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Parent re: Sugamo Prison Releases 15 War Crimes Suspects
Date 1 September 1947
Language English
Collection Tavenner Papers & IMTFE Official Records
Box Box 5
Folder General Memoranda and Reports from September 1947
Repository University of Virginia Law Library
8 Others Released From ?ÇÿHouse Arrest?ÇÖ Sugamo Prison Releases 15 War Crimes Suspects ?ÇÿNo Significance?ÇÖ In Other Cases, Says Keenan By Associate Press Release of 23 Japanese war criminal suspects, including one of Hideki Tojo?ÇÖs former cabinet ministers and two of leading wartime industrialists, was announced this morning by the International Prosecution Section. Fifteen of them had been held in Sugamo Prison for varied periods ranging as high as 21 months and the remained had been under house arrest. All suspects had been held as class A suspects for future international trials, and chief prosecutor Joseph B. Keenan said they were released upon insufficient evidence for this type of prosecution. ?Ç£The record and full results of extended investigations of activities of these accused, while revealing ample justification for their being arrested and confined to the prison for many of their actions, did not warrant their being tried by an International Tribunal,?Ç¥ Keenan said in a statement. ?Ç£Their release has no significance in the cases of remaining suspects, nor does it in any way concern the proceedings now pending before the International Military Tribunal for the far East.?Ç¥ Nagakage Okabe, who was Tojo?ÇÖs third education minister, is among those released from Sugamo. Okabe came into the cabinet after the Pearl Harbor attack. Yoshisuke Aikawa, who became one of the country?ÇÖs leading industrialists as head of militarist-dominated Manchurian Development Company, and Chikuhei Nakajima, top wartime airplane manufacture, are also among these released. Aikawa was greeted at (Continued on Page 4)