The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal For the Trial of Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery – Judgement on the Common Indictment and the Application for Restitution and Reparation
Delivered: 4 December 2021. The Hague, The Netherlands/ Case No.: PT-2000-I-T/Original: English/ Copyright: 2001 International Organising Committee for the Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal/ A4 296 pages (incl. Appendices)
Photo: Japanese Soldiers on Trial. Source: Tropenmuseum, part of the National Museum of Word Cultures
This was my final assignment for the Researching Japan module (Summer 2021). I used the above mentioned archive for my research ‘’Comfort Women’ in Indonesia during the World War II’.
1.Description of the archive
This Judgement was published after the Tribunal as titled above. This Tribunal is a ‘People’s Tribunal’. It was carried out by the global civic society, in particular, those from the Asia-Pacific region, and people of the world to whom Japan owes a duty under the principles of the international law to render account. Therefore, it was not established or influenced by a state or inter-state organisation but involved the application of international law only. The intention of this tribunal is ‘to recognise and respect women’s human rights, to end impunity for crimes of sexual violence, to repudiate the notion that sexual abuse of women is an inevitable consequence of war and conquest’. The methods of this Tribunal were, to examine evidence, then develop a historical record and apply the principles of international law.
2.Accessibility
This Judgement can be found on the website of the ‘Women’s Museum for War and Peace’ in Tokyo [1]. It is open and accessible to the public and downloadable. The document is written in English due to the nature of the international tribunal with prosecutors from ten countries or regions. This makes it accessible to a wider audience.
3.Comparison to other collections in the UK and worldwide
As this Judgement was delivered by the International Court of Justice, the Hague, the Netherlands, I think that this information source is of the highest reliability. Other than this document, I have so far found victims’ testimonies, research papers published in English in journals in History, Social Science, Politics, Economics, Gender Studies and International Relations. Whilst Indonesian materials are inaccessible to me due to the language barrier, there are resources in Japanese which refer to Indonesian cases. I also plan to search for archives at the Netherlands National Archives and libraries online and in person, although some documents are protected for privacy issues. Publication by Dutch authors are mostly in English, presumably to make them accessible to a wider readership. However, I plan to search for Dutch newspaper articles about the topic and the WWII in general (Continued).
Bibliography:
Tribunal, I.O.C.f.t.W.s.I.W.C., The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal for the Trial of Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery: The Judgement on the Common Indictment and the Application for Restitution and Reparation. 2001, International Court of Justice: The Hague, The Netherlands.