Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Koreans in the Trials of Japanese War Crimes Suspects

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Debating Collaboration and Complicity in War Crimes Trials in Asia, 1945-1956

Part of the book series: World Histories of Crime, Culture and Violence ((WHCCV))

Abstract

As colonial Japanese subjects, about 240,000 Korean men took part on the Japanese side during the Second World War. Of that number, 3,016 had been recruited to work as civilian guards in prisoner-of-war and internment camps outside the Japanese home islands. The Allied war crimes trials of 1945–1951 specifically targeted camp personnel, and the great majority of the Koreans convicted as ‘Japanese’ war criminals were former guards. The standard scholarly view in recent years has been that Korean Guards and other junior military personnel suffered disproportionately heavy retribution in the war crimes trials. Examination of the documentary evidence on the apprehension, investigation, prosecution, sentencing and release of suspected and convicted war criminals, however, shows conclusively that claims that Koreans were over-represented among war criminals, or that they suffered the heaviest penalties, are wrong. The records relating to Koreans indicate that prosecution, and subsequent deliberations over sentencing and clemency, took strong account of the implications of having a subordinate place in the Japanese military. Far from being the group upon whom the greatest punishment was visited, Koreans were singled out only when their distinctive individual initiative as brutal guards drew attention to them.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    This chapter draws on collaborative work funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery grant. See Sandra Wilson, Robert Cribb, Beatrice Trefalt and Dean Aszkielowicz, Japanese War Criminals: The Politics of Justice After the Second World War (New York: Columbia University Press, 2017). I am grateful to Robert Cribb for providing the material in Table 3 and for other trial statistics.

  2. 2.

    Utsumi Aiko, Kimu wa naze sabakareta no ka: Chōsenjin BC-kyū senpan no kiseki (Tōkyō: Asahi Shinbun Shuppan, 2008), 21, 96–97; Utsumi Aiko, ‘Korean “Imperial Soldiers”: Remembering Colonialism and Crimes against Allied POWs’, in T. Fujitani, Geoffrey M. White and Lisa Yoneyama, eds, Perilous Memories: The Asia-Pacific War(s) (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2001), 202–203.

  3. 3.

    The National Archives (UK) (hereafter TNA), WO 203/4936, SACSEA to ALFSEA, 14 Jan. 1946.

  4. 4.

    See, for example, TNA, WO 203/4936, Telegram, Mountbatten to Chiefs of Staff, SACSEA [18 Sept. 1945]; TNA, WO 203/5596, ALFSEA to AFNEI [April 1946].

  5. 5.

    Hayashi Hirofumi, BC-kyū senpan saiban (Tōkyō: Iwanami, 2005), 152–153.

  6. 6.

    Clifford Kinvig, ‘Allied POWs and the Burma-Thailand Railway’, in Philip Towle, Margaret Kosuge and Yoichi Kibata, eds, Japanese Prisoners of War (London: Hambledon and London, 2000), 51.

  7. 7.

    TNA, WO 203/4936, SACSEA to ALFSEA, 14 Jan. 1946.

  8. 8.

    ‘Japs Gentlemen Compared with Korean Guards, says Ex-P.O.W.’, Border Watch (Mt Gambier, SA), 16 Sept. 1948, 5.

  9. 9.

    Gavan McCormack, ‘Apportioning the Blame: Australian Trials for Railway Crimes’, in Gavan McCormack and Hank Nelson, eds, The Burma-Thailand Railway: Memory and History (St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 1993), 87.

  10. 10.

    Utsumi, ‘Korean “Imperial Soldiers”’, 212.

  11. 11.

    Utsumi Aiko, Introduction to Gil Heong-yun, ‘Lee Hak Rae, the Korean Connection and “Japanese” War Crimes on the Burma-Thai Railway’, Japan Focus, 26 Aug. 2007. Available at http://www.japanfocus.org/-Gil-Heong_yun/2505 (accessed 16 Feb. 2015).

  12. 12.

    Utsumi, Kimu wa naze sabakareta no ka, 20.

  13. 13.

    McCormack, ‘Apportioning the Blame’, 87. For a similar viewpoint, though with less explicit argument, see Takahashi Tetsuya, ‘Les Militaires coréens de l’armée japonaise et les procès pour crimes de guerre’, Cipango: cahiers d’études japonaises, No. 15 (2008), 79–100, available at http://cipango.revues.org/395; DOI: 10.4000/cipango.395 (accessed 16 Feb. 2015).

  14. 14.

    The strong sense of personal responsibility towards Koreans that underlies Utsumi’s work is evident, for example, in Utsumi, ‘Korean “Imperial Soldiers”’, 199–201.

  15. 15.

    Some sources place lance corporals (as leading privates) with privates rather than non-commissioned officers. See, for instance, the U.S. Army’s Handbook on Japanese Military Forces of Sept. 1944: HyperWar: Handbook on Japanese Military Forces ([US] War Department Technical Manual, 15 September 1944, TM-E 30-480), 2. Available at http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/Japan/IJA/HB/HB-1.html (accessed 16 Feb. 2015).

  16. 16.

    Philip Warner, Japanese Army of World War II (Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 1973), 4; Gordon L. Rottman, US Marine vs Japanese Infantryman: Guadalcanal 1942–43 (Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2014), back of title page.

  17. 17.

    Warner, Japanese Army of World War II, 4.

  18. 18.

    Utsumi, ‘Korean “Imperial Soldiers”’, 202; Utsumi, Kimu wa naze sabakareta no ka, 21.

  19. 19.

    Utsumi, Kimu wa naze sabakareta no ka, 20–21.

  20. 20.

    Hayashi, BC-kyū senpan saiban, 153–154. Taiwanese civilian employees of the Japanese military served mainly in Borneo, and also in the Philippines. In the war crimes trials, Australia convicted the greatest number.

  21. 21.

    Utsumi, Kimu wa naze sabakareta no ka, 21. On the general mobilisation of Korean civilian labour, see Brandon Palmer, Fighting for the Enemy: Koreans in Japan’s War, 1937–1945 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2013), 139–182.

  22. 22.

    Utsumi, Kimu wa naze sabakareta no ka, 59–66. On pay and conditions for Korean civilians employed by the Japanese military, see also Palmer, Fighting for the Enemy, 153.

  23. 23.

    Utsumi, Kimu wa naze sabakareta no ka, 65.

  24. 24.

    Aiko Utsumi, ‘The Korean Guards on the Burma-Thailand Railway’, in McCormack and Nelson, eds, The Burma-Thailand Railway, 135.

  25. 25.

    Palmer, Fighting for the Enemy, 146.

  26. 26.

    Utsumi, Kimu wa naze sabakareta no ka, 60–61. Japanese and Korean names are given in the usual East Asian order, with surname first, but in other respects I have retained the form of the name used in the relevant archival record (without macrons, in the case of Western-language records). Where possible, I have given the Korean as well as the Japanese names of Korean military personnel.

  27. 27.

    Palmer, Fighting for the Enemy, 153, 170–171, 187.

  28. 28.

    Ibid., 154–156.

  29. 29.

    Utsumi, Kimu wa naze sabakareta no ka, 62. I Gil (Kasayama Yoshikichi) makes a similar point in Kasayama Yoshikichi, ‘Korean Guard’, in Haruko Taya Cook and Theodore F. Cook, Japan at War: An Oral History (New York: New Press, 1992), 113–114.

  30. 30.

    Takahashi, ‘Les Militaires coréens de l’armée japonaise’.

  31. 31.

    Palmer, Fighting for the Enemy, 153.

  32. 32.

    Ibid., 153, 174.

  33. 33.

    Utsumi, Kimu wa naze sabakareta no ka, 60–61.

  34. 34.

    Ibid., 62.

  35. 35.

    Yi Hak-Nae, ‘The Man Between: A Korean Guard Looks Back’, in McCormack and Nelson, eds, The Burma-Thailand Railway, 121, 124. The entry on Yi Hak-Nae in the book’s list of contributors states inaccurately that he was ‘conscripted into Japanese Army in 1942 as gunzoku (civilian auxiliary)’ (xii).

  36. 36.

    Palmer, Fighting for the Enemy, 153.

  37. 37.

    Utsumi, Kimu wa naze sabakareta no ka, 21.

  38. 38.

    Kasayama, ‘Korean Guard’, 114.

  39. 39.

    Utsumi, Kimu wa naze sabakareta no ka, 104.

  40. 40.

    Ibid., 112; Kasayama, ‘Korean Guard’, 114–118.

  41. 41.

    TNA, WO 235/963, Trial of Lt Gen. Ishida Eiguma and Four Others, Singapore, Oct.–Dec. 1946, 290.

  42. 42.

    Utsumi, Kimu wa naze sabakareta no ka, 224.

  43. 43.

    Trial of Ishida Eiguma and Four Others.

  44. 44.

    Australian and French figures are drawn from the digital collection of the Forschungs- und Dokumentationszentrum für Kriegsverbrecherprozesse (ICWC) at the University of Marburg. Philippine figures (which are for trials run by the Philippine government, not the U.S. government) are taken from Sharon Chamberlain, ‘Justice and Reconciliation: Postwar Philippine Trials of Japanese War Criminals in History and Memory’ (PhD diss., George Washington University, 2010), 71 (with total number of defendants adjusted to include civilians).

  45. 45.

    Hayashi, BC-kyū senpan saiban, 152.

  46. 46.

    TNA, WO 235/910, Judge Advocate General to Commander, Singapore District, ‘War Crimes Trials – Kaneoka Kiko’, 6 Nov. 1946, Trial of Kaneoka Kiko, Singapore, Oct. 1946.

  47. 47.

    TNA, WO 235/952, JAG to Commander, Singapore District, ‘War Crimes Courts’, 23 Oct. 1946, Trial of Hashisuka Kunifusa and Twenty-Three Others, Singapore, July-Sept. 1946, 6.

  48. 48.

    See the following documents in TNA, WO 235/1034, Trial of Lt Col. Banno Hirateru and Six Others (or Abe Hiroshi and Six Others), Singapore, Sept.–Oct. 1946, File 4: Wild, War Crimes Liaison Officer, ALFSEA, to War Crimes Legal Section, ALFSEA, Singapore, ‘“F” Force Case – Korean Guard Toyoyama Kisei’, 30 July 1946, 2 (= 918); Col. Kappe, ‘Affidavit of Actions and Misdemeanors on the Part of Toyoyama Kisai [sic] – Korean – in Thailand During Period April–December 1943’ (1000); ‘Toyoyama Kise [sic] (Korean)’ (affidavit of Major Roderic Henry Anderson, Cowra, NSW).

  49. 49.

    TNA, WO 235/952, Trial of Hashisuka Kunifusa and Twenty-Three Others, Singapore, July–Sept. 1946.

  50. 50.

    TNA, WO 235/886, Trial of Lt Col. Anami Sanso and Twelve Others, Singapore, July 1946; Utsumi, Kimu wa naze sabakareta no ka, 112–35, 163–92.

  51. 51.

    The figure of 25 reprieves is given in TNA, FO 371/115292, ‘Sentences on Japanese War Criminals Convicted by British Military Courts’, appended to draft of ‘Clemency for Japanese War Criminals Convicted by British Military Courts’, 2 May 1955.

  52. 52.

    See National Archives of Australia (hereafter NAA), A471/81640, Barcode 721743, Trial of Hiromura Kakurai, Singapore, March 1947. Hiromura was Camp Commandant at Hintok at one point. Utsumi discusses Hiromura’s case in Kimu wa naze sabakareta no ka, 207–255.

  53. 53.

    Information on Australian trials in Hong Kong is drawn from the digital collection of the Forschungs- und Dokumentationszentrum für Kriegsverbrecherprozesse (ICWC) at the University of Marburg.

  54. 54.

    Treaty of Peace with Japan, in John M. Maki, ed, Conflict and Tension in the Far East: Key Documents, 1894–1960 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1961), 136–137.

  55. 55.

    On clemency for Japanese war criminals, see Sandra Wilson, ‘The Sentence is Only Half the Story: from Stern Justice to Clemency for Japanese War Criminals, 1945–1958’, Journal of International Criminal Justice, 13 (2015), 745–761.

  56. 56.

    Diplomatic Archives, Tokyo (Gaikō shiryōkan), SCAP Circular No. 5, ‘Clemency for war criminals’, 7 March 1950, D’ 1.3.0.1, vol. 3, 388.

  57. 57.

    TNA, FO 371/110508, ‘Japanese War Criminals Tried by UK Military Courts’ [c. Nov. 1954]. In this list, the total number of war criminals sentenced by the UK is given as 756. This figure does not tally with a count of the cases recorded in the trials file WO 357/3, where the total is 911, the figure that has been used for calculations in this paper. The actual figure, as noted above, should be 920.

  58. 58.

    Utsumi, Kimu wa naze sabakareta no ka, 27.

  59. 59.

    Diplomatic Archives, Tokyo, D’ 1 3 0 3-1, 39. Diplomatic Archives, Tokyo, D’ 1 3 0 3-1, Vol. 2 (p. 39), Ministry of Justice, Japan, ‘Release of War Criminals and its Progress [sic]’, Sept. 1954, 2.

  60. 60.

    Utsumi, Kimu wa naze sabakareta no ka, 282.

  61. 61.

    Archival records give the figure of nineteen for Britain, but the records also note confusion about which war criminals had been convicted by British courts and which by Australian. Such confusion was exacerbated by the fact that both Britain and Australia had convened trials in Singapore and Hong Kong. The total of twenty-nine Koreans in April 1952 is known to be correct, because their names appeared on an (unsuccessful) petition to the Supreme Court seeking the release of Korean and Taiwanese prisoners on legal grounds. See the following documents in TNA, FO 371/99516: Dening, British Embassy, Tokyo, to Eden, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 11 Aug. 1952; British Legation, Pusan, to British Embassy, Tokyo, 5 Dec. 1952. See also TNA, FO 371/99516, ‘Copy of Note Verbale from Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Tokyo Dated 22nd July, 1952’; NAA, MP 729/8, 66/431/27, Barcode 444972, R. J. Percival, ‘War Criminals of Korean and Formosan Nationality’, 25 July 1955, 1.

  62. 62.

    The total was four according to Aide Memoire, 30 Dec. 1955, and cancelled draft of W. D. Allen, Foreign Office, to Myo Mook Lee, Korean Legation, London, both in TNA, FO 371/115293. But see Annex A and Annex B to TNA, FO 371/115292, Petition to the Queen from Harold Macmillan, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 23 August 1955, 163–168.

  63. 63.

    TNA, FO 371/99516, A.J. de la Mare, British Embassy, Tokyo, to J.A. Pilcher, Foreign Office, London, 28 April 1952; TNA, FO 371/110514, ‘Disposition of Prisoners Named in Enclosure to Korean Minister’s Aide-Mémoire of November 27, 1953’, [c. Feb. 1954].

  64. 64.

    TNA, FO 371/110514, C. T. Crowe, Notes for an Answer to Parliamentary Question, 9 Feb. 1954.

  65. 65.

    Petition to the Queen from Macmillan, 23 August 1955, 160–168.

  66. 66.

    Ibid.

  67. 67.

    Ibid.

  68. 68.

    TNA, FO 371/105435, Folder, ‘Japanese Minor War Criminal: NOPAR Commission Recommendation for Parole for: MATSUMOTO, Meizan’, 1953, esp. 102, 103.

  69. 69.

    Petition to the Queen from Macmillan, 23 August 1955, 162.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Arts, Murdoch University, Murdoch, Australia

    Sandra Wilson

Authors
  1. Sandra Wilson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sandra Wilson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Heidelberg University , Heidelberg, Germany

    Kerstin von Lingen

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Wilson, S. (2017). Koreans in the Trials of Japanese War Crimes Suspects. In: von Lingen, K. (eds) Debating Collaboration and Complicity in War Crimes Trials in Asia, 1945-1956. World Histories of Crime, Culture and Violence. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53141-0_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53141-0_2

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-53140-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-53141-0

  • eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation