ABSTRACT
The Nuremberg and Tokyo war crimes trials were characterized as political solutions aimed at a rapid restoration of a post-war international order less fractured by the rampant racism and hatred unleashed during recent global conflicts. These two international tribunals have been criticized as ‘victors’ justice’, yet their nature was more that of an attempt to keep revenge in check and to prevent a return to power of the pre-war individual aggressors. The tribunals thereby represented a new type of post-war peacemaking that urged international reconciliation and were a visible demonstration of trends, evident since the late eighteenth century, towards secularization, democratization, nationalism and international law. Initially both trials attempted to persuade people of the validity of their processes and to obtain a sense of admiration for the victors’ leadership. At the same time, they also opened the prospect that atoning for acts committed, acknowledging the pain of victims or questing after truth and justice were important features of the i nternational political environment (Towle 2000; Kosuge 2005, 2007a).
