build a museum. This idea came from Yayori Matsui, a prominent journalist, hard-core human right activist and chairperson of VAWW-NET Japan. She said that she gave her life to the 2000 women tribunal and she did lots of research about that issue not only in Japan, Korea or China but all over the world.

One day, before dying in 2002 of a lever dancer,