Why are Japanese war criminals not prosecuted?

Question

I would like to know why there is a relentless pursuit of Nazi war criminals across the globe (even when they are in their 90s) but I do not see any active pursuit for Japanese war criminals at all. Japanese live long so there will be thousands around in Japan enjoying their sunset years with no fear of prosecution. Is it because governments across the world are too afraid to offend the world's 2nd largest economy? They murdered my grandfather and granduncles so why are they different from the Nazis?

Answer 1

They have been... sort of. Hundreds of thousands of Japanese servicemen willingly took part in war crimes. To trial just the junior officers, let alone all of them would have been an expensive, long and gargantuan effort.

Instead, there was something known as the Yamashita Standard - rather than put all war criminals on trial, you just grab a high ranking officer, put him on trial for all the crimes commited by the forces under his command and get rid of him.

So while that's some justice in itself, it unfortunately means that sergeant who shot a POW lives undisturbed in retirement, or that junior officer who lopped off one hundred heads got away with it, his wartime exploits long forgotten.

Answer 2

We did prosecute and execute several Japanese war criminals. Some of these death sentences were commuted. Some were sentenced to prison terms and some of those were commuted and others served their full terms. However, many were not prosecuted because they were useful in maintaining order and rebuilding the country. Some had links to organized crime which we felt could be useful in the cold war (i.e. spys and the Sakhalin Islands which fell under Russia's control after WWII was a particularly desirable intelligence target). In fact, many were used by the CIA in various schemes but the usual results was that we gave them a lot of money that just disappeared and gained no useful intelligence. It wasn't until the early 1960's that we finally caught on and abandoned their use. Their last use was probably on covert mission which disguised them as Buddist Priests in Cambodia and Vietnam. After 62 years of ignoring them it is difficult if not impossible to prosecute because so many witnessess and the war criminals theirself have died.

Answer 3

for the time of worldwide conflict II the two eastern troops, enormously the Kempeitai, and the officers of the Gestapo,[sixty 4] the German secret police, used waterboarding as a potential of torture.[sixty 5] for the time of the eastern profession of Singapore the Double 10th Incident got here approximately. This coated waterboarding, via the tactic of binding or preserving down the sufferer on his back, putting a cloth over his mouth and nostril, and pouring water onto the cloth. in this version, interrogation endured for the time of the torture, with the interrogators beating the sufferer if he did no longer respond and the sufferer swallowing water if he opened his mouth to answer or breathe. while the sufferer could ingest not extra water, the interrogators would beat or bounce on his distended abdomen. that may not what occurred at Guantanamo. No comfortable tissue harm even occured, so merely shop your anti-rants. purely 13% of people oppose what they did. How does it sense to be a million in 10. Noone cares approximately those murderers who're going to get a bullet interior the suggestions besides.

Answer 4

My assumption has been:
1) that fewer Japanese "fled" to other countries after the war... I heard more of Japanese officers killing themselves over their country's defeat. We know for sure that a lot of German officers (from another culture, less likely to commit an honor-suicide) fled to other countries, especially in South America. Also,
2) We're not after the Germans for being at war against us--that's not considered a crime, despite the awfulness that is losing your grandfather or great-uncle. We're after them for the actual CRIME of the Holocaust, for which many were tried and convicted. I'm pretty sure "enemies" is one category, and "war criminals" is another.

Answer 5

Japanese War Criminals not prosecuted? Are you for real? Have you not seen the film footage of the war crimes trials in Japan? Quite a number of war criminals from Japan were tried, convicted, and executed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Crimes_Trials
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Military_Tribunal_for_the_Far_East
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Trials

The difference is that few of the Japanese war criminals slipped out of the country and found neutral nations to hide in. Nor did they have a concerted program of genocide against the Jews, who have been the leaders in chasing down the escaped Nazis.

Answer 6

probably the same reason they didn't prosecute the yanks for the greatest atrocity of all time - hiroshima