The Yokohama District Court reopened proceedings Tuesday on the "Yokohama Incident," often described as Japan's worst case of repression of free speech during the war.
The one-day session came after the court accepted a petition last October for a retrial filed by relatives of the late Yasuhito Ono, a member of the editorial staff of Kaizo (Reform) magazine. He was among about 60 people arrested between 1942 and 1945 for breaching the Peace Preservation Law aimed at cracking down on communist and antiwar sentiment.
The defense team planned to seek an acquittal for Ono on grounds that he was tortured by special political police into making false confessions. Prosecutors were expected to ask the court to dismiss the case because the law and the charges involved are now defunct.