The Yokohama War Crimes Trials was a series of trials of 996

Japanese war criminals 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 w ...

, held before the military commission of the U.S. 8th Army at

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of T ...

immediately after 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 opposi ...

. The defendants belonged to class B and C, as defined by the charter of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. Of those tried, 854 defendants were convicted, with 124 of them receiving death sentences, of which 51 were carried out. All of the convicts served their sentences or were executed at Sugamo Prison. In 1958, those still serving prison sentences from the trials were all paroled.

Notable defendants

Captain

Kaichi Hirate Kaichi Hirate (March 12, 1909May 10, 1946) was a Captain in the Japanese Imperial Army. During World War II, he was commandant of the First Branch Camp at Hakodate. In 1946, Hirate was charged with mistreating of prisoners of war resulting in deat ...

: Permitted the mistreatment and murder of Allied POWs. Executed in 1946. Lieutenant General

Tasuku Okada was a Japanese officer during World War II. After the war he was put on trial during the Yokohama War Crimes Trials for ordering executions of captured American aircrew in 1945. Okada was found guilty, sentenced to death, and hanged in 1949. ...

: Ordered the summary executions of 38 American POWs. Executed in 1949. Major General Yoshitaka Kawane and Colonel Kurataro Hirano: Convicted of ordering the

Bataan Death March The Bataan Death March (Filipino: ''Martsa ng Kamatayan sa Bataan''; Spanish: ''Marcha de la muerte de Bataán'' ; Kapampangan: ''Martsa ning Kematayan quing Bataan''; Japanese: バターン死の行進, Hepburn: ''Batān Shi no Kōshin'') wa ...

. Executed together in 1949. Lieutenant General

Isamu Yokoyama was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army, commanding Japanese ground forces in China during the Second Sino-Japanese War and Pacific War. Biography Yokoyama was born in Chiba Prefecture as the son of a colonel in the Imperial Japanese Army; h ...

: Convicted of having command responsibility for

vivisection Vivisection () is surgery conducted for experimental purposes on a living organism, typically animals with a central nervous system, to view living internal structure. The word is, more broadly, used as a pejorative catch-all term for Animal testi ...

and other human medical experiments performed at the

Kyushu Imperial University , abbreviated to , is a Japanese national university located in Fukuoka, on the island of Kyushu. It was the 4th Imperial University in Japan, ranked as 4th in 2020 Times Higher Education Japan University Rankings, one of the top 10 Desig ...

on downed Allied airmen. Sentenced to death in 1948, but later reprieved. Died in prison in 1952. Lieutenant General

Eitaro Uchiyama was a lieutenant general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. Biography Early career Uchiyama was born in Tokyo as the eldest son of General Uchiyama Kojirō, but was adopted and raised by his uncle. He attended military preparato ...

: Convicted of having command responsibility over the execution of dozens of American airmen shot down between April and August 1945. Sentenced to 30 years of hard labor. Paroled in 1958. Died in 1973.

References

{{Authority control Aftermath of World War II in Japan International Military Tribunal for the Far East Yokohama