Word: yamashita
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After a long time there was a stir. Japan's General Tomoyuki Yamashita entered, walked to the desk at which he had sat all during his 32-day war-crimes trial. He stole glances at the crowd. A resplendent colonel of MPs roared: "Attention...
...five U.S. generals of the trial commission filed to their places. Major General R. B. Reynolds immediately began to read aloud. He turned a page, another, two more. Yamashita licked his lips, blinked, moved uneasily. Finally Reynolds paused. "The accused," he directed, "will take his position before the commission...
...Yamashita rose and marched forward. At his side an interpreter rustled a paper, read a statement which the General had prepared...
...Tokyo, Yamashita's wife rejected a suggestion that she appeal to Mrs. Douglas MacArthur. Said she: "The American method of justice is admirably fair. I am pleased with it. I thought my husband should be put on trial . . . because he took command ... in the front." This did not mean that Mrs. Yamashita, too, condemned her husband; she was merely answering a question politely, like a Japanese lady...
When the defense rested, the task of the trial commission no longer seemed simple. Yamashita's spirited defense had suddenly emphasized the lack of precedent for war crimes trials, the vagueness of the charges-violation of the rules of war. The commission had other problems. What was Yamashita-a consummate liar or a victim of circumstance? What was to be his fate? The rope or the firing squad? Prison? Freedom? Manila waited for the answer...