What a US lawyer’s diaries show about prosecuting Japanese atrocities of Nanking massacre

AI Summary

The diaries of David Nelson Sutton, a US assistant prosecutor at the Tokyo Trial, reveal the challenges of prosecuting Japanese war atrocities during World War II. His efforts highlight a significant moment in international military tribunal history focused on justice for wartime actions in China.

A US prosecutor’s newly revealed diaries from World War II have laid bare the gruelling effort to document Japanese wartime atrocities in China and the unlikely bond forged between him and the people he helped. The diaries belonged to David Nelson Sutton, an American assistant prosecutor at the Tokyo Trial, or the International Military Tribunal for the Far East – a landmark international judicial effort. The tribunal drew upon a vast “evidence wall” comprising nearly 50,000 pages of trial...