In Tokyo last week, after 18 months of legal bickering and monotonous reading of documents, the drowsy courtroom in the old War Ministry building came to life. The chief characters of the climactic scenes were Hideki ("The Razor") Tojo and Ryukichi ("The Monster") Tanaka. Neither expected to live long. War Criminal Tojo expected to be hanged by the victors, whose newly written laws he boldly challenged; Tanaka expected to be assassinated by the vanquished, whose old, unwritten laws he had betrayed.
Sir William Webb, chairman of the International Military Tribunal, Far East, called it "the greatest trial in history." It...
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