Response to:

Reports that the Japanese Foriegn Ministry was declassifying "422 volumes on 20 diplomatic issues". The largest re;ease onf documents on War Crimes tribunals. The material is directly concerning the Tokyo Tribunal, where class A prisoners were tried, and also to tribunals dealing with B and C Class[ified] War Criminals

"Of particular interest are documents related to tribunals for Class-B and C war criminals, which resulted in 920 executions." :- Including orders to arrest, partial tribunal records of 49 tribunals in 7 countriesand records of Japanese government attempts to secure release or pardons.

The Allies focused on the abuse of Prisoners of War. According to 1951 documents at the Foriegn Ministry, 50,000 prisoners died in captivity, higher than estimates.

"According to reports by lawyers and early returnees from battlefields, many war criminals were abused by Allied soldiers and were subjected to one-sided tribunals. [ Comment: from the eyewitness accounts in China, it is obvious that the majority of the military who were guilty of transgressions of humanitarian codes and guilty of the principal war crimes were back in japan by the end of the war, leaving the remainder as a token of sacrifice.. ]

Also mentioned here: two ministry committee meetings of December 1945 and January 1946, deciding that the Emperor Showa would be shielded from war responsibility and "The committee reasoned that the more responsibility Tojo assumed, the lighter the emperor's responsibilty would become."

Eight days later the Australians submittes a list of war criminals, with the Emoperors name on it, to the Allied Powers committee on war criminals. But on Jan 25th 1946 MacArthur, in his role as Supreme Commander of the occupation, decided there was no evidence to purue such a claim. [ The historian s thereafter continue to argue... ]