WWII victory celebration revives memory of forgotten judge

Mei Tingjun's voice was husky after days of talking to tourists who had come to visit the ancestral home of a Chinese judge who tried Japanese war criminals about 70 years ago.

Mei works as a guide at the ancestral home of Mei Ru'ao, a distant cousin and the only Chinese judge in the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), which tried Japanese war criminals from 1946 to 1948. The trial is also known as the Tokyo Trials.

"We had hardly any visitors to this exhibition for months. If it hadn't been for the commemoration activities for the Sept. 3 victory day, Mei Ru'ao would almost have been forgotten," Mei said.

"Now more people come to visit. They like to hear about that part of history," he said.

The IMTFE, which ran from early 1946 until the end of 1948, was presided over by 11 judges from 11 nations: China, the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and the Philippines.

The judges sent seven war criminals to the gallows, including Hideki Tojo, who was the Japanese prime minister during the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941.

"The judges were seated according to the date the invaders surrendered to their countries. Judge Mei should have been seated before the British judge, but he was told to sit after him, which angered Mei, who took off his robe and refused to take part in the rehearsal," Mei Tingjun said.

"Securing a foothold at such an international occasion was difficult,because China was weak at that time," Mei explained to a group of elementary school students who came to learn about Judge Mei's story.

"We do not invite war, but we need to have the ability to deter war-mongering forces and counter aggressors," Mei Tingjun added.

The Chinese judge also convinced the other judges that Hideki Tojo should be hanged.

The robe worn by Mei Ru'ao, the court verdict and his diaries were among the items on display at his ancestral home in downtown Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi Province.

"It was the bones and flesh of thousands of my compatriots that brought me to stand high at the tribunal to punish these criminals," Mei Ru'ao wrote on May 3rd, 1946, at the beginning of the trial.

"I do not support revenge and I have no intention of putting the blood debt the Japanese imperialists owe the Chinese on the backs of the Japanese people. But be warned, forgetting the suffering of the past will incur further calamity," he wrote.

"Judge Mei's story helped the young people remember the war and it plants the seeds of peace in the hearts of the younger generation," said Wen Heping, principal of neighboring Shima Elementary School, during the visit.

Mei Ru'ao died in 1973. Endi