U.S. trials of Class B and C war criminals in the Pacific began on Guam before the end of World War II, according to a declassified U.S. document.
The U.S. Navy began the trials of islanders employed by the Imperial Japanese Army as well as Japanese immigrants to Guam in February 1945. They began under a decree issued in August 1944 by Adm. Chester Nimitz, commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, shortly after the capture of Guam.
A trial that began in October 1945 in Manila of Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita, who commanded Japanese troops in the Philippines, was previously believed to have been the first war-crimes trial in the Pacific area.
The U.S. Navy document on the Guam trials was found by Kanto Gakuin University professor Hirofumi Hayashi at the U.S. National Archives in College Park, Md. Hayashi is also a senior member of the Center for Research and Documentation on Japan's War Responsibility in Tokyo.