On August 5th, Global Asia Research Center, Waseda University, hosted a workshop entitled The Manchukuo Emperor, Chinese War Criminals, and Brainwashing Justice in Postwar East Asia, presented by Barak Kushner, Professor of East Asian History from the University of Cambridge.

At the beginning of the presentation, Professor Kushner emphasized the importance of studying Chinese war criminals after the Japanese war trial. Many Western scholars approached this topic under the idea of brainwashing. Some western journalists thought there must be something devious in the Communist indoctrination. Then Professor Kushner insisted that it was essential to remember what was at stake and happening in war crimes trials.

Chinese war criminals include KMT war criminals and Manchurian war criminals such as Pu-Yi (溥儀) and Zhang Jinghui (張景恵). Then, the CCP called them “Zhanfan” (戦犯), which was the same terminology as the Japanese war criminals. In 1956, the CCP put Japanese war criminals on trial and got them to confess. Then, the CCP put the KMT war criminals in the same prisons as the Japanese throughout the 1950s, and the CCP used the conversion of the Japanese to encourage the conversion of KMT officials. At the same time, the CCP tried to persuade Pu-Yi to change his mind. Pu-Yi is very important for the CCP’s propaganda, so they wanted to re-educate Pu-Yi and then put him on display in their society.

Throughout the 1950s, many Japanese unofficial missions returned to China and interacted with the Communist Party. After 1956, Japanese war criminals repatriated and formed a group that tried to inform the Japanese public about wartime atrocities. However, these people were labeled as “red”.

In 1975, the CCP had the last amnesty for the KMT war criminals. Before 1975, a few criminals died, and CCP thought this was not good for propaganda. The KMT criminals have been incarcerated for 25 years. They have never confessed and have never been put on trial. The CCP permitted them to go to Taiwan, where they were refused to enter. After the death of Chiang Kai-shek in the spring of 1975, his son, Chiang Ching-Kuo, was uncertain about his position within the KMT, so he did not want to let them in. The Taiwanese government perceived that China had brainwashed them.

In the last part of the presentation, Professor Kushner insisted that many ongoing issues in the 21st century are rooted in the unsettled issues in the war crimes trials. He concluded that The CCP aims to maintain the memory of the events, but the cool and passionate re-analysis of the actual history should be avoided.

After the presentation, many audiences asked questions and discussed various topics.