Foreign Relations of the United States, 1948, The Far East and Australasia, Volume VI

740.00116 PW/12–2348: Telegram

The Acting Political Adviser in Japan (Sebald) to the Secretary of State

priority

Tokyo, December 23, 1948.

302. Seven Japanese war criminals condemned to death by International Tribunal for Far East¹ were hanged early Wednesday [Thursday]² morning at Sugamo prison in Tokyo, SCAP’s public information office announced today.

Execution was witnessed by members Allied Council, including William J. Sebald, Chairman and member for United States; General Shang Chen, member for China; Patrick Shaw, member for British Commonwealth; and Lieutenant General Kuzma N. Derevyanko, member for Soviet Union.

These witnesses were present in addition to official Army witnesses, doctors and essential prison personnel.

Each of condemned men requested and was permitted and [an] hour alone with Shinsho Hanayama, Buddhist priest, prior to execution, and final Buddhist services were held in special improvised chapel in prison cell block where they were confined.

Remains will be cremated and ashes scattered, as has been done with all other Japanese war criminals executed, PIO announcement stated.

Sebald

1. Kenji Dohihara (Doihara), Koki Hirota, Seishiro Itagaki, Heitaro Kimura, Iwane Matsui, Akira Muto, and Hideki Tojo.
2. The executions took place early on December 23. Mr. Sebald gives an eyewitness account in his book, With MacArthur in Japan: A personal history of the occupation (New York, 1965).