International Law
Although the Geneva Conventions have, from 1864 onwards, provided the standard definitions of war crimes, the Empire of Japan never signed the Geneva Conventions. However, many of the alleged crimes committed by imperial personnel were also violations of the Japanese code of military law, which Japanese authorities either ignored, or failed to enforce. The empire also violated provisions of the Treaty of Versailles such as article 171, which outlawed the use of poison gas (chemical weapons), and other international agreements signed by Japan, such as the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 which protect prisoners of war (POWs). According to historian Akira Fujiwara, Hirohito personally ratified, on 5 August 1937, a proposition by his Army chief of staff Prince Kan'in to remove the constraint of those conventions, on the treatment of Chinese prisoners.
Read more about this topic: Definitions Of Japanese War Crimes
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