Now is a good time to be reassessing the Tokyo war crimes trial. Across East Asia and the world, the postwar global settlement is crumbling. This process has been very evident in Japan, though it has unfolded quietly there and attracted surprisingly little attention in the English-speaking world.

Internationally, debates continue to rage about the definition of war crimes and processes for bringing war criminals to justice. The Allies’ trial of Japanese wartime political and military leaders after World War II was intended to lay the foundations of a new, peaceful and democratic Japan by punishing the militarists who had led the country into a disastrous conflict.