Nagasaki and the Shimoda Case: When the U.S. Was Tried for War Crimes and Found Guilt

The mention of “war crimes” usually brings the Nazis and the Holocaust to mind. But the United States has its own dark history of scorched earth policies filled with massacres, rape, bio-chemical warfare, and concentration camps. While undergoing massacres, including women and children, American Indians and Filipinos died en masse in camps. There was the Rape of Okinawa, No Gun Ri, and Vietnam, and the war crimes committed at the Highway of Death, Abu Graib, and Haditha.

War Crimes Over Nagsaki
And then there was Nagsaki. Seventy-five hours after 100,000 Japanese died at Hiroshima, another 75,000 were killed at Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. These figures include only those who perished in the initial blasts. Many more died soon afterward from radiation sickness and other pernicious radiation-related diseases, like leukemia and cancer. A conservative estimate calculates the total number of deaths to be 500,000. Others say the figure is more like 2 million.

War crimes such as Nagsaki are considered violations of international law and the rules of war. The idea is to limit the cruelty and destructiveness of war through four categories: the status of combatants and conduct of hostilities, the conduct of occupation, and a truce or armistice. Each category includes crimes like murder, rape, summary executions, state terrorism, forcible transfer of persons, unethical human experimentation, and weapons of mass destruction.

The rules of war also specify the type and extent of damage that can be inflicted, the amount of suffering caused, and who can engage in combat. Professional soldiers cannot legally kill enemy soldiers or civilians. Prisoners who escape cannot be tortured. It is illegal to pillage or confiscate private property, to use bio-chemical weapons, or attack and bombard unprotected towns, buildings, or dwellings. Finally, the enemy has the right to try all war crimes suspects.

War Crimes Among the Living Dead at Nagasaki
Dr. Tatsuichiro Akizuki was working in a Nagasaki hospital when the bomb hit. He described how all of the buildings were on fire, and how burned victims staggered “Half-naked or stark naked, groaning from deep inside themselves as if they had traveled from the depths of hell. They reeled about holding their heads with their hands. They were all asking for water because their throats had been charred.” Temperatures for miles had instantly shot up to between 1,000 and 6,000F.

Another hospital reported victims which included women and children that initially looked white but turned to burned black. Their hair was burnt, their skin was charred and blackened, blistered and peeled. Those who were not vaporized or instantly killed had their facial features burned off, their eyes melted in their sockets, and the patterns of their clothing tattooed on their flesh. There was little that could be done since medical instruments and medicines had been destroyed.

On hearing the bombs exploded successfully, President Harry S. Truman said, “This is the greatest thing in history.” Army Chief-of-Staff General George C. Marshall was more realistic. “What we did not take into account was that the destruction would be so complete it would be an appreciable time before the actual facts of the case would get to Tokyo.” General Omar Bradley feared: “We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount.”

Why Nagasaki?
It did not matter if Japan surrendered after Hiroshima. The decision to drop the second bomb on Nagasaki had already been made. American leaders were convinced it was necessary to drop two bombs-one to demonstrate the bomb’s tremendous destructive power and the second to prove they had more than one bomb. Japan’s response to surrender had been mistranslated anyway. This finalized the continued firebombing of Japan that was more deadly than the atomic bombs.

The primary justification given for the bombings is that it hastened the end of the war and saved American lives that would have been lost in an invasion of Japan. This seems highly unlikely since American was not actually on the brink of invasion. Military intelligence showed Japan was ready to surrender. Also, the whole idea of the bombs saving American soldiers is brought a little more into perspective when it is realized that almost 200,000 civilians died within three days.

Others noted the victims included Koreans, Chinese, Asian students, British, Dutch, European priests, 12 U.S. Navy pilots, and more than a thousand visiting Americans of Japanese descent. Neither was Hiroshima or Nagasaki of any military or strategic value. J. Robert Oppenheimer suggested the motive to target Japan for nuclear destruction was “sheer visceral hatred.” “Remember Pearl Harbor,” “Keep ‘em Dying,” and “Bataan” were popular military slogans too.

Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal
Following World War II, and comparable to the trials of the Nazi leaders at Nuremberg, the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal sentenced seven leaders of Japan to death. Sixteen were sentenced to life in prison, and two received other prison sentences. Richard Minear in “Victor’s Justice” showed the trial was little more than a kangaroo court where defendants were prevented from receiving a fair trial. The injustices would threaten justices everywhere the U.S. went to war thereafter.

The atomic bombings were brought up at the trial. But the presiding judges, mainly Americans, used a double standard when interpreting the rules of war and international law. For the Japanese, the rules were applied with strict interpretations. For the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, they were not applied at all. “It is more and more evident to us that the good name of justice let alone of the United States, had been compromised … in Tokyo,” reported the Washington Post.

Brigadier General Telford Taylor said, “The rights and wrongs of Hiroshima are debatable, but I have never heard a plausible justification of Nagasaki. It is difficult to contest the judgement that Dresden and Nagasaki were war crimes, tolerable in retrospect only because their malignancy pales in comparison to Dachau, Auschwitz, and Treblinka.” The Holocaust may have been more disproportionate than the Nagasaki but in each case war crimes were still committed.

Shimoda Case: Guilty
One trial finally dealt with the bombings: the Shimoda Case, which was tried in the District Court of Tokyo in 1963. The court determined that the destruction of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were in fact illegal acts and war crimes. It included several U.S. officials who ordered the bombs to be used. Not only were civilians killed indiscriminately, including many from other countries, but nuclear weapons were used to attack and bombard unprotected towns and buildings.

There is a significant advantage in winning the war. Officials of the losing country are tried and often executed, whereas the victors are immune from prosecution, international law. and the rules war. It entails their interpretations, applications, and double standards. Unless forced to submit, no country willingly allows other countries to sit in judgment of it. This especially applies to the U.S. And yet, even the vanquished enemy has the right to try all war crimes suspects.

The ICC has a long list of war crimes against the U.S. It starts with the overthrow of Iran’s and Guatemala’s government and extends to El Salvador, Chile, and Nicaragua. In 1984, Nicaragua charged the U.S. for “using military force and intervening in the international affairs of Nicaragua in violation of her sovereignty, territorial integrity, and political independence.” The ICC and UN International Court of Justice found the U.S. guilty of “structural terrorism” and 60,000 deaths.

U.S. War Crimes at Nagasaki Threaten Justice Everywhere
The costs of a second atomic bomb which was needless took a huge toll on both Japan and the U.S. Along with millions of more Japanese civilians dying from atomic, radiation poison, the U.S. has behaved as a de factor authority in the world by committing other mass summary executions and acts of state terrorism. It includes crimes against peace and humanity that have perpetuated a system of gross racial discrimination and inequality throughout the world.

Critics maintain that until the U.S. makes itself subject to the same international law and rules of war that it expects other countries to follow, injustices and double standards will continue to threaten the justice and rule of law everywhere the U.S. militarily intervenes. It also raises another important historical matter: What would justice really have looked like at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, and is it too late to retry those who participated?

Dallas Darling is the author of Politics 501: An A-Z Reading on Conscientious Political Thought and Action, Some Nations Above God: 52 Weekly Reflections On Modern-Day Imperialism, Militarism, And Consumerism in the Context of John’s Apocalyptic Vision, and The Other Side Of Christianity: Reflections on Faith, Politics, Spirituality, History, and Peace. He is a correspondent for www.WN.com. You can read more of Dallas’ writings at www.beverlydarling.com and www.WN.com/dallasdarling.