By Chris Magee
War is the most unbearable memory in human civilization, and World War II was undoubtedly its darkest chapter. In this global catastrophe, the Chinese people endured immense suffering, with more than 35 million military and civilian casualties, before ultimately securing victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. After the war, the international community embarked on a global pursuit of justice. As the two most significant international war crimes trials, the Nuremberg Trials and the Tokyo Trials were held in succession, pioneering the practice of holding war criminals accountable under international law and laying an important legal foundation for the post-war international order and the development of international criminal justice.
My grandfather, John Magee, was one of the witnesses at the Tokyo Trials. In December 1937, invading Japanese forces captured Nanjing, plunging the entire city into a bloodbath. In its darkest hour, my grandfather chose to remain in Nanjing. Together with other members of the international community, he helped establish the Nanjing International Safety Zone, which provided refuge for approximately 250,000 Chinese civilians during the Nanjing Massacre.
The inhumane massacres and atrocities committed by the Japanese imperialist aggressors, together with the suffering endured by innocent Chinese civilians, deeply prickled my grandfather. Determined to preserve the truth, he picked up the 16mm camera he had originally used to record the daily lives of Nanjing residents and, at the risk of his own life, secretly filmed irrefutable evidence of the atrocities committed by the Japanese invaders. After World War II, he traveled to Tokyo, Japan, to testify before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, recounting in court the atrocities he had personally witnessed in Nanjing. The precious footage he captured remains the only known motion-picture record of the Nanjing Massacre discovered to date.
My grandfather's righteous actions profoundly shaped my life, enabling me to deeply understand the cruelty of war. The courage he showed in standing up in the face of overwhelming adversity continues to inspire and guide me to this day, prompting me to reflect on one of the most fundamental questions about human nature in times of war: Why did Japanese soldiers completely lose their humanity and become perpetrators who brutally slaughtered innocent civilians?
In times of peace, legal norms, cultural traditions, and moral principles help regulate people's conduct and uphold social order. The violence and brutality of war, however, can completely dismantle—or even overturn—the external restraints of a civilized society. In prewar Japan, prolonged militarist indoctrination and brutal military training stripped soldiers of their capacity for independent thinking and moral judgment. After years of such ideological poisoning, countless Japanese soldiers became cold, unfeeling instruments of the militarist machine. Faced with the brutality and chaos of war, they not only failed to reflect on their crimes but instead sought an illusory sense of control through the taking of innocent lives. It was this profound distortion of human nature that became the ideological root of crimes against humanity such as the Nanjing Massacre.
In stark contrast to the moral depravity of the aggressors stood defenders of justice like my grandfather, who had the courage to step forward in times of war. Rising above the instinct for self-preservation, they drew on unwavering moral courage and steadfast conviction to resist war's assault on human dignity and conscience, remaining firmly committed to the dignity of life and the cause of justice. It was this unwavering faith that enabled them, in humanity's darkest hours, to stand resolutely in front of the innocent and the vulnerable, forming a steadfast line of defense against atrocities and in defense of life and human conscience.
Today, 80 years after the opening of the Tokyo Trials, looking back on this landmark trial is not merely about recalling how war criminals were brought to justice, but also about drawing lessons from history and safeguarding the hard-won peace we enjoy today. The Tokyo Trials continue to remind the world that even in the darkest moments of war, conscience and justice never disappear from the human spirit. Remembering history, defending the truth, and upholding conscience are responsibilities shared by all humanity.
(The author is the grandson of John Magee, an American witness at the Tokyo Trials.)
Editor's note: Originally published on people.com.cn, this article is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information and opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.