On August 15, 1945, Japanese Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s acceptance of the terms of the Potsdam Proclamation and unconditional surrender to the Allies. On January 19, 1946, the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Forces issued a special proclamation ordering the establishment of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE) and approved the Charter of the IMTFE.   

According to the charter, the IMTFE was to be composed of representatives from 11 nations—the United States, China, the United Kingdom, France, the Soviet Union, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, India and the Philippines. 

The chief war criminals who had planned, prepared, initiated or waged a war of aggression or a war in violation of international law were considered Class A war criminals and were charged with crimes against peace. From May 1946 to November 1948, the IMTFE tried and convicted 25 Japanese Class A war criminals. 

The judgment of the IMTFE pointed out that within one month after the Japanese army captured Nanjing, nearly 20,000 cases of rape occurred in the city, one-third of buildings were destroyed, and huge amounts of public and private property was looted. 

In October 2015, the documents of the Nanjing Massacre were inscribed on the Memory of the World Register by the International Advisory Committee of the UNESCO Memory of the World Program, highlighting the significance of the history of the Nanjing Massacre as a shared memory of humanity. 

China has set December 13 as the National Memorial Day for Nanjing Massacre Victims to mourn the victims in Nanjing and all the other victims slaughtered by the Japanese troops. The National Memorial Day unmasks the war crimes Japanese invaders committed and the disasters they brought to Chinese people and people of other parts of the world. Observance of the day also aims to demonstrate that China stands against any war of aggression and is dedicated to maintaining world peace.  

The Tokyo Trial represented the legal culmination of the Allied victory in Asia during World War II. Through formal prosecution, the trial legally affirmed Japan’s acts of aggression, the Nanjing Massacre, and crimes against humanity. For China and other victimized nations, it was the first time they took the lead in holding war criminals accountable before an international tribunal—shattering the pattern in which weak nations were diplomatically voiceless and the crimes of aggressors never faced justice. 

The Tokyo Trial pioneered the three core charges of crimes against peace, conventional war crimes and crimes against humanity. It also filled gaps in the laws of war and established the principle of individual criminal responsibility, ruling that neither soldiers nor politicians could evade justice by claiming they were merely following orders. This principle has since served as the legal foundation for subsequent international tribunals. 

The trial established post-war norms against aggression and in favor of national sovereignty and collective security, providing legal support for the United Nations system and consolidating the achievements of the anti-fascist struggle. 

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