Repatriation and the Limits of Resolve: Japanese War Criminals in Australian Custody

Abstract

In 1953, the Australian government repatriated convicted Japanese war criminals. These were the last war criminals held by the wartime allies to be returned to Japan. The Australian government's decision to repatriate war criminals was made after a complex series of negotiations with other wartime allies and within the government itself. At play was the need to balance domestic opinion and the interests of the Australian government with a desire to have similar policies on war criminals to those of key allies such as the United States. Moreover, after 1952, Japan and Australia entered a new era of diplomatic and economic relations, far removed from the immediate postwar years. Official sources reveal that the Australian government aimed to strike a balance between maintaining a tough stance on Japanese war criminals and not hampering the emerging new era of foreign relations with Japan.

Acknowledgements

This article is based on part of my PhD dissertation, ‘After the Surrender: Australia and the Japanese BC War Criminals, 1945–1958’, Murdoch University, 2011. I am grateful to two anonymous reviewers and my fellow contributors to this issue for their comments on an earlier draft.

Notes

¹Manus had been taken by the Japanese in 1942 and liberated by the US in 1944. For details on Manus Island after the war see Rosecrance, Australian Diplomacy and Japan 1945–1951, 57–66.

²‘Cabinet Agendum No. 347- Appendix’, September 1952, National Archives of Australia, Canberra (hereafter NAA), A1838, 3103/10/13/2, Part 4. Discussions in the Australian government over repatriation were protracted. As well as Cabinet Agendum No. 347 see similar discussion in ‘Cabinet Agendum No. 466’, June 1953, NAA, A1838, 3103/10/13/2, Part 7.

³Cablegram, ‘External Affairs to Australian Embassy in Tokyo Regarding the Repatriation of War Criminals’, 7/7/1953, NAA, A1838, 1550/7, Part 3.

⁴Military History Section (now Australian Army History Unit), ‘Report on the Directorate of Prisoners of War and Internees at Army Headquarters Melbourne 1939–1951’, Part V, Ch 9, NAA, A7711, 1898192.

⁵For the Occupation of Japan's ‘reverse course’ see for example Dower, Embracing Defeat and Ward, ‘Conclusion’.

⁶McDougall, Australian Foreign Relations, 168; Rosecrance, Australian Diplomacy and Japan 1945–1951, 11, 242–249; Millar, Australia in Peace and War, 268–269; Renouf, The Frightened Country, 58–59.

⁷Watt, The Evolution of Australian Foreign Policy, 113.

⁸Long, The Final Campaigns, Appendix 7, 634.

⁹On Australian participation in the Occupation of Japan see, for example, De Matos, Imposing Peace and Prosperity; Archer, Interpreting Occupied Japan: The Diary of an Australian Soldier; Rix, Intermittent Diplomat. On the dominance of the US see especially Rosecrance, Australian Diplomacy and Japan 1945–1951, 242–243.

¹⁰Maga, Judgment in Tokyo, 69.

¹¹Piccigallo, The Japanese on Trial, 121.

¹²Sir William Webb, ‘A Report on Japanese Atrocities and Breaches of the Rules of War’, NAA, 1944, A10943, 1580069.

¹³For examples of press coverage see Johnston, ‘Japanese Sadists Who Should Die’; ‘Released Prisoners Tell of Japanese Atrocities’.

¹⁴For details of the crimes see ‘Japanese War Criminals Charged under the War Crimes Act 1945 by Australian Military Authorities 30 Nov 1945 to Apr 1951 Against Whom Findings and Sentences were Confirmed’, NAA, Melbourne, MP927/1, A336/1/29.

¹⁵Sissons, ‘Sources on Australian Investigations into Japanese War Crimes in the Pacific’.

¹⁶For examples of coverage see ‘Mr Forde to Investigate Darwin Trials’; ‘Minister's Attitude on Darwin Trials’.

¹⁷‘Ben Chifley Defending War Crimes Trials’, 16 March 1950, Parliamentary Debates, House of Representatives, Commonwealth of Australia.

¹⁸Piccigallo, The Japanese on Trial, 46–48.

¹⁹Ibid., 127.

²⁰For example, ‘No Jap War Criminals Will Escape Trial’.

²¹Pappas, ‘Law and Politics’, 67–75.

²²Schaller, Altered States, 7–31.

²³‘Jap. War Criminals Out on Parole’.

²⁴Piccigallo, The Japanese on Trial, 137.

²⁵Army Headquarters Document, ‘Japanese War Criminals Charged Under the War Crimes Act 1945 List 7 – Manus Island Trials’, 17/7/1951, NAA, A1838, 1550/7.

²⁶Military History Section, ‘Report on the Directorate of Prisoners of War and Internees at Army Headquarters Melbourne 1939–1951’, 1953, Part V, Ch 9, NAA, A7711, 1898192.

²⁷‘Cabinet Agendum No. 347 – Final Draft’, 9/9/1952, NAA, A1838, 3103/10/13/2, Part 4.

²⁸‘SCAP Circular No. 5 – Clemency for War Criminals’, 7/3/1950, National Archives, United Kingdom, FO371/84033.

²⁹See Beatrice Trefalt's article in this volume.

³⁰‘Letter to External Affairs Stating the Position of the Philippines Government’, 20/6/1952, NAA, A1838, 3103/10/13/2, Part 2.

³¹Article 11, Treaty of Peace with Japan, in Maki, Conflict and Tension in the Far East, 136–137.

³²Wilson, ‘War, Soldier and Nation in 1950s Japan’, 202.

³³‘Memo from Japanese Foreign Minister to Australian Government’, 10/7/1952, NAA, A1838, 3103/10/13/2, Part 4.

³⁴‘Japanese War Criminals – Manus Island’, 26/5/1952, 10/7/1952, NAA, A1838, 3103/10/13/2, Part 2.

³⁵‘Cabinet Agendum No. 347’, September 1952, NAA, A1838, 3103/10/13/2, Part 4.

³⁶‘Letter to External Affairs Stating the Position of the Philippines Government’, 20/6/1952, NAA, A1838, 3103/10/13/2, Part 2.

³⁷‘External Affairs Cable to High Commissioners’, 19/8/1952, NAA, 3103/10/13/2 Part 3.

³⁸‘Cabinet Agendum No. 347- Appendix’, September 1952, NAA, A1838, 3103/10/13/2, Part 4.

³⁹‘Cabinet Agendum No. 347’, September 1952, NAA, A1838, 3103/10/13/2, Part 4.

⁴⁰‘Cabinet Agendum No. 347 – Policy on War Criminals’ (Note: This is part of the Document Assessing the Policies of Other Nations), September 1952, A1838, 3103/10/13/2, Part 4.

⁴¹‘Official Gazette (English Edition) – Law No. 103’, originally printed by Government Printing Office, 28/4/1952, National Archives, United Kingdom, FO371/105440.

⁴²‘Cabinet Agendum No. 347’, September 1952, NAA, A1838, 3103/10/13/2, Part 4.

⁴³Ibid.

⁴⁴Utsumi Aiko has written extensively in Japanese on Korean prisoners. See, for example, discussion in Totani, ‘Review of Kimu wa Naze Sabakaretanoka’.

⁴⁵‘Cabinet Agendum No. 347 – Korean and Formosan Prisoners’, September 1952, NAA, A1838, 3103/10/13/2, Part 4.

⁴⁶Ibid.

⁴⁷Ibid.

⁴⁸‘Cabinet Agendum No. 347’, September 1952, NAA, A1838, 3103/10/13/2, Part 4.

⁴⁹Ibid.

⁵⁰‘Cabinet Agendum No. 347 – Final Draft’, 9/9/1952, NAA, A1838, 3103/10/13/2, Part 4.

⁵¹Ibid.

⁵²‘Revised Cabinet Agendum’, September 1952, NAA, A1838, 3103/10/13/2, Part 4.

⁵³Ibid.

⁵⁴‘Cabinet Agendum - Discussion of Courses Open to Cabinet’, September 1952, NAA, A1838, 3103/10/13/2, Part 4.

⁵⁵‘Copy of Note Verbale on Discussions between Australian Embassy and Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs’, 30/8/1952, NAA, 3103/10/13/2 Part 4.

⁵⁶‘The Manus Base’. On earlier negotiations between the US and Australia over use of the Manus installation, see Rosecrance, Australian Diplomacy and Japan 1945–1951, 57–66; Millar, Australia in Peace and War, 199–201.

⁵⁷‘Cabinet Agendum – Appendix’, September 1952, NAA, A1838, 3103/10/13/2, Part 4.

⁵⁸Pappas, ‘Law and Politics’, 81–86. Pappas also believes that in the context of the Cold War, the Australian government was conscious that Soviet propaganda might take advantage of an apparently harsh attitude to war criminals.

⁵⁹‘Cabinet Agendum No. 347 – Final Draft’, 9/9/1952, NAA, A1838, 3103/10/13/2, Part 4.

⁶⁰‘Japanese War Criminals – Manus Island: an earlier External Affairs Document is also attached including notes on the value of the Manus war criminals to the Navy’, 26/5/1952, 10/7/1952, NAA, A1838, 3103/10/13/2, Part 2.

⁶¹‘Memo from Prime Minister's Department to External Affairs Concerning Minister for Navy McMahon’, 6/1/1953, NAA, 3103/10/13/2, Part 5.

⁶²For details on how Australian trade with Japan expanded in the decades following the war see McDougall, Australian Foreign Relations, 169.

⁶³Pitty, ‘The Post-war Expansion of Trade with East Asia’, 224–231. See also Rix, Coming to Terms, 14.

⁶⁴Rix, Coming to Terms, 12.

⁶⁵Ibid., 125.

⁶⁶‘Trade With Japan’.

⁶⁷RSL General Secretary Neagle, ‘Letter to Minister for Army Casey’, 5/9/1952, NAA, A1838, 3103/10/13/2, Part 4.

⁶⁸Acting Secretary A. Tange, ‘Letter from Prime Minister's Department Discussing Concluding the Repatriation Discussions’, 16/1/1953, NAA, A1838, 3103/10/13/2, Part 5. Nishi had visited Sugamo Prison at the end of 1952, immediately before his departure from Japan for Australia. It seems likely that he would have mentioned the issue of Japanese war criminals when he arrived in Australia.

⁶⁹Ball, Japan: Enemy or Ally?, 12.

⁷⁰For example, ‘Australia to Try Japs on Manus’.

⁷¹Wilson, ‘Reading Basil Archer's Diary’, xxxii–xxxiii.

⁷²See, for example, ‘RSL Conference this Week’; ‘Unrepentant War Criminals’.

⁷³‘Revised Cabinet Agendum’, September 1952, NAA, A1838, 3103/10/13/2, Part 4.

⁷⁴Piccigallo, The Japanese on Trial, 122.

⁷⁵‘Letter from Japanese Ambassador Suzuki to External Affairs’, 1/7/1957, NAA, A1838, 3103/10/13/2, Part 17.

⁷⁶‘Bruce Wright MP Letter to External Affairs’, 1/7/1957, NAA, A1838, 3103/10/13/2, Part 17.

⁷⁷Wilson, ‘War, Soldier and Nation’, 203.

⁷⁸Rix, The Australia-Japan Political Alignment, 13.