Shanghai Trial of Japanese Nearing End Prosecution Asks Death for Defendants Accused of Doolittle Executions Shanghai (AP) – The prosecution asked the death penalty for all the four Japanese officer defendants charged with the execution of three Doolittle fliers. The final summations were scheduled to end Friday and the military commission verdict is expected early next week. One of the defendants, Lt. Tadashiro Hayama, legal counsel for the Japanese 13th Army, summed up the case for the defense in a lengthy paper which the prosecution termed a “masterpiece of international law.” Hayama indicated that the Japanese military code was such, he said, that left the defendants no choice but to act as they did. He added that the Japanese were enmeshed in a system which was “against all principles of human decency.”