[indistinct chatter]
Morning.
Press release from General MacArthur.
He's named me to replace Webb.
He should've appointed you.
Well, he's trying to placate your government.
Why the concern?
If my health becomes an issue, it could put the whole trial back.
We need to move forward, in case Webb returns.
Well, he's naive if he thinks he can just slip back in like that.
If I decline for health reasons,
Webb's position will naturally have to go to you.
-Making our position stronger still. -Precisely.
[theme music playing]
[in Dutch] Willink, what does this mean?
Hmm.
It's an attempt to help you.
"We urgently appeal to you to follow the Tokyo Trial Charter
and to align yourself with the opinions of the majority of judges."
How would they know about conversations in the judges' chambers?
Unless you have a spy on the tribunal committee.
The tribunal is far from a secret club,
Röling, and its members are free to update their superiors on any issue.
Who, specifically, are we talking about?
Those with whom the Netherlands wishes to curry favor.
They cannot stop independent thought with threats.
Our government is looking out for its interests and your future.
My strong advice is to re-consider your position on this.
You may represent Holland's interests here in Japan, General,
but I see my role as representing more than my own country.
[men laughing]
[indistinct chatter]
Well, I'll try.
-Good evening. -Justice Röling.
Ah, good evening.
Suddenly, my government is pressuring me to fall in with the rest of you.
I beg your pardon?
Did you, by any chance, initiate this?
What you and your government discuss is none of my business.
This trial is historically significant.
The truth is nothing will be achieved if you separate from the group.
The autonomy of every judge on this trial should come before all else.
[Patrick grunts]
What matters is that we support the new president,
so we can arrive at the correct verdict.
Mmm, will it be [clears throat] Northcroft?
As Webb's number two, he's the natural choice.
Mmm. Of course.
[door opens]
[indistinct chatter]
[Webb] Ah, so we're all here.
In accordance with our charter,
General MacArthur has chosen a new president.
For the record, I supported Justice Northcroft.
However... MacArthur has nominated Justice Cramer to act in my place.
As a military man, I could not say no to General MacArthur.
We fully support your appointment, Major General.
Don't we, gentlemen?
[Webb softly] Certainly.
Yes.
Thank you.
In truth, I have no experience as a presiding judge in any court
back home in the United States.
So, I am hoping for a little extra support as we move forward.
[speaking Russian]
[in English] As a fellow military man, General Zaryanov welcomes you
to this new position and offers his full support.
-[Cramer] Thank you, General. -[interpreter translating]
[Cramer] Well...
[Jaranilla] Welcome, General. [Cramer] Thank you.
[Northcroft] Well...
-that was an unpleasant surprise. -Indeed.
But it's still in our favor.
Cramer's a military man.
He'll maintain a steady course... once he's pointed in the right direction.
[violin plucking]
[soft piano music playing]
Excuse me.
Herr Röling...
what a pleasant surprise.
Frau Schneider.
-Come in. -Thank you.
Have a seat.
[both sighing]
Well... you look tired.
-Have you been working too hard? -I suppose so, yes.
Yes.
I needed to get away from the hotel.
With all this tension and...
And I had nowhere to go to but... here.
Well, yeah. You're always welcome.
Thank you.
But are you sure you won't be in trouble consorting with a German?
[chuckles]
I prefer to think of you as an artist.
Mmm.
Well, start with a drink.
This is very good.
[grunts softly]
[toasts in German]
[sighs]
-Ooh. -[chuckles]
I know that...
I shouldn't talk about this...
I'm sorry.
I came to Tokyo when I was sure about what we all could accomplish together.
And now I find myself in some kind of legal purgatory.
How can that be?
Well...
[inhales deeply]
The bench is divided on certain fronts.
That sounds very complicated.
It is. It is very complicated.
And to make it even worse,
my government gave me a stern message to side with the majority.
And I suspect you may not...
-I hate such interference. -Yeah.
And accused men wait in prison.
[Patrick] Thankfully, you Americans left this little park alone
when you bombed Tokyo.
-I'd like to think we planned it that way. -[Patrick chuckles]
What do you think of Pal?
-Seems like a loose cannon to me. -Yes. Indeed.
Bernard and Röling worry me too.
They have an uncanny sense of duty, but misguided, I'm afraid.
[Cramer] Hmm...
Might be best to keep them in the short grass.
Hmm?
It's a hunting reference we use back home.
Keep them where you can see them.
-Out in the open. -[chuckles]
I'm a pretty direct guy, Lord Patrick, so let me ask...
where do you see this going?
As practical men, we must give weight to the evidence
and the testimonies and respect our charter.
That way, we arrive at a prompt and agreed-upon verdict.
We cannot allow those who want to to veer from that and do as they wish.
I couldn't agree with you more.
What do you think of Cramer as president?
Cramer's a good choice. He will push things through quickly.
As long as we give the accused a fair consideration.
Of course, being fair to them is important.
But they wanted to rule the East at any cost.
Ah, personally, I don't want to come to quick conclusions,
especially with politics,
who were being played on so many sides before the war started.
[scoffs] It was as it always is,
countries vying for wealth and resources.
Only Japan abandoned diplomacy for aggressive attacks.
The Japanese might have had some, uh, good colonial intentions.
No foreign nation has the right to impose its culture, its views on another.
I am sorry, um...
-you misunderstood me. -Did I?
I was one of the first to fight against the Nazis.
I joined the General de Gaulle, La France Libre,
the Free France government in 1940.
The Nazis, they sentenced me to death. I hate them.
And in spite of that, I know they are colonialists,
and I think...
I still believe that colonialism can be... good
in places where people lack a civilized government
and a decent way of life.
With respect, no one deserves to make that choice.
And I don't think anyone in history has ever done so for such idealistic reasons.
Do you honestly believe that the Nazis invaded France
because they thought its people deserved a better life under their flag?
No.
No, they were fulfilling a madman's hunger for power.
Precisely my point.
[Takeyama] As I understand it...
the questioning of the accused is now in progress.
[Röling] Yes. There's a long way to go.
Shigemitsu and Togo are next to appear, and then Tojo will take the stand.
[Takeyama] His testimony is of great interest to all of Japan.
As a teacher, I deeply mourn the many students
taken away from me near the end of the war.
-Mmm. -Many suffered miserable deaths.
Tojo and his generals are to blame for that.
But, in some way, we all share in this guilt.
What do you mean?
We were indoctrinated with the one-sided views of the militarists.
The truth was revealed to us only after the catastrophe.
So, I hope this circumstance will be considered.
But, still...
we accepted a mistaken way of thinking.
[Röling] Thank you very much.
I would like to think that the Japanese people are not on trial,
but there were leaders who could have stopped the war
but did not take the chance.
And they suffered because of it.
And then there were others who wanted war,
who embraced it for reasons that caused millions of people to die.
We could not see through them and we did not have the courage to resist.
From my experience, that's an ideal to admire,
but very difficult to do when one is surrounded by violence.
Even so... I now think we should have had the courage to uphold it.
[speaking Russian]
[knocking at door]
Coming.
General Zaryanov. Please, come in.
-Good evening. -[speaking Russian]
[in English] The general's argument on how Japan conspired
to take over Manchuria and Siberia.
And that, as ambassador to Soviet Union, Shigemitsu was deeply involved in this.
And the general feels it important to detail this now?
[interpreter] The general and his staff are very thorough.
And he wants to set out his position on this matter
in advance of his colleagues deliberating on it.
[Röling] I see.
[inhales] Well, it's very thorough indeed.
[Zaryanov speaking Russian]
[in English] General wonders why you read about Napoleon.
Well, he's an interesting example of someone who waged aggressive war.
[speaking Russian]
[in English] But he was almost wiped out by fierce Russian military tactics.
Yes, but his enemies chose not to execute him.
Instead, they exiled him to Elba.
[translating]
[speaking Russian]
[in English] But this leniency allowed him to escape and return to power.
Many more died in Waterloo.
After which he was exiled again,
because there was no law against waging aggressive war.
[speaking Russian]
[in English] It is more likely that the kings and emperors of Europe saved him
because they didn't want to see themselves beheaded
every time they lost a war.
[Zaryanov chuckles]
Well, the general has an interesting view on history.
[in English] Thumbs up.
[speaking Russian]
[both speaking Russian]
[sighs]
[typing]
No Justice Pal?
[sighs] He continues to avoid court days while staying locked away in his rooms.
This is a dereliction of his duty.
[speaking Russian]
[in English] The general reminds you all
that you have now been sitting for 575 days.
[Zaryanov speaking Russian]
He makes a joke that his backside is sore.
[all chuckle]
Let's have a good day, gentlemen.
[knocking on door]
Enter.
Hello.
What's on your mind, Justice Röling?
[Röling] Well...
I, um...
You haven't been in court on several occasions now.
And... I just wondered why.
[continues typing]
I need time to work on my judgment.
But we haven't heard all the testimony yet.
So... how can you produce a judgment?
[sighs] I've heard much of the testimony, read the transcripts,
spent my time researching on the legal texts...
the chronology of events in the Pacific...
even the history of Japan.
For instance, during Edo period, the Japanese were a feudal nation
that preferred isolation from the rest of the world.
Yes.
When that ended in 1868...
they somehow became obsessed with imitating Western nations,
and most of whom were expanding and colonizing for economic profit.
Yes. Japan followed the example of the West.
And that didn't quite work out, did it?
-Indeed, no. -No.
But from the beginning, their desire to build a strong economy...
put them at odds with those they were imitating, with many nations.
But the Japanese military were after more than economic dominance in Asia.
So Americans fire-bombed Tokyo
and dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
cities full of innocent people.
The question to ask is, who first started this aggressive war?
Who first started this war?
It's... To look at it that way is very simplistic.
The real question is, on what legal ground can we charge them?
We cannot arbitrarily impose new international laws.
How will this ever stop, if not with us?
Röling, you wrote a paper that argued...
as a jurist...
-we must be objective. -Mmm-hmm.
Don't tell me you've decided to bow down
to the pressures of your government and to the majority.
Oh, no.
No.
But... I'm not so sure now.
I go to court every day, yes?
And I listen to the testimony.
And I see the victims who survived.
And I hear the words of the men who knew, or didn't know, what was happening.
There is no progress in international law if we all let them all go free
just because waging an aggressive war
was clearly not a crime when Japan went to war.
Progress in law...
must not be achieved in haste.
Your definition of justice
will not prevent mass violence in the future.
Justice cannot be achieved at the end of a rope.
[door opens]
[door closes]
[narrator in Japanese] The city of Sapporo saw snow
25 days earlier than usual years.
{an8}In Tokushima, the manufacturers of the human-shaped kites
are in the midst of the busy season.
The Christmas goods are now appearing on the streets of Tokyo.
These fur coats must be warm.
As we enter December, however,
some people in Tokyo are still living in the soil pipes.
Arigato.
President Webb!
Justice Bernard.
[Bernard chuckles]
Are you officially back in the fold?
-Of course. -Un miracle... A miracle.
[chuckles] Well, I did say a prayer or two.
Then God and I both leaned on General MacArthur.
[both chuckle]
[indistinct chatter]
Hang on a minute. I'll come right back to you.
Of course.
[indistinct chatter continues]
Gentlemen... Don't... Don't let me interrupt your dinner.
Well, I'm back.
I'll see you all in chambers, uh, on Monday morning.
Oh, and, uh, Justice Cramer, the gavel is once again mine.
Have a nice evening.
Did you not know about this?
No, I didn't.
MacArthur probably had no choice but to let him back in,
for fear of the noise he'd make in the press.
[Patrick] Hmm.
Webb has more teeth than he lets on.
[McDougall] Mmm.
[sighs]
[Röling] "Dearest Lies, as I approach my second Christmas in Tokyo,
I miss you and the children more than ever.
I wish I could tell you when this trial will end,
but there is so much work left to do.
The examination by the defense team of each of the accused is underway.
This has caused quite a lot of interest with the Japanese public."
[officer] Can't accept this ticket.
Ladies and gentlemen, once again,
if you do not have a ticket with today's date, you will not get in.
Have you been to court before?
No.
Me neither.
It's an important day, I'm told.
[in German] Yes, sure.
Are you German?
Ja.
-Eta Harich-Schneider. -Edith.
I know who you are. I've heard you play once.
Ise, my daughter.
He's one of the judges, isn't he?
Ja.
You know him?
[narrator] December, 1947.
The examination by the defense team of each of the accused is underway.
Shigenori Togo became foreign minister in Prime Minister Tojo's cabinet in 1941.
He opposed armed conflict with the United States,
but failed to persuade others and eventually agreed to war
in the cabinet's crucial final vote.
[Keenan] Mr. Togo, it is a fact, of course,
that as foreign minister and member of the cabinet,
had you refused to agree,
war could not have been lawfully brought about by Japan
by the Tojo cabinet. Isn't that true?
[Togo] That is a question that I thought about on many occasions
when I was foreign minister.
I gave consideration to the thought
whether or not I might be able to save the situation by resigning...
but I came to the conclusion that I could not...
by the end of October and early November,
that I could not save the situation then by resigning.
Mr. Togo, I am asking a very simple question
and you are not answering it at all.
I am asking you if it isn't a fact
that if you had remained in the cabinet
and had refused to give your affirmative consent to war,
if it isn't a fact
that there could not have been a war lawfully made by Japan?
Now, will you answer the question?
Well, I was trying.
I have been attempting to explain the situation to you
because even if I did oppose the war, war action came.
[Keenan] Mr. President,
I have attempted to be as patient as I know how with this witness.
May I ask the court to direct this witness
to answer the question asked of him?
Well, I will ask him the question as I understand it.
To go to war, was it necessary for your cabinet to be unanimous?
If I cast an opposing vote, we cannot.
No cabinet decision could be reached.
But what the situation at that time was requires some explanation.
It was the feeling in Japan
that Japan was being forced to choose between war and suicide.
And so, the opinion agreed that, under such a situation,
there was no alternative,
no choice for Japan, but to engage in war for her self-defense.
I cannot conceive that I could have prevented war
by acting in such a manner...
that is, by resignation.
[Röling] It would have been difficult to be in Togo's position.
The Japanese were still engaged in negotiations with us
right up to the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
[Webb] Your point being?
They may have been stalling for time while they made their war plans.
[chuckles] Oh, absolutely!
Dealing with the Americans as foreign minister,
and knowing your leadership was planning war...
[scoffs]
it means Togo was part of the conspiracy.
I tend to believe that he was against war.
[scoffs] Then he should have stood up to the others and resigned.
Without unanimous agreement,
the whole cabinet would have had to resign.
They would have appointed a new prime minister.
And history might have taken a different course.
[Röling] Togo himself said
that they would have replaced him with someone else who supported war.
That is pure conjecture.
I say we leave conjecture out of it, and stick to the facts.
[playing classical music]
[all applauding]
[Röling] It was nice meeting you. Bye-bye.
[clears throat]
Thank you very much. Thank you.
-Are you leaving? -Yes.
You played quite nicely tonight.
Thank you very much, but I have a great teacher.
Though you can be very strict.
These women you were talking with...
I saw you with them at the courthouse.
[indistinct chatter]
You mean the day you ignored me?
Well, the courthouse is not a place for socializing.
Yes, it's a very serious business.
[inhales sharply] I only met Edith that very day.
-She's also German. -[speaks German]
[in English] And what is her interest in the trial?
I discovered that she is the wife of the former foreign minister, Togo.
Ise is their daughter.
Edith is very worried.
Her husband was only doing his duty as a politician.
[inhales sharply] Please forgive me.
Bert, please come back inside.
All the lessons, all the parties, all the new friends,
was it all meant to influence my opinion?
Not at all.
Did I even try to introduce you to Edith?
You compromised my position.
People's lives are at stake, Röling.
There are some good, decent men at that dock.
Men this country is going to need in order to rebuild itself.
I need to make decisions based on my own research,
on my own ability.
And to put me in the company of people
who are related to the defendants jeopardizes my position.
Please...
leave me off your invitation list from now on.
-[car door closes] -[car engine starting]
All of Tokyo wants to see Tojo in court.
[Patrick] They smell blood in the air.
I heard some are ready to pay such a big price to get some tickets.
[Patrick chuckles]
[Bernard] Black market.
[door opens]
[indistinct chatter]
[Webb] Justice Pal, how nice of you to join us.
[speaking indistinctly]
Gentlemen...
we are nearing the end of the testimonies.
Today is an extremely important day.
Tojo is to testify.
I, for one, will be very curious to hear what he has to say.
[narrator] With the trial drawing to a close,
Hideki Tojo takes the stand.
Both prime minister and war minister
when Japan began its war with the United States,
he also served as chief of the Imperial Army General Staff Office.
Kept in solitary confinement at Sugamo prison,
he compiles a huge document to support his own defense.
[Keenan] Accused Tojo,
I shall not address you as General
because, of course, you know there is no longer a Japanese army.
Do you not believe, and did you not believe,
that every people and every nation
should have the right to determine its own form of government,
and its own way of life, and its own order,
so long as such government and way of life
did not menace any other country?
Of course. Even today I so believe.
[Keenan] Did anyone give you, Mr. Tojo,
the right to determine what way of life should be imposed
upon the people of Greater East Asia?
No, I got such rights from nowhere.
You advocated the process of peace terms
arranged between China and Japan in 1941...
while there was a huge Japanese army occupying a large part of China.
Is that not correct?
[Tojo] There is no inconsistency in the situation.
I naturally continued such efforts for peace.
[Keenan] Well, you really did not know much about Hitler,
or German history, or modern history,
very modern history at the time you, as a cabinet minister,
approved of the Tripartite Pact, did you?
As an ordinary person and as a matter of common sense,
to that extent I know.
[Keenan] I will not ask you about the series of blood purges and the like,
and the concentration camps, except in a general way.
Did you have knowledge of those things going on in Germany
prior to the Tripartite?
What I knew was the persecution of the Jews,
but I knew nothing about the blood purge
and something else that you mentioned.
Concentration camps.
I do not know about that.
[people murmuring]
Mr. Logan...
If the tribunal pleases, this is on behalf of accused Kido.
Do you know of any instance where Marquis Kido
gave any advice contrary to the emperor's wishes for peace?
Insofar as I know, there was no such instance whatsoever.
There is no Japanese subject who would go against the will of His Majesty.
Most particularly, among high officials of the Japanese government.
Do you know the implications resulting from your reply?
[narrator] The accused Tojo testifies
that no Japanese individual does anything against the will of the emperor.
This testimony raises a question.
Was starting the war also in accordance with the emperor's will?
[reporter] President Webb,
do you think that Tojo meant that the emperor approved the war?
Sir! Any comment at all?
Court transcripts, sir.
[sniffles]
Here.
Eight days before Pearl Harbor,
the emperor had a meeting with the navy minister,
and chief of staff of the navy.
So, he could have vetoed the attack.
Absolutely.
And he didn't.
It might be an appropriate moment to ask you a few questions
on the relative position of yourself and the emperor of Japan
on the matter of waging war in December of 1941.
You have told us that the emperor on repeated occasions made known to you
that he was a man of peace and did not want war.
Is that correct?
Of course it was.
Furthermore, you also said three days ago
that no Japanese subject would go against the will of His Majesty.
Is that also correct?
I was then speaking to you of my feelings towards the emperor
as a subject,
and that is quite a different matter from the problem of responsibility,
that is, the responsibility of the emperor.
Well, you did make war against the United States,
Great Britain and the Netherlands, did you not?
War was decided on in my cabinet.
Was that the will of the Emperor Hirohito that war should be instituted?
[Tojo] It might have been against the emperor's will,
but it is a fact that, because of my advice
and because of the advice given by the high command,
the emperor consented, though reluctantly, to the war.
The emperor's love for and desire for peace remained the same
right up to the very moment when hostilities commenced,
and even during the war, his feelings remained the same.
The emperor's feelings in this regard can be clearly ascertained
from the Imperial Rescript given on the 8th of December, 1941, declaring war.
That portion of the Imperial Rescript was included
because of the emperor's wishes on the responsibility of the government.
That is to say, the Imperial Rescript contains words to this effect...
"The war is indeed unavoidable and is against my own desire."
[narrator] The accused Tojo's testimony
clearly denies the responsibility of the emperor.
This issue was never again dealt with in the courtroom.
Do you claim that, as prime minister of Japan,
in whatever you had to do with the war
that commenced with the attack on Pearl Harbor,
that you committed no legal wrong and no moral wrong?
I feel that I committed no wrong.
I feel that I did what was right and true.
Tojo knew exactly what the questions were going to be.
And Keenan, he knew exactly what the answers were going to be.
Of course.
[Willink] Röling.
[in Dutch] Sorry to call you out here, Röling.
With the trial winding down, The Hague wants to know where you stand.
I have altered my position with respect to the trial.
[stutters]
How so?
I have decided to recognize crimes against peace.
That is, crimes of aggression.
So you side with Patrick and his group?
Yes, in that these men can be charged, sentenced,
and possibly removed from society as a deterrent to others.
Well, that's excellent news!
My conclusion is the same as the majority's,
but my reasons are different.
I do have some matters yet to discuss with them.
I will inform The Hague today. But before that, let's have a Jenever
to toast your decision.
[glasses clinking]
We'll never get to a proper final judgment if we leave it to Webb.
We have to form a majority.
And then, lead with it.
So, let's see. Where does that lead us?
Pal is out.
-Röling, too. -Mmm.
[inhales sharply] Bernard's views are too unpredictable.
He says he thinks Japan has the right to rule over all of China.
How about Zaryanov?
No, he can't take a decision without Stalin's blessing. [clears throat]
However...
if we let him take the lead with Shigemitsu...
he could be swayed.
[Northcroft] Jaranilla will join us.
Especially in view of his treatment at the hands of the Japanese. Mmm.
I'm less sure about Mei.
[clears throat] I'll talk to him.
We are very close to a majority, gentlemen.
To justice.
-[Cramer] To justice. -[Northcroft grunts] All right.
[McDougall] Justice. [Cramer] To that.
[dramatic music playing]