Case Analysis on the Judgment Criteria for the Death Sentence in the Yokohama Court Class B and Class C War Crimes Trials

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K02871
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Japanese history
• Research Institution: Nihon University
• Principal Investigator: TAKAZAWA Hiroaki 日本大学, 生産工学部, 講師 (00459835)
• Research Collaborator: NAGAO ryuichi ; YNAGIHARA midori
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 戦争裁判 / BC級戦犯 / 横浜法廷 / 軍事法廷

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purpose of this study was to provide a legal analysis of judgement criteria of death sentences given in Yokohama Court Class B and Class C War Crimes Trials, opened between 1945 and 1949. In this research, I investigated on the records of NARA the cases of Japanese military officials who were involved in death cases of POW in Japan and were sentenced to death in Yokohama Court. Especially, the judgement basis was analyzed. As a result, it was found that the judgment criteria of the death sentence of the military committee (judge) of the Yokohama Court as well as that of the GHQ's approval of the execution were strongly affected by the fact whether the accused was voluntarily involved in the POW killings or not. However, the operation of this criterion was eased in the second half of the Yokohama Court. And the number of death sentences decreased, and many of the death penalty were reduced. This seems to be the influence of the American appeasement policy by the Cold War.

Free Research Field

憲法学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

対日戦犯裁判は「勝者による敗者への一方的な裁判」とする見方がある。本研究はこのような日本国内でのBC級戦犯横浜法廷がどのような法的手続きに基づいて審理が行われたかを、米国立公文書館、我が国の国立国会図書館などで保管されている横浜法廷の審理資料に基づく分析を試みた。
成果としては横浜法廷の審理においては被告人の弁護人が選任権が保障されていたことや、法廷で下された決定（一般的な裁判の「判決」）に対して、法務官による再チェックが行われていたなど、被告側には不当拘束や証言に対する反対尋問権の軽視という深刻な問題もあるが、一定のRule of Law原則が適用されていることが確認された。