The definitive account of the Tokyo war crimes trials of 1946-8 and the impact the settlement has had on post-war China and Japan, and on the wider the world right up to the present day.
A Finalist for the 2024 Cundill History Prize
Longlisted for the 2024 Baillie Gifford Prize
A Best Book of the Year in The Economist, Prospect, The Telegraph, TLS, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, and Foreign Affairs
"Magisterial" – Max Hastings, The Sunday Times
"Monumental" – Rana Mitter, Times Literary Supplement
A landmark history of the postwar trials of Japan’s leaders as war criminals, and their impact on the modern history of Asia and the world.
"Every so often, a new work emerges of such immense scholarship and weight that it really does add a significant difference to our understanding of the Second World War and its consequences. Judgement at Tokyo is a monumental work in both scale and detail" – James Holland, The Sunday Telegraph
"A work of singular importance . . . balanced, original, human, accessible, and riveting" – Philippe Sands, author of East-West Street
In the aftermath of World War II, the victorious Allied powers turned to the question of how to move on from years of carnage and destruction. The Tokyo trial - the largely overlooked counterpart to Nuremberg - was an opportunity both to render judgment on the Allies" vanquished foes and to create a legal framework to prosecute war crimes and prohibit the use of aggressive war. For the Japanese leaders on trial, it was their chance to argue that their war had been waged to liberate Asia from Western imperialism and that the court was no more than victors’ justice.
Judgement at Tokyo is a magnificent, riveting story of wartime action, dramatic courtroom battles, and the epic formative years of postwar Asia.
