China publishes Tokyo Trials book collection

BEIJING - A collection of 80 books detailing the post-World War II Tokyo Trials has been published by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press, authorities with the press said on Wednesday.

The collection, the first of its kind published by China, contains records covering all 818 trials held from May 3, 1946 to November 12, 1948.

Publication of the collection represents a great step forward for Chinese study of the Tokyo Trials.

The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE)  formally prosecuted 28 Japanese Class-A war criminals, including Hideki Tojo, the former prime minister of Japan.

The tribunal lasted for more than two and a half years, with the court sentencing Tojo and six other criminals to death.

The Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press, together with the National Library of China, had dispatched researchers to  archives and libraries in United States and Japan to collect material.

Japan published its own collection of books on the trials in 1968.

The IMTFE was the biggest post-WWII international trial in terms of scale and duration, surpassing the Nuremberg trials.