Sandra Wilson, Robert Cribb, Beatrice Trefalt, and Dean Aszkielowicz. Japanese War Criminals

Bottom line up front: this book constitutes valuable collaborative research featuring a well-rounded examination of the transnational efforts that resulted in the prosecution, punishment, and—perhaps surprising to some readers—release of high- and low-level Japanese war criminals after the Second World War. Writing in accessible, plain English and basing their conclusions on materials written in multiple languages, including Dutch, French, and Japanese, the authors of Japanese War Criminals: The Politics of Justice after the Second World War cogently synthesize diverse national and historical perspectives on the ins and outs, pros and cons, and winners and losers of Allied investigations into the wartime misconduct of Japanese military personnel and political figures. Sandra Wilson, Robert Cribb, Beatrice Trefalt, and Dean Aszkielowicz have crafted a clear narrative, not only at the sentence level but also in the analytical approaches through which they evaluate the fluid expressions of politics and justice involved in those trials. Readers of all sorts will benefit from engaging with this well-articulated work of joint scholarship.

Art · Economic Justice · Literature · Misconduct · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Punishment (psychology) · Scholarship · World War II · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies