Transcripts of proceedings

Apart from the IMTFE Judgment and Annexes, the Tokyo Trial Transcripts of Proceedings is perhaps the most widely held section of the IMTFE documents. It is also the largest single contributor to the size of IMTFE documents. Nearly 50,000 pages of verbatim records of the Tokyo Trial are included in the Transcripts. Very generally, this can be divided into four sections. The first, the "Preliminary Stages", includes the Indictment, the pleas of the Defendants, and various procedural matters. The second, the "Prosecution Phase", ranges from page 381 to 16997. The third, "Defence Phase", encompasses pages 17004 – 37175. Finally, the "Final Stages", includes the various rebuttals, sur-rebuttals, and the final addresses of the Prosecution and Defence, as well as a reading of the Judgment. The “Final Stages” section includes pages 37176 – 49858. The best way to investigate this group of trial documents is R. John Pritchard and Sonia Magbanua Zaide (eds.) The Tokyo War Crimes Trial: The Comprehensive Index and Guide to the Proceedings of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. New York & London: Garland Publishing Inc., 1987. The Macmillan Brown Library has a copy of this five volume set. It is as extensive as its name implies. Its call number is JX 6731 .W3 .I61 index. Pritchard and Zaide’s index gives page references to the Transcripts for a vast number of topics. The Northcroft collection divides the Transcripts into 138 Volumes.

Use the chart below to determine which volume is needed according to the page reference garnered from Pritchard and Zaide’s index. Request this volume from the librarians at the Macmillan Brown Library.