[Citizen College Season 3] A Comparative Analysis of the Treatment of War Crimes in Germany and Japan

On October 4, 2019, the second lecture of the Citizens College Season 3 “Citizens and the World: Peace on the Korean Peninsula and International Politics” was given at Korea University’s Political Science & Economics Bldg. 101, jointly conducted by the Seongbuk-gu Office and the Korea University Institute for Peace and Democracy. The second lecture was given by Choi Chi-won, a professor at the Institute for Peace and Democracy at Korea University.

Under the title of “Comparison Analysis between Germany and Japan on the Treatment of War Crimes,” it was a time to discuss the background of Nuremberg war crimes trials, progress, results, and the context of past clean-up issues and internal and external politics that are inseparable from trials, and to briefly look at the Tokyo war crimes trials. The Nuremberg war crimes trial was held after World War II to punish Nazi war criminals. There are limits to the fact that they are based on natural law because they have no legal basis, that they are against the principle of retroactive prohibition, and that the winner’s trial has no responsibility for the Allied forces. But Nuremberg’s war crimes trials have meaning, and they can be a comparative case of reflecting on the past, understanding the present, and predicting the future of East Asia today.

The Nuremberg War Crimes Trial is an exemplary case of past liquidation. The war crimes themselves were a democratic/human rights political education, creating a turning point in international law that greatly contributed to the development of the International Criminal Law. It has also directly and indirectly influenced German Nazi history to German unification. In particular, it is closely linked to the German government’s policy of historical reconciliation and reflection, which continues to this day (Germany’s past clean-up was made possible by the will of German politicians). The speaker briefly introduced the Tokyo war crimes trial, which contrasts with Germany, and emphasized that the meaning of the Nuremberg war crimes trial in East Asia, where the problem of past clean-up still exists.