2 Japanese War Criminals Appeal

Northern Advocate, 30 November 1948, Page 5

2 Japanese War Criminals Appeal

WASHINGTON, Mon.. (11 a.m.).— Two of the Japanese warlords condemned to hang asked the United States Supreme Court today to set aside their death sentences.

They are General Kenji Doihara and former Premier Koki Hirota.

Presumably the appeals may delay the execution of Doihara and Hirota until the court acts.

They said in their appeal that General MacArthur had no authority to establish the military tribunal which convicted them and that their trial violated the constitution treaties and international agreements of the United States.

They also said the acts of which they were accused were in the line oi their duties assigned by the Japanese Government. During the last two years the United States Supreme Court has received a number of similar pleas by convicted German war criminals. It has consistently refused to intervene. NO NAVAL PRISONERS Prosecutors in the war crimes trial of Admiral Soemu Toyoda told the court today that there were no Allied witnesses against him because the Japanese Navy “killed all its prisoners of war.”

Toyoda was Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Navy at the end of the war. He is charged with responsibility for thousands of killings. The United States prosecutor (Mr Jessie Dietch) charged that the killings were not isolated cases but part of a policy “made at the highest level in the Japanese Navy.” The trial was adjourned until December G to permit the defence to study prosecution documents.