A son’s belated discovery of dad’s postwar role
Print Edition
FOR many years, Xiang Longwan thought his father, Xiang Zhejun, was merely a retired English professor who was somehow involved in the Tokyo Trial, of which the younger Xiang knew little about.
It was only in recent years, after years of research around the world, the younger Xiang, now a retired mathematics professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, learned that the kind man he remembered was in fact the chief China prosecutor at the trial, who organized, collected and presented numerous pieces of evidence to the court.
“I rediscovered my own father,” he says.
In March, Xiang gave a speech at the Paris International Book Fair, where the 80-volume “Transcripts of the Proceedings of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East,” in English, was premiered.
The book was published by Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press, Tokyo Trial Research Center and National Library of China Publishing House.
After World War II, 11 allies, including the United States, China and the United Kingdom, launched the international tribunal for Japanese war criminals. It ran for three years, with 817 court openings, 419 people including the last Emperor testifying and 4,336 items of evidence presented. It took seven days for the reading of the judgments.
The massive trial was not well-recorded and has been largely forgotten. It was little known today until the movie “Tokyo Trial” came out in 2006, and Xiang found the movie’s details unsatisfying. He felt a need to recover and present the event, of which his father participated, in its full depth. He also wrote and published a book in 2010 about his father, especially the part about the prosecutor he didn’t know much about.
The prosecutor passed away in 1987. For 95 years, he had witnessed revolutions, wars, trials and enormous changes in China during its most vibrant century.
Born a farmer in Hunan Province, the older Xiang was sent to study at Yale University and George Washington University on scholarship from both China and the US. He received a PhD in law after nine years and returned to become a civil servant in the legal system.
His son still remembers the day his family sent off father at Shanghai’s Hongqiao Airport, when he was only 5.
At the time, the older Xiang had become chief prosecutor in the Shanghai Supreme People’s Court and was appointed China’s chief prosecutor at the Tokyo Trial since he was familiar with the Anglo-American legal system. Leading a team of 17, he was the first to arrive in Tokyo and the last to leave the duty.
“It’s a pity I didn’t know more about that part of my father’s life,” says the son.
“The only thing left at home today that is related to the trial is an old typewriter. Every time he came back from Tokyo, he would quickly finish dinner with us and then type pages and pages of indictment on it,” he adds.
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