U.S. Eighth Army Military Commission (Yokohama)

The U.S. Eighth Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Robert L. Eichelberger and headquartered in Yokohama during the Allied occupation, was the main ground force occupying Japan; its headquarters arrived at the end of August 1945. It established military commissions to try Japanese Class-B and Class-C war criminals — those charged with violations of the laws and customs of war — under regulations for the trial of accused war criminals issued by SCAP on December 5, 1945. The commission operated under directives from General Headquarters, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (GHQ/SCAP). Whereas the International Military Tribunal for the Far East at Ichigaya tried national leaders, Yokohama dealt with the perpetrators of specific atrocities and their superiors.

The trials were held at the requisitioned Yokohama District Court, in what had been its jury courtroom. Each case was heard by a commission of several American officers under rules of evidence looser than in ordinary criminal procedure, admitting affidavits and other documents. The Eighth Army Judge Advocate oversaw the prosecution; defendants were represented by American and Japanese counsel, among them Asukata Ichio, later mayor of Yokohama. Sentences were reviewed by the Eighth Army commander, and death sentences required confirmation by General MacArthur.

The first case opened on December 18, 1945, against a guard at the Mitsushima POW camp in Nagano; the last judgment was delivered in October 1949 (this site's summary gives 1946–1949). English-language sources count 996 defendants in 319 trials, of whom 854 were convicted and 124 sentenced to death, with 51 executions; Japanese tallies differ somewhat because of different counting methods. Most cases concerned the mistreatment of Allied prisoners in camps in Japan and the execution of captured American airmen. Well-known cases include the vivisection of airmen at Kyushu Imperial University, the Ishigaki Island case, and that of Lieutenant General Okada Tasuku of the Tōkai Army District, sentenced to death for the execution of 38 airmen. The proceedings represented the largest American military tribunal effort in the Pacific theater.

Those convicted served their sentences at Sugamo Prison in Tokyo, where executions were also carried out. After the San Francisco Peace Treaty took effect in 1952 the prisoners passed to Japanese custody, and all had been paroled or released by 1958. The trials left an extensive record of testimony on the treatment of prisoners; at the same time the fairness of the procedure, the handling of the superior-orders defence and the prosecution of Korean and Taiwanese guards remain subjects of research and debate. The courtroom interior was moved for preservation to the Tōin Gakuen campus in Yokohama when the court was rebuilt.