by Xin Ping

The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE) -- widely referred to as the Tokyo Trials -- opened in Tokyo on May 3, 1946. Judges from 11 countries gathered to try, under international law, the war crimes committed by Japanese militarists. This is the largest international trial in human history that nailed, with irrefutable evidence, the Japanese militarists to the pillar of shame forever.

It has been 80 years. It is imperative that we revisit that part of history -- to keep good people aware of the historical lessons and sound the alarm against any attempt in Japan to resurrect militarism.

TRIALS OF JUSTICE

The Tokyo Trials were never the "victors' justice" alleged by the Japanese right-wing elements. They delivered just verdicts that brought some solace to the countless lives that perished under the barbaric Japanese militarist aggression.

The Tribunal's jurisdiction rests on a solid international law foundation.

The Japanese Instrument of Surrender explicitly requires "the Emperor, the Japanese Government, and their successors to carry out the provisions of the Potsdam Declaration in good faith, and to issue whatever orders and take whatever actions may be required by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers or by any other designated representative of the Allied Powers for the purpose of giving effect to that Declaration."

The IMTFE was established by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers in the Far East, acting under the authority of the Allied Powers. Thus, Japan accepted and submitted to the Tribunal's jurisdiction.

The Tribunal recognized three core categories of crimes: crimes against peace, conventional war crimes, and crimes against humanity. In fact, under the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928, and the two Geneva Conventions of 1929, the launching of aggressive war, atrocities against civilians, and the mistreatment of prisoners of war were already unequivocal violations of international law, subject to legal sanctions.

It is particularly worth noting that Japan was a contracting party to the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which explicitly renounced war as an instrument of national policy.

Moreover, the Tribunal did not rush to judgment. It spent 31 months holding 818 court sessions, hearing 419 witnesses in person and admitting written testimony from another 779, receiving 4,336 exhibits, and ultimately producing 48,412 pages of trial transcripts.

At the same time, the Tribunal guaranteed the defendants' full right to defense, providing each with both Japanese and American defense counsel. The Trials can withstand any scrutiny on procedural fairness.

SPECTER OF MILITARISM DESPERATE TO OBLITERATE ITS CRIMES

Today, the outcomes of the Tokyo Trials are being eroded. Japanese right-wing elements are repudiating the verdicts and seeking to re-militarize the country.

Right-wing forces in Japan have been persistently trying to distort and reconstruct the nation's historical memory. Through the continuous revision of history textbooks and the reshaping of cultural narratives, the authorities have glorified -- and even rewritten -- the history of Japanese aggression, misleading the Japanese public, especially younger generations, about the past. They have even systematically sought to erase the memory of Japan's war crimes from society.

The site of the IMTFE has been rearranged: At the entrance to the exhibition area, racks are stocked with pamphlets for Japan's Self-Defense Forces, and in the very center of what was originally the judges' bench, an imperial throne has been placed.

Meanwhile, the memorial tablets of Hideki Tojo and 13 other Class-A war criminals are enshrined at Yasukuni Shrine in central Tokyo. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi recently sent ritual offerings in the name of the prime minister, while a cabinet minister and a cross-party group of 126 Japanese lawmakers paid personal visits to the shrine.

Yasukuni is a spiritual tool and symbol of the wars of aggression launched by Japanese militarism. This "ghost worship" by Japanese politicians exposes their persistent refusal to acknowledge the history of aggression and their ambition to overturn the verdicts on their war crimes.

It is hard to imagine a church being built in central Berlin to worship Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, and the convicted criminals of the Nuremberg Trials. Would the Western public ever allow such a thing to happen?

Most alarming is Japan's accelerating re-militarization. Under the banner of becoming a "normal country," Japan has in recent years consistently breached its exclusively defense-oriented policy: swelling military spending dramatically, deploying medium- and long-range offensive missiles, easing restrictions on arms exports, pushing for revision of the pacifist Constitution, and floating the idea of abandoning the Three Non-Nuclear Principles.

Neo-militarism in Japan, masquerading under the rhetoric of "national security" and "responding to threats," is baring its fangs in an ever more deceptive guise.

REMEMBERING HISTORY

History is the best textbook, and the trends in Japan's right warrant the vigilance of all peoples around the world.

In November 2025, Takaichi characterized a so-called "Taiwan contingency" as a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan that could justify invoking the so-called "right of collective self-defense" -- a flagrant intervention in China's internal affairs. The world has not forgotten that Japanese militarists had used that very pretext to invade China and other Asian nations.

Eighty years have passed since the Tokyo Trials, but the historical legacy they left behind deserves to be cherished all the more. Remembering history is not about teaching hatred; it is about warning people today not to overreach themselves, not to repeat past mistakes, and to safeguard the hard-won peace we now enjoy.

To retrace the old evil path is to court self-destruction. Such a course would once again bring Japan before the courts of justice.

Editor's note: The author is a commentator on international affairs, writing regularly for Xinhua News, the Global Times, China Daily, and CGTN. He can be reached at xinping604@gmail.com.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Xinhua News Agency.