Original U.S. WWII Unpublished Japanese War Crimes Tribunal Tokyo Trial Personal Photo Albums of Military Policeman with Signature of Prime Minister Hideki Tojo & Other War Criminals - 200+ Photographs
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Original Grouping. One-of-a-Kind. This is a never-to-be-forgotten offering that includes a tremendous pair of photo albums put together by Military Police Officer Stephen A. Kovach, who was stationed at the War Ministry in Tokyo, Japan during the International Military Tribunal for the Far East aka the Tokyo War Crimes Trials, during which 28 leaders of the Empire of Japan were tried for their crimes against peace, conventional war crimes, and crimes against humanity, leading up to and during the Second World War. There are two photo albums, one which is personal, detailing Kovach’s daily life during the Tribunal, with some photos of the tribunal as well, and another album which is about the Tribunal itself, with original unpublished photographs of many of the defendants, descriptions of the crimes of each man, and signatures of several of them, including two signed & unpublished photographs of Hideki Tojo. Also included are Kovach’s military documents as well as his original patches, containing an incredibly-scarce theater-made bullion embroidered IMTFE patch and a War Crime Trails scroll.
For context a sheet of Signatures by 23 WWII War Criminals at the Sugamo Prison in Japan — Including Prime Minister Hideki Tojo and 6 of the Executed Sold for $12,353 and can be verified at this link: https://natedsandersauctionblog.com/hideki-tojo-autograph/
The first album, the smaller red album measuring 9 x 11½”, is Kovach’s personal photo album containing roughly 167 photographs which are still attached to the pages, and 23 which have fallen off of the pages. This album details Kovach’s time in Japan, with many photos of him and his roommates, with whom he traveled and “saw the sights”. There are many photos of them on guard duty, photos with Japanese civilians and some dogs as well. This album is in fair condition although the back cover has broken off completely. The majority of the photos are still in place, and the album provides tremendous insight into the daily lives of MPs assigned to the IMTFE. One hysterical photo shows Kovach with a fish on a pole and the Imperial Moat in the background. the Imperial Moat in Tokyo, Japan is called Chidorigafuchi Moat and is located northwest of the Imperial Palace which is off limits to outsiders and swimming in the moat is an punishable offense not to mention fishing!
The second album, the larger black album measuring 12½ x 16½”, first shows the official photographs of the 26 defendants, with the following pages showing close-ups of two defendants per page with small descriptions of their positions and crimes. The photos in this section are official photographs. Following this section is a photograph of the Tribunal building, then four unpublished photographs of some of the defendants exiting the building. Following this are several photographs of the courtroom, some of which show Kovach on guard. These are a mix of published and unpublished photographs, with two published photographs of Tojo after his attempted suicide. Immediately following these are two unpublished and signed photographs of Prime Minister Hideki Tojo smoking a cigarette in his cell. The first photograph’s signature is very faint but its shadow can easily be seen, and the second signature is very clear. We have compared these to other English signatures of his, and we believe them to be authentic.
Other signed photographs found in this album include Jirō Minami, governor-general of Korea (1936-42), Teiichi Suzuki, chief of the Cabinet Planning Board, Shigetarō Shimada, navy minister (1941–44), and Iwane Matsui, commander of the Shanghai Expeditionary Force and Central China Area Army.
Then there is a single photograph of multiple defendants signed by six of them, Kiichirō Hiranuma, prime minister (1939), Shigenori Tōgō, foreign minister (1941–42, 1945), Shigetarō Shimada, navy minister (1941–44), Seishirō Itagaki, war minister (1938–39), Naoki Hoshino, chief cabinet secretary, and Jirō Minami, governor-general of Korea (1936–42). In all, there are signatures of eight of the defendants of the IMTFE in this tremendous album.
In addition to the photo albums are two extremely scarce “Spectator Passes” for the IMTFE, one AM Pass and one PM pass, both issued to 1st Lieutenant James I. Piasse, along with a seating chart showing where each of the defendants are seated in the courtroom. This is followed by several more unpublished photographs of the courtroom during the tribunal, along with photos of the bus that transported the men to and from the prison. The end of this album has several newspaper articles about the Tribunal, including a macabre graphic that depicts the seven men to be executed within nooses.
Also included in this grouping is a brown envelope addressed to Kovach from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, which contains his original enlisted service record and discharge certificates, a small studio portrait photo of him with the negative, a photograph of him and 2 other MPs standing behind some of the war criminals, and a small red booklet that contains three of Kovach’s patches, including his 8th Army Patch, his War Crimes Trials ribbon patch, and his extraordinarily scarce theater-made bullion WAR-CRIMES-TRIALS I.M.T.F.E. TOKYO JAPAN patch.
Kovach was born on January 8th, 1928, meaning he was only 11 years old when World War II began in 1939. He was too young to have seen any fighting during the war. He enlisted in the Army on May 9th, 1946, at the age of 18, and was assigned to the Military Police, traveling overseas on August 14th, 1946. Kovach spent over a year at the Tribunal, meeting and spending time with several of the Japanese war criminals, as well as guarding them in the courtroom. He remained overseas until September 12th, 1947 when he arrived back in the United States, being discharged on October 28th, 1947. Interestingly, it appears that at one point in his life, his last name was changed or just rewritten as Kovacs. He passed away on January 3rd, 1984 at the age of 55.
This is a once-in-a-lifetime grouping with unpublished photographs & signatures of some of the worst war criminals of the Empire of Japan. His personal photo album showcases the daily life of MPs assigned to the IMTFE, and has some truly phenomenal content. Comes ready for further research and display.
Following Japan's defeat and occupation by the Allies, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, United States General Douglas MacArthur, issued a special proclamation establishing the IMTFE. A charter was drafted to establish the court's composition, jurisdiction, and procedures; the crimes were defined based on the Nuremberg Charter. The Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal was composed of judges, prosecutors, and staff from eleven countries that had fought against Japan: Australia, Canada, China, France, India, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States; the defense consisted of Japanese and American lawyers. The Tokyo Trial exercised broader temporal jurisdiction than its counterpart in Nuremberg, beginning from the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria. Twenty-eight high-ranking Japanese military and political leaders were tried by the court, including current and former prime ministers, cabinet members, and military commanders. They were charged with fifty-five separate counts, including the waging wars of aggression, murder, and various war crimes and crimes against humanity (such as torture and forced labor) against prisoners-of-war, civilian internees, and the inhabitants of occupied territories; ultimately, 45 of the counts, including all the murder charges, were ruled either redundant or not authorized under the IMTFE Charter. The Tokyo Trial lasted more than twice as long as the better-known Nuremberg trials, and its impact was similarly influential in the development of international law; similar international war crimes tribunals would not be established until the 1990s.
By the time it adjourned on November 12, 1948, two defendants had died of natural causes and one, Shūmei Ōkawa, was ruled unfit to stand trial. All remaining defendants were found guilty of at least one count, of whom seven were sentenced to death and sixteen to life imprisonment.
Thousands of other "lesser" war criminals were tried by domestic tribunals convened across Asia and the Pacific by Allied nations, with most concluding by 1949. Due to U.S. government intervention, the trials did not charge imperial Japanese leaders who may have been responsible for Unit 731.
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