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Japanese Executions of American Aviators

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2017

Abstract

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Type
Editorial Comment
Copyright
Copyright © by the American Society of International Law 1943

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References

1 Press Release, April 21, 1943.

2 Dept. of State Press Release No. 148, April 21, 1943.

It was added: “The Government of the United States has subsequently been informed of the refusal of the Japanese Government to treat the remaining American aviators as prisoners of war, to divulge names, to state the sentences imposed upon them or to permit visits to them by the Swiss Minister as representative of the protecting Power for American interests.”

3 Id.

4 Id.

5 Id., where it was added: “The Government of the United States calls again upon the Japanese Government to carry out its agreement to observe the provisions of the convention by communicating to the Swiss Minister at Tokyo the charges and sentences imposed upon the American aviators, by permitting the Swiss representatives to visit those now held in prison, by restoring to those aviators the full rights to which they are entitled under the Prisoners of War Convention, and by informing the Minister of the names and disposition or place of burial of the bodies of any of the aviators against whom sentence of death has been carried out.”

The text of the convention which was signed at Geneva, July 27, 1929, is contained in U. S. Treaties, Vol. IV, p. 5224; also this Journal, Supp., Vol. 27 (1933), p. 59.

6 Dept. of State Press Release No. 148, April 21, 1943.

7 Still, the President did not hesitate to declare: “The effort of the Japanese war lords thus to intimidate us will utterly fail. It will make the American people more determined than ever to blot out the shameless militarism of Japan.” (Press Release, April 21, 1943.)

8 The American Government has informed that of Japan that it “will hold personally and officially responsible for those deliberate crimes all of those officers of the Japanese Government who participated in their commitment and will in due course bring those officers to justice.” Such an accomplishment must, however, await the American victory. (Dept. of State Press Release No. 148, April 21, 1943.) See, in this connection, discussion of “Punishment of War Criminals,” at meeting of the American Society of International Law, May 1, 1943, Proceedings, pp. 39–58.

9 Address before a joint session of the Congress, May 19, 1943, New York Times, May 20, 1943, p. 4.