The Tokyo War Criminals Trial tried Tojo and 27 top Japanese wartime leaders who waged WW2.
The man responsible was not indicted. Hirohito was allowed to keep his throne and stay at his Palace.
Gary Bass asked in his recently released 2023 monumental book of 893 pages asked ” when the Emperor escaped punishment, it was hard to see ” how ordinary Japanese who had committed war crimes could feel guilty. [p15].
Hirohito was spared by Douglas MacArthur, an egoistic general with callous regard for human lives and victims of war, as long as his career profits from his decision. One wonders similar echoes in the decisions by the invaders sanctioned by the President in the strip, half the size of Singapore.
He was responsible for the senseless deaths of thousands of soldiers and civilians in his, totally unnecessary, invasion of Philippines, just to avenge his humiliation surrender a few years earlier.
Yamashita’s Ghosts is a further indictment of his kangaroo court revenge on the Japanese top general defending Philippines.
