This week, we’re starting a look into how an Indian lawyer and judge from a relatively obscure background became a focal point of right-wing Japanese nationalism. Who was Radhabinod Pal, how did he end up a judge in the Tokyo Trials, and what led him to claim that there were no grounds to convict Japan’s leaders of any crime after World War II?

Note: this episode does contain indirect discussion of war crimes. Listener discretion is advised.

Sources

Nakazato, Nariaki. Neonationalist Mythology in Postwar Japan: Pal’s Dissenting Judgment at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal.

Nandy, Ashis. “The Other Within: The Strange Case of Radhabinod Pal’s Judgment on Culpability.” New Literary History 23, No 1 (Winter, 1992).

Ushimura, Kei. “Pal’s ‘Dissenting Judgment’ Reconsidered: Some notes on Postwar Japan’s Responses to the Opinion.” Japan Review 19 (2007).

Images

The IMTFE building in Ichigaya, Tokyo.Radhabinod Pal in 1947, during his time as a judge at Tokyo.A bust of Pal in Calcutta’s High Court today. This bust was actually paid for by Japanese nationalists after Pal’s death in 1967.