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WAR CRIMES Definition

The Big Three, with the addition of France, finally decided what constituted a war crime. Three categories were established, all punishable by death:

¶Crimes against peace; i.e., planning, preparing, initiating and waging wars of aggression or wars in violation of international treaties or agreements.

¶ Violation of the laws and customs of war; i.e., maltreatment of prisoners and of civilians in occupied countries, murder of hostages, plundering, wanton destruction of cities or devastation not justified by military needs.

¶ Crimes against humanity; i.e., murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, or persecution on political, racial or religious grounds in the execution of or in connection with any crime within the jurisdiction of the tribunal.

For Supreme Court Justice Robert Houghwout Jackson, chief U.S. prosecutor of war crimes, last week's declaration was a personal victory. He had argued long & loud that a war of aggression must, per se, be considered a crime.

The agreement made other milestones in international law. One was that entire organizations, such as the SS, could be adjudged guilty collectively. Another was that obedience to orders from above was no excuse. Loopholes such as this had nullified most war-crime trials after World War I (of 896 Germans accused, only six were convicted).

This was the picture facing most of Nazidom's living ex-rulers, now under lock & key in the city jail at Nuremberg, where the first trials will take place in September. Now that Russia had entered the Pacific war, it would probably also be the picture for those Japanese war lords who do not commit harakiri.