Page 8

Parent Remarks to Court on the motion attacking the jurisdiction of the Tribunal
Date June 1946
Language English
Collection Tavenner Papers & IMTFE Official Records
Box Box 3
Folder General Reports and Memoranda from June 1946
Repository University of Virginia Law Library
The Potsdam Declaration, 26 July 1945, Proclamation by Heads of Governments, United States, United Kingdom, and China, later adopted by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, paragraph 6, states: “There must be eliminated for all time the authority and influence of those who have deceived and misled the people of Japan into embarking on world conquest, for we insist that a new order of peace, security and justice will be impossible until irresponsible militarism is driven from the world.” Paragraph 8 provides, “The terms of the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out,” and that Declaration states, “The Three Great Allies are fighting this war to restrain and punish the aggression of Japan.” This language seems clear enough. We are asking this Court in these proceedings to eliminate for all time the authority and influence of these accused who have deceived and misled the people of Japan into embarking on world conquest. Paragraph 10 of the Potsdam Declaration states: “We do not intend that the Japanese shall be enslaved as a race or destroyed as a nation, but stern justice shall be meted out to all war criminals, including those who have visited cruelties upon our prisoners.” The defendants claim that “according to the general conception prevailing in July 1945, “war criminals” meant those who violated rules and customs of war after the commencement of war and to be punishable according to the previous international law and customs.” That this was not the “general conception” of civilized society and organized governments, is evidenced by the definite and clear development of a different conception of war criminals which has been gradually evolving in international law since the beginning of this century. Beginning with the first Hague Treaty in 1907, Article 1 of that Convention provide: “With a view to obviating as far as possible recourse to force in the relations between States, the Contracting Powers agree to use their best efforts to insure the Pacific settlement of international differences.”