Archives of Public Affairs and Institutional Management(APAIM)
ISSN: 3142-9904 | DOI: 10.33140/APAIM
Short Communication - (2026) Volume 1, Issue 2
A Cost Manager’s Assessment of the 1946-1948 Tokyo Trials
Received Date: May 20, 2026 / Accepted Date: Jun 12, 2026 / Published Date: Jun 22, 2026
Copyright: ©2026 Ayoade Oluwaseun Olubunmi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation: Olubunmi, A. O. (2026). A Cost Manager’s Assessment of the 1946-1948 Tokyo Trials. Arch of Pub Aff Inst Manag, 1(2), 01.
Abstract
I strongly believe the 1946 Tokyo trials were a total waste of men and resources [1-2]. The bigwigs behind the war got a slap on the wrist while the innocent masses got nuclear nightmares. This is how I would have handled the Tokyo trials, and at a fraction of the cost too.
Introduction
I strongly believe the 1946 Tokyo trials were a total waste of men and resources [1-2]. The bigwigs behind the war got a slap on the wrist while the innocent masses got nuclear nightmares. This is how I would have handled the Tokyo trials, and at a fraction of the cost too. • All commissioned officers of the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy would have been summarily executed.
• All Japanese Prisoner of War camp guards would have been summarily executed. The CEOs of the Japanese Industrial Giants [e.g. Mitsubishi] that fueled the Japanese War Machine would have been executed.
• All the Japanese scientists at the infamous Unit 731 would have been summarily executed.
• All wartime Japanese cabinet members would have been executed.
• The politicians and military brass of Japan needed to be taught a sharp lesson about how NOT to treat human beings [3-7].
• As for the Japanese Emperor, I would have given him three options-
• Permanent exile of he and the entire royal household-on pain of death-to the island of Hawaii. They would never see Japan again. Precedence lies in the exile of Emperor Napoleon to the islands of Elba and St Helena.
• Abdication in favor of his son. Upon abdication he would be required to commit suicide.
• Remain in power but become the LAST emperor. The monarchy, upon his death, would cease to exist. The communists did worse to Emperor Pu Yi.
Whichever option the emperor chose, the Imperial Palace at Tokyo would have been demolished.
This is how I would have judged defeated Japan.
At the end of World War 2 [August 15, 1945] the Imperial Japanese Navy and Army combined had less than 200, 000 officers [including special officers]. At the time the USA had 2 million Browning M2 machine guns and 41 billion rounds of rifle and machine gun rounds. This was more than enough to execute the defeated officers at no extra cost. [8-9].
It is on record that the USA spent $700, 000 and the British £52, 000 on the International Military Tribunal For The Far East. [10]
References
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Military_ Tribunal_for_the_Far_East
- https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/ macarthur-tokyo-war-crimes-trials/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bataan_Death_March
- https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/ Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/196797/bataan-death-march/
- https://www.britannica.com/event/Bataan-Death-March
- https://ia800406.us.archive.or g/10/items/ dyessstory007009mbp/dyessstory007009mbp.pdf
- https://www.si.edu/object/siris_sil_451278
- The National WW2 Museum
- National Park Service.
- http://hansard.parliament.uk