Radhabinod Pal
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Radhabinod Pal (27 January 1886 – 10 January 1967) was an Indian jurist who was a member of the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
'
International Law Commission The International Law Commission (ILC) is a body of experts responsible for helping develop and codify international law. It is composed of 34 individuals recognized for their expertise and qualifications in international law, who are elected by t ...
from 1952 to 1966. He was one of three Asian judges appointed to the
International Military Tribunal for the Far East The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), also known as the Tokyo Trial or the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, was a military trial convened on April 29, 1946 to try leaders of the Empire of Japan for crimes against peace, conven ...
, the "Tokyo Trials" of
Japanese war crime The Empire of Japan committed war crimes in many Asian-Pacific countries during the period of Japanese imperialism, primarily during the Second Sino-Japanese and Pacific Wars. These incidents have been described as an "Asian Holocaust". Some ...
s committed during the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. Among all the judges of the tribunal, he was the only one who submitted a judgment which insisted all defendants were not guilty. The
Yasukuni Shrine is a Shinto shrine located in Chiyoda, Tokyo. It was founded by Emperor Meiji in June 1869 and commemorates those who died in service of Empire of Japan, Japan, from the Boshin War of 1868–1869, to the two Sino-Japanese Wars, First Sino-Japane ...
and the
Kyoto Ryozen Gokoku Shrine The is a Shinto Shrine located in Kyoto, Japan. It honors the heroes of Japan, especially from the period of the Bakumatsu period and the Meiji Restoration, most famously Sakamoto Ryōma and his associate Nakaoka Shintarō, who are buried sid ...
have monuments specially dedicated to Pal.


Career

Radhabinod Pal was born in 1886 in the village of Salimpur,
Kushtia District Kushtia District ( bn, কুষ্টিয়া জেলা, pronunciation: ''kuʃʈia'') is a district in the Khulna administrative division of western Bangladesh. Kushtia is the second largest municipality in Bangladesh and the eleventh l ...
in
Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William and later Bengal Province, was a subdivision of the British Empire in India. At the height of its territorial jurisdiction, it covered large parts of what is now South Asia and ...
,
British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
(present-day
Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
). He passed the Entrance Examination in 1903, and F.A Examination in 1905 from
Rajshahi College Rajshahi College ( bn, রাজশাহী কলেজ ''Rajshahi Kôlej'') is the third oldest institution of higher education in Bangladesh. Established in 1873 in Rajshahi city, it is the third oldest college in Bangladesh after Dhaka Col ...
with distinctions. Radhabinod Pal took his BA Honors (1907) and MA (1908) in Mathematics from the Presidency College, Calcutta. Pal worked as a clerk at the Allahabad Accountant General Office before he took his BL degree in 1911. Pal later served as a lecturer in Mathematics at the Ananda Mohan College, Mymensingh. Alongside his teaching, Pal also practiced law at the Mymensingh Bar. While in
Mymensingh Mymensingh ( bn, ময়মনসিংহ) is the capital of Mymensingh Division, Bangladesh. Located on the bank of Brahmaputra River, about north of the national capital Dhaka, it is a major financial center and educational hub of north ...
, Pal further stretched his legal qualifications by obtaining the LLM degree (1920) from Calcutta University. He stood First in the First Class. Pal then moved to Calcutta to build a legal career in the High Court. He studied mathematics and constitutional law at Presidency College, Calcutta (now Kolkata), and the
Law College Legal education is the education of individuals in the principles, practices, and theory of law. It may be undertaken for several reasons, including to provide the knowledge and skills necessary for admission to legal practice in a particular ...
of the
University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate State university (India), state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered ...
. Pal was a major contributor to the formulation of the Indian Income Tax Act of 1922. The
British Government of India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
appointed Pal as a legal advisor in 1927. He worked as professor at the Law College of the
University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate State university (India), state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered ...
from 1923 till 1936. Pal became a judge of the
Calcutta High Court The Calcutta High Court is the oldest High Court in India. It is located in B.B.D. Bagh, Kolkata, West Bengal. It has jurisdiction over the state of West Bengal and the Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The High Court buildi ...
in 1941 and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calcutta in 1944. He was asked to represent India as a member of the tribunal of judges officiating at the Tokyo Trials in 1946. In deliberations with judges from 10 other countries, Pal was highly critical of the prosecution's use of the legal concept of conspiracy in the context of pre-war decisions by Japanese officials. He also maintained that the tribunal should not retrospectively apply (''
nulla poena sine lege ''Nulla poena sine lege'' (Latin for "no penalty without law", Anglicized pronunciation: ) is a legal principle which states that one cannot be punished for doing something that is not prohibited by law. This principle is accepted and codified in ...
'') the new concept of Class A war crimes – waging aggressive (also known as
crimes against peace A crime of aggression or crime against peace is the planning, initiation, or execution of a large-scale and serious act of aggression using state military force. The definition and scope of the crime is controversial. The Rome Statute contains an ...
) – and
crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...
(that had already been used '' ex post facto'' at the
Nuremberg Trials The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies of World War II, Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II. Between 1939 and 1945 ...
). Hence Pal dissented from the tribunal's verdicts of guilt in the cases of defendants charged with Class A war crimes. His reasoning also influenced the judges representing the Netherlands and France, and all three of these judges issued
dissenting opinion A dissenting opinion (or dissent) is an opinion in a legal case in certain legal systems written by one or more judges expressing disagreement with the majority opinion of the court which gives rise to its judgment. Dissenting opinions are no ...
s. However, under the rules of the tribunal, all verdicts and sentences were decided by a
majority A majority, also called a simple majority or absolute majority to distinguish it from #Related terms, related terms, is more than half of the total.Dictionary definitions of ''majority'' aMerriam-WebsterDebi Prasad Pal Debi Prasad Pal (1 November 1927 – 14 May 2021) was a Senior Advocate practicing in the Supreme Court of India and High Courts of India. He was a former Minister of State for Finance, a former Judge of Calcutta High Court and a three-time form ...
(who also served as a judge of the Calcutta High Court and Indian Minister of State for Finance).


War crimes trial dissent

While finding that 'the
evidence Evidence for a proposition is what supports this proposition. It is usually understood as an indication that the supported proposition is true. What role evidence plays and how it is conceived varies from field to field. In epistemology, evidenc ...
is still overwhelming that atrocities were perpetrated by the members of the Japanese armed forces against the civilian population of some of the territories occupied by them as also against the prisoners of war', he produced a judgment questioning the legitimacy of the
tribunal A tribunal, generally, is any person or institution with authority to judge, adjudicate on, or determine claims or disputes—whether or not it is called a tribunal in its title. For example, an advocate who appears before a court with a single ...
and its rulings. He held the view that the legitimacy of the tribunal was suspect and questionable, because the spirit of retribution, and not impartial justice, was the underlying criterion for passing the judgment. He concluded: Judge Pal never intended to offer a juridical argument on whether a sentence of not guilty would have been a correct one. However, he argued that the United States had clearly provoked the war with Japan and expected Japan to act. He argued that "Even contemporary historians could think that 'as for the present war, the Principality of Monaco, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, would have taken up arms against the United States on receipt of such a note (
Hull note The Hull note, officially the Outline of Proposed Basis for Agreement Between the United States and Japan, was the final proposal delivered to the Empire of Japan by the United States of America before the attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1 ...
) as the State Department sent the Japanese Government on the eve of Pearl Harbor.'" He also noted that "Questions of law are not decided in an intellectual quarantine area in which legal doctrine and the local history of the dispute alone are retained and all else is forcibly excluded. We cannot afford to be ignorant of the world in which disputes arise. In his lone dissent, Judge Pal refers to the trial as a "sham employment of legal process for the satisfaction of a thirst for revenge." According to
Norimitsu Onishi is a Japanese Canadian journalist. He is a Paris correspondent for the ''New York Times'', after holding the position as Bureau Chief in Johannesburg, Jakarta, Tokyo and Abidjan. He was a member of ''The New York Times'' reporting team that rec ...
, while he fully acknowledged Japan's war atrocities – including the
Nanjing massacre The Nanjing Massacre (, ja, 南京大虐殺, Nankin Daigyakusatsu) or the Rape of Nanjing (formerly romanized as ''Nanking'') was the mass murder of Chinese civilians in Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, immediately after the Ba ...
– he said they were covered in the Class B and Class C trials. Judge Pal noted, "I might mention in this connection that even the published accounts of Nanking 'rape' could not be accepted by the world without some suspicion of exaggeration..." Furthermore, he believed that the exclusion of Western colonialism and the use of the
atom bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...
by the United States from the list of crimes, as well as the exclusion of judges from the vanquished nations on the bench, signified the "failure of the Tribunal to provide anything other than the opportunity for the victors to retaliate." Pal wrote that the Tokyo Trials were an exercise in victor's justice and that the Allies were equally culpable in acts such as strategic bombings of civilian targets. Regardless of his personal opinions about Japan, he deemed it appropriate to dissent from the judgement of his "learned brothers" to embody his love for absolute truth and justice. In this he was not alone among Indian jurists of the time; one prominent Calcutta barrister wrote that the Tribunal was little more than "a sword in a wig". In general, fear of American nuclear power was an international phenomenon following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The American occupation of Japan ended in 1952, after Tokyo signed the
San Francisco Peace Treaty The , also called the , re-established peaceful relations between Japan and the Allied Powers on behalf of the United Nations by ending the legal state of war and providing for redress for hostile actions up to and including World War II. It w ...
and accepted the Tokyo trials' verdict. The end of the occupation also lifted a ban on the publication of Judge Pal's 1,235-page dissent, which Japanese patriots used as the basis of their argument that the Tokyo trials were biased.Timothy Brook, "The Tokyo Judgment and the Rape of Nanking", ''The Journal of Asian Studies'', Vol. 60, No.3 (Aug 2001), pp. 673–700 In academic context, it has since generally been argued that the underlying aim of the trials was to shift blame from the
Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...
to Tojo as the culprit of the war. Psychologist and cultural critic
Ashis Nandy Ashis Nandy ( bn, আশিস নন্দী; born 13 May 1937) is an Indian political psychologist, social theorist, and critic. A trained clinical psychologist, Nandy has provided theoretical critiques of European colonialism, development ...
argued that Judge Pal's lone dissenting opinion, that the Japanese soldiers were only following orders and that the acts committed by them weren't illegal in an indictable sense, was because of "his long exposure to the traditional laws of India," combined with a sense of "Asian solidarity" within the "larger Afro-Asian context of nationalism."


Significance in Indo-Japanese relations

In 1966, Pal visited Japan and said in a speech that he had admired Japan from an early age for being the only Asian nation that "stood up against the West". The Emperor of Japan conferred upon Pal the First Class of the
Order of the Sacred Treasure The is a Japanese order, established on 4 January 1888 by Emperor Meiji as the Order of Meiji. Originally awarded in eight classes (from 8th to 1st, in ascending order of importance), since 2003 it has been awarded in six classes, the lowest ...
. Pal is revered by Japanese nationalists and a monument dedicated to him stands on the grounds of the
Yasukuni Shrine is a Shinto shrine located in Chiyoda, Tokyo. It was founded by Emperor Meiji in June 1869 and commemorates those who died in service of Empire of Japan, Japan, from the Boshin War of 1868–1869, to the two Sino-Japanese Wars, First Sino-Japane ...
. The monument was erected after Pal's death. Judge Pal's dissent is frequently mentioned by Indian diplomats and political leaders in the context of Indo-Japanese friendship and solidarity. For example, on 29 April 2005 Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh Manmohan Singh (; born 26 September 1932) is an Indian politician, economist and statesman who served as the 13th prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He is also the third longest-serving prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indir ...
referred to it as follows, in his remarks at a banquet in New Delhi in honour of the visiting Japanese Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi Junichiro Koizumi (; , ''Koizumi Jun'ichirō'' ; born 8 January 1942) is a former Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2001 to 2006. He retired from politics in 2009. He is ...
: On 14 December 2006, Singh made a speech in the
Japanese Diet The is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives (, ''Shūgiin''), and an upper house, the House of Councillors (, '' Sangiin''). Both houses are directly elected under a paralle ...
. He stated: On 23 August 2007, Japanese Prime Minister
Shinzō Abe Shinzo Abe ( ; ja, 安倍 晋三, Hepburn: , ; 21 September 1954 – 8 July 2022) was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 20 ...
met with Pal's son, Prasanta, in Kolkata, during his day-long visit to the city. Prasanta Pal, now an octogenarian, presented prime minister Abe with four photographs of his father, of which two photographs were of Radhabinod Pal with Abe's grandfather, former Prime Minister
Nobusuke Kishi was a Japanese bureaucrat and politician who was Prime Minister of Japan from 1957 to 1960. Known for his exploitative rule of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo in Northeast China in the 1930s, Kishi was nicknamed the "Monster of the Shō ...
. They chatted for half an hour at a city hotel.


In popular culture

In the 2016 miniseries ''
Tokyo Trial The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), also known as the Tokyo Trial or the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, was a military trial convened on April 29, 1946 to try leaders of the Empire of Japan for crimes against peace, conven ...
'', Pal is portrayed by Indian actor
Irrfan Khan Irrfan Khan () (born Sahabzade Irfan Ali Khan; 7 January 196729 April 2020), also known simply as Irrfan, was an Indian actor who worked in Indian cinema as well as British and American films. Widely regarded as one of the finest actors in In ...
.


Notes


References

* Reprinted from: * Nandy, Ashish. The Savage Freud and Other Essays on Possible and Retrievable Selves. Delhi; London: OUP, 1995. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1995. * Pal, Radhabinod. "In Defense of Japan's Case 1 & Case 2", Kenkyusha Modern English Readers 17, Kenkyusha Syuppan Co., Tokyo, Japan. * *


External links


Justice Radhabinod Pal, Rash behari and Netaji are still respected in Japan: Sushma Swaraj

Pal, Justice Radhabinod - Banglapedia

Judge Pal's Profile

Complete Dissentient Judgment of Justice Pal


* ttps://justiceradhabinodp.wixsite.com/justiceradhabinodpal A website with photos, videos and documents on Justice Radhabinod Pal {{DEFAULTSORT:Pal, Radhabinod 1886 births 1967 deaths Presidency University, Kolkata alumni Bengali people Indian expatriates in Japan 20th-century Indian judges Recipients of the Order of the Sacred Treasure Recipients of the Padma Vibhushan in public affairs University of Calcutta alumni University of Calcutta faculty Vice Chancellors of the University of Calcutta Judges of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East International Law Commission officials India–Japan relations People from Kushtia District Judges of the Calcutta High Court Indian officials of the United Nations Indian judges of international courts and tribunals Indian judges