One week after the surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945, General Douglas MacArthur—the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers—ordered the arrests of Japanese suspects, including General Hideki Tojo. Twenty-eight defendants, mostly Imperial military officers and government officials, were charged. From May 3, 1946 to November 12, 1948, the trial heard testimony from 419 witnesses and saw 4,336 pieces of evidence, including depositions and affidavits from 779 individuals. Seven defendants were sentenced to death by hanging and 16 defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment.
APPOINTING THE COURT
Before the initial arrests in September 1945, one week after the official surrender in Tokyo Bay, there were major disagreements of the terms between Allied administrations about who to put on trial and how to try them. The eleven countries involved were Australia, Canada, China, France, India, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. On January 19, 1946, MacArthur ordered the creation of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE) and approved the Charter, with protocols closely imitating the Nuremberg Trials.
