摘要：Little has been written about the trials of accused Japanese war criminals that were conducted by the U. S. Navy after World War II. Trials were held on Guam and Kwajalein by the War Crimes Branch of the Pacific Fleet from 1945 through 1949. These trials were part of over 2,000 war crimes trials held under the aegis of SCAP--the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers. Major war criminals (political and military leaders) were tried by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo in Tokyo. Other war crimes trials were held throughout the areas invaded and occupied by the Japanese. Trials were held for the mistreatment of prisoners of war and for the executions of captured Allied airmen (including beheading and cannibalism.). The Navy also investigated alleged war crimes committed at sea and interrogated "holdouts" (stragglers)—Japanese military personnel who had gone into hiding and did not surrender until long after Japan's official surrender. There were over 100 convictions in trials of Imperial Japanese Navy personnel and other Japanese military personnel (including members of the Imperial Japanese Army). Defendants were provided with defense counsel, a provision made for all accused war criminals tried by Allied war crimes tribunals and commissions. The Navy conducted executions or sent convicted war criminals sentenced to incarceration to Sugamo Prison in Tokyo to serve their sentences. Some accused and convicted war criminals chose suicide rather than face trial, imprisonment, or execution. This paper discusses the organization of Navy trials, several Navy trials conducted on Kwajalein and Guam, evaluations of the Navy's conduct of war crimes trials (including the philosophical questions of practicing "victor's justice" and the legal questions of the status of such trials in international law), and the availability of official records on these trials compiled by the Office of the Judge Advocate General (Navy).
