On August 15, the day of Japan’s surrender, a mainland media article was published to commemorate Chinese Justice Mei Ruzhe, who participated in the Tokyo trial, saying that he had “done justice on earth” and was the pride of not only his family, but also his home village of Mei.
As we all know, in May 1946, the Far East Military Tribunal, which was composed of 11 countries including China, the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union, tried 28 Class A war criminals of Japan. On the order of the government of the Republic of China, Mei Ru-Ming, as the Chinese representative judge of the tribunal, participated in the “Great Tokyo Trial”, in which seven Japanese prime war criminals, including Tojo Hideki, were sentenced to death by hanging. During the two and a half years of the trial, Mei Ru-jian defended China’s position on issues such as “the dispute over the judges’ seats”, “the drafting of the verdict”, and “the resolute punishment of death”. At that time, Mr. Mei wrote, “I am not a vengeful person, and I have no intention to write the blood debt owed by Japanese militarism on the account of the Japanese people. However, I believe that forgetting the suffering of the past may lead to future calamities.”
However, the fate of such a “justice” judge was sealed when he chose to follow the Chinese Communist Party by a single thought.
Selected to participate in the Tokyo Trials
Born in 1904 in Nanchang, Jiangxi province, Mei Ruchun’s father, Mei Xiaochun (his genealogical name was Mei Bingzhe), graduated from the Jiangxi Surveying and Mapping Academy, and served as a colonel in the staff department of the Jiangxi Governor’s Office, a political member of the provincial council, and an adjutant of the General Surveyor of the Army. Such a family provided Mei Ruzhe with a good education for his growth.
In 1924, Mei graduated from Tsinghua University and then enrolled in a publicly funded study program in the United States. During his stay in the United States, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the prestigious Stanford University and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Chicago. During this period, Mei responded actively to the Northern Expedition launched by the right wing of the Kuomintang in China.
After completing his studies, R.M. Mei returned to China in 1929 and taught at Shanxi University, Nankai University, Wuhan University, Fudan University, etc. He also served in the Ministry of the Interior of the Nationalist Government, the Legislative Yuan, and other government agencies in the legal field.
After the surrender of Japan, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East decided to try the Japanese militarists who started the war of aggression. After receiving the notice from the headquarters of the Allied Commander-in-Chief in Japan, the then government of the Republic of China began to select suitable personnel. Eventually, Mei Ruyi, then a professor at Fudan University and only 42 years old, was appointed as a judge to participate in the trial, Xiang Zhejun, a professor of law at Soochow University, was the prosecutor, and Wu Xueyi, a professor of law at Wuhan University, was the advisor.
On March 19, 1946, Mei Ru-jeong flew to Tokyo on an American military plane. On the same day, the Central Daily News, Shanghai’s “Declaration”, “Ta Kung Pao” and “News” published this important news with prominent headlines: “Settlement of Blood Debt: Judge of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, R.M. Mei, flew to Tokyo today”.
The Tokyo trial defended China’s interests
The first controversial issue of the Great Tokyo Judgment was the seating order of the judges from 11 countries, including China, the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, France, India and Australia. The first seat to the right of the president belonged to the American judges, but the judges disagreed on how the rest of the seats should be arranged, especially the seat to the left of the president.
According to R. M. Mei, “the order of seating of the court should be arranged in accordance with the order of the signatures of the surrendered countries at the time of the surrender of Japan, which is the most reasonable. China was the most violated by Japan, the longest resistance and the greatest sacrifice. Therefore, China, which had a history of eight years of bloody resistance, should be ranked second.” In the manuscript of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, Mei Ruiji later wrote: “On any international occasion, the competition for seats and ranking is not a personal matter, but an important matter concerning the status and honor of the country.”
However, at that time, because China was very weak, Mei’s suggestion was not adopted. The day before the trial, Weber suddenly announced that the order of admission was the United States, Britain, China, the Soviet Union, and France ……. Mei Ruzhi immediately protested and took off his black silk robe, refusing to “rehearse”. After he argued, the judges took a final vote and the flag of the Republic of China was placed in first place.
In the later stages of the trial, the judges were divided on the sentencing of the war criminals. Some advocated leniency for war criminals; some disagreed with the death penalty for war criminals; and others opposed the execution of war criminals for the most heinous crimes on humanitarian grounds. After confirming the atrocities committed by the Japanese army with a large amount of evidence, Mei Ruyi advocated for the death penalty for the worst offenders, saying, “If the Japanese war criminals cannot be severely sanctioned according to the law, it will be contrary to the purpose of this court as well as to the spirit of the Potsdam Proclamation.”
In order to fight for this verdict, Mei argued with the judges of all countries, and even voiced out that he would not hesitate to “die collectively in order to thank the nation”. Under his struggle, the 11 judges voted on the death penalty by a narrow margin of 6 to 5, deciding to hang seven major Japanese war criminals, including Tojo Hideki, Matsui Ishihone, Toeihara Kenji, Itagaki Shoushiro, Kimura Hyotaro, Muto Zhang and Hiroki Hirota.
In addition, the 900,000-word verdict left more than 100,000 words written by Mei Ruzhi, whose crimes of Japan’s invasion of China and the great harm suffered by the Chinese were left in an important document recording history.
At the end of 1948, the Great Tokyo Trial ended, and Mei Ru-Mi, who had defended the interests of China, had completed his mission.
The disaster that could not be escaped after choosing the Chinese Communist Party
Before returning to China, the Nationalist government explicitly announced Mei Ruzhi as a member of the Executive Yuan and Minister of Justice, but Mei Ruzhi refused to return to China to take up his post in Tokyo because he was disappointed with the Nationalist government, and went to Hong Kong.
In Hong Kong, being deceived by the illusion of the Chinese Communist Party, Mei Ru-je made contact with the Chinese Communist representative in Hong Kong, Qiao Guanhua, and went to Beijing secretly. From 1950 onwards, R. M. Mei served for a long time as a legal advisor, special commissioner and member of the treaty committee of the Chinese Communist Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
But soon, he was no longer seen in some foreign affairs activities, except for going to work. According to the reminiscences of Li Shengjiao, a former diplomat of the Chinese Communist Party, he occasionally passed by Mei Ruzhi’s office and saw him either reading a book or a newspaper, and “there was a rather forlorn look between his originally lofty brows. Later, he simply did not go to class anymore. His inner pain could not be described by outsiders.
When the “Anti-Rightist” movement broke out in 1957, Mei Ruzhi, who had a background that was not tolerated by the Chinese Communist Party, was also hit and criticized. The reason was that he had said in his speech at a “Mingle Conference” that “the ‘Zhang Luo League’ could also be considered”. With Zhang Bojun and Luo Longji being branded as “great rightists” by Mao, Mei Ruzhi’s life was not easy either, and he was qualified as a “rightist” in the Foreign Ministry.
Because of his international influence, the Chinese Communist Party did not make Mei Ruzhi a typical example after he was branded as a “rightist”, but his administrative rank was downgraded by four levels, from a deputy to the National People’s Congress to a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. Because he was branded as a “rightist”, he was not allowed to greet rightists according to the ridiculous rules of the time. During this period, he began to write a book on the Tokyo trial.
After the start of the Cultural Revolution, Mei was subjected to even more severe criticism. According to “The Disappearance of the Nanjing Massacre in Public Memory,” his book “On Tanigashige, Matsui Shigen, and the Nanjing Massacre” was unfoundedly accused of inciting “national hatred” and “advocating war and revenge” when high school history textbooks did not even include the Nanjing Massacre. Others even accused the article of exaggerating the bravery of the invaders and promoting militarism from the opposite side, almost like a “traitor” or “traitor”. As a result, he was forced to clean toilets in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, write materials for external investigation, and had his home raided by the rebels.
When the rebels raided Mei’s home, they found the vestments worn by Mei during the Tokyo trial and thought that they had definite evidence of his reactionary history, and tried to burn them. However, the vestments were preserved after Mei Ruzhi’s resistance.
Conclusion
After suffering so much, Mei Ruzhi passed away in 1973 at the age of 68 due to illness, and the magnum opus of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, which he had hoped to complete, was not finished. Before he passed away with regret, did Mei regret his choice?
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