| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 107.2

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 107.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Asia

Tim Maga. Judgment at Tokyo: The Japanese War Crimes Trials. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. 2001. Pp. xiv, 181. $25.00.

This book consists of a preface; five chapters and epilogue (151 pages); notes, bibliography, and index. Chapters two, three, and five deal with the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (the IMTFE) and its aftermath; chapter one with two lesser trials; and chapter four with trials on Guam. Tim Maga's "general thesis" is that there "might have been good intentions behind the Tokyo trials and that they might even have done good work" (p. ix), but he contradicts himself by concluding, crudely, that the trials were "flawed as hell" (p. 138). I like slim books, but this one never should have seen the light of day. I say so not because I disagree with its rambling and self-contradictory argument (I do disagree) but because the scholarship is shallow, shoddy, and irresponsible. 1

With one insignificant exception, the author uses only English-language sources on a subject on which there is much Japanese-language scholarship. Moreover, his bibliography ignores important English-language sources, including the basic trial documents: The Tokyo War Crimes Trial: The Complete Transcripts (1981); The Tokyo War Crimes Trial: Index and Guide (5 vols., 1981–1987); and The Tokyo Major War Crimes Trial: The Records (124 vols., 1998- ). Maga is captive to his sources: administrative archives, not transcripts or scholarly criticism. What point is served in restating, half a century later, prosecution claims? . . .

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