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Culture and understanding in the Singapore war crimes trials (1946–1948): interpreting arguments of the defence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 September 2016

W.L. Cheah
W.L. Cheah*
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore. E-mail: cheah.wui.ling@gmail.com.
*
cheah.wui.ling@gmail.com
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Abstract

After the Second World War, the British military organised 131 war crimes trials in Singapore, which served as the base for British war crimes investigations in Asia. These trials brought together diverse participants-judges and counsel from the UK, India, and other Allied countries; accused persons from Japan, Korea, and Taiwan; defence counsel from Japan; and witnesses from all over Asia. The majority of defendants in these trials did not deny their involvement in the war crimes concerned; instead, these defendants argued that their conduct was consistent with Japanese norms, beliefs and practices. This article explores trial participants' varied and contested interpretations of the culturally influenced arguments put forward by the defence.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Law in Context , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , March 2018 , pp. 87 - 109
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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Footnotes

For their generous comments on my project, I thank Marina Kurkchiyan, Marc Hertogh, John Haley, Yuma Totani, Yoshita Kita, Robert Cribb, Sandra Wilson and participants of the 2015 Law in Context Early Career Workshop. Thank you also to the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions.

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