JFK+50: Volume 7, No. 2127
SEVEN JAPANESE WAR CRIMINALS SENTENCED TO DEATH 68 YEARS AGOTokyo, Japan (JFK+50) Seven Imperial Japanese military and government officials were sentenced to death 68 years ago today, November 12, 1948, by an international war crimes tribunal meeting here in Tokyo.
Included in the group was Hideki Tojo*, the former General Premier and War Minister of the Imperial Japanese Empire. The prosecutor in the war crimes trial, which ended 8 days earlier, was Joseph B. Keenan**, former Assistant U.S. Attorney General. The judge in the trial was William Flood Webb*** of Australia.
*Hideki Tojo (1884-1948) was born in Tokyo, the son of a Lt. Gen in the Japanese army. He graduated from the Japanese Military Academy in 1905 & later the Army War College. HT served as Minister of War 1940-1944 & Prime Minister 1941-1944. HT was hanged on December 23, 1948.
**Joseph B. Keenan (1888-1954) was born in Pawtucket, RI & graduated from Brown University in 1910 & later the Harvard School of Law. JBK served in World War I & after became director of the criminal division of the U.S. Justice Department.
***William Flood Webb (1887-1972) was born in Brisbane and graduated from the University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Laws. He served as Public Defender, Crown Solicitor & Solicitor-General for Queensland before his tenure as a justice of the High Court of Australia from 1946 to 1958.
Hideki Tojo
Prime Minister of Imperial Japan
