December 23, 1948: Seven defendants at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East are executed.
The IMFTE, sometimes called the Tokyo Trials or the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, found all of its defendants guilty (except for two who died during the trial and one deemed mentally unfit) and sentenced seven to death. Of these seven, six were sentenced to death for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes against peace; the seventh, Iwane Matsui, who commanded Japanese forces in China and was held responsible by the tribunal for the “Rape of Nanking”, was hanged for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Prime Minister and general Hideki Tōjō was among the seven executed, as was Kenji Doihara, a key figure in Japan’s invasion of Manchuria. Others, including Akira Mutō and Heitarō Kimura, were also accused of committing atrocities against military and civilian prisoners. The Emperor and the imperial family were exonerated and made to be completely blameless (blame shifted instead to Tōjō and other military and political leaders) of waging wars of aggression or committing war crimes; for example, Prince Yasuhiko Asaka, son-in-law of Emperor Meiji, commanded Japanese forces at Nanjing but was granted immunity by occupying American forces and was never brought before the tribunal.
The seven were executed by hanging at Sugamo Prison on December 23, 1948. Unlike the Nuremberg executions, photography was not permitted at the hangings.
Other links: the accused and their judges