This is the story of the seven principal Japanese officials -- the so-called "Class A" criminals -- who were tried by an international court and hanged for their roles in World War II. The focus of the manuscript, however, is not on those Tokyo trials; rather, it is about why and how the Class A criminals were selected; their interactions with their interrogators, captors and the Buddhist priest who ministered to their spiritual needs; and the operation of the prison where they spent their final three years. The manuscript draws heavily from previously classified documents obtained by the author under the Freedom of Information Act; from interviews with MPs who served in Sugamo (including the first to conduct a hanging in the prison); and from the meticulous records of conversations with prisoners recorded by the Buddhist priest (passed to the author by the prison's censorship officer). Included are pertinent extracts from the original interrogations of the prisoners - sessions conducted by allied authorities before any prisoner had an opportunity to consult with a defense attorney. In these frank exchanges, the prisoners are allowed to explain how and why Japan's pre-World War II, exploitive activities in China ultimately set their country on a course that took it to "the threshold of annihilation." This is not another rehashing of history through the prism of decades of debate and reconsideration; instead, the reader is drawn into the lives of the manuscript's characters through then-contemporary reports; through the prisoners' own words and writings; and through the recorded observations of the Americans who prepared the legal cases against the prisoners. In these pages the reader will find information that never aired in the prisoners' public trials. For instance, the general who was executed primarily for the atrocities that occurred during the so-called "Rape of Nanking" -- General Matsui -- was not the senior officer inside the city when those crimes occurred. That distinction falls to a member of Japan's royal family who, because of those familial connections, avoided trial. Likewise, the only politician executed as a "Class A" was selected for those ranks largely out of convenience: the prosecution staff felt that a token politician should be tried, never expecting him to hear the hangman's call. Embark on this journey of discovery, and learn how seven of Japan's most powerful wartime officials spent their final three years...in a prison called SUGAMO.
