Japan war crimes trial begins, May 3, 1946
Formal war crimes indictments are read at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in a Tokyo courtroom. Twenty-five of the twenty-eight men charged with Class A war crimes will be convicted; seven of them will be sentenced to death. Sixteen others receive life sentences. In other tribunals, 4,300 Japanese soldiers will be found guilty of rape, abuse of prisoners of war, and murder. One thousand of these men will be sentenced to death, the rest given life imprisonment, although many of these sentences will be commuted.