On May 8, Hoover Library & Archives welcomed Yuma Totani, professor of history at the University of Hawaii and a Hoover visiting fellow, who discussed her work on the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in conjunction with recently acquired digital images of sketchbooks of the Tokyo Trial by Shigemitsu Mamoru, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Japan.
Dr. Totani’s talk, “Accountability for War Crimes: The Tokyo Trial (1946-1948) through the Lens of the 'Shigemitsu Sketch Books' at Hoover” discussed the wartime career of Shigemitsu Mamoru and the historical significance of the drawings he rendered during the Tokyo Trials. Shigemitsu, as a civilian delegate, along with General Yoshijiro Umezu, signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender on September 2, 1945 on the USS Missouri. Shigemitsu was tried and sentenced to seven-year in prison for waging an aggressive war at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. His sketchbooks are an important testimony and intimate eyewitness account of the trial.
The Hoover Institution Library and Archives has partnered with the Shigemitsu family to digitize and make available 145 pages of the sketchbooks which can now be viewed on our digital portal.
