12dz Chapter 698 Public Trial, Parade, and Technological Harvesting
Chapter 698 Public Trial, Parade, and Technological Harvesting
The Nanyang garrison did not rush to secretly execute these war criminals, but instead conducted trials.
The square in front of Fukuoka City Hall was temporarily converted into an open-air military court.
The dragon flag of the United States of Southeast Asia and the flag of the Allied Headquarters flew atop a towering flagpole, below which stood a wooden courtroom covered with dark green velvet. Behind the courtroom hung a huge banner, written in Chinese, Onsat, and Neon: "Clear the sins of militarism, uphold human justice."
On either side of the bench were the seats of judges and prosecutors, mainly from Southeast Asia.
The audience seats were separated by ropes. The first few rows were occupied by foreign journalists and Allied observers wearing badges, while the back rows were representatives from various parts of Kyushu who had been organized to attend the hearing. They had their heads down, their expressions varied, and they seemed to be sitting on pins and needles.
The trials of the first batch of dozens of criminals began in the chilly air of late autumn.
Initially, the White Eagle Supreme Command in Japan and some remaining pro-Japanese forces within the country raised minor questions through various channels, suggesting that the trial should be conducted by a court composed of "a broader international community," implying that the trial led by Southeast Asia might be unfair.
When the news reached Yangon, Zhang Chi gave only one sentence in response, which was then formally conveyed through diplomatic channels:
"If the trial of war criminals who committed crimes against humanity against the people of East Asia and Southeast Asia requires judges from Australia and India to be present for it to be fair, then should Asian judges also be present for the trial of Han war criminals in Nuremberg to demonstrate international fairness?"
In short, Zhang Chi couldn't control how the Allied forces conducted their grand trial, but he wanted to do something similar in Kyushu and didn't want the Allied forces to stop him.
These words immediately dispelled any doubts.
With European affairs and the stability of its own occupied territories at the helm, coupled with the inexplicable atomic bombing of the South Pacific, the White Eagle leadership has neither the time nor the inclination to compete with the rising power of the South Pacific over this detail.
As for the slight dissent within the Japanese ranks, it was utterly insignificant under the weight of beatings and military control.
The trial proceeded swiftly.
In court, what is most moving is not the mountain of documents, but the living, breathing people.
Upon hearing the news, people in Southeast Asia and within the Republic of China were outraged and spontaneously donated money, quickly forming a sizable witness panel for the Kyushu War Criminals Trials. At this moment, they sat in the witness stand.
There were elderly people, children, women...
Each witness represents a family destroyed by the Japanese invaders, and each witness represents a tragedy.
The evidence is irrefutable, and the accusations are made in blood and tears.
Initially, some war criminals, prompted by their lawyers, mechanically repeated weak defenses such as "I was following orders," "This was a special wartime circumstance," and "I was unaware of it."
But as original orders bearing the seals of the Southern Army, the Expeditionary Army, and other units were read aloud in court, as testimonies from former colleagues during isolated interrogations were presented, and as survivors accurately identified their appearances, accents, and even habitual mannerisms, the wall of sophistry began to crumble.
When a series of irrefutable details of the atrocities were linked to specific individuals, those with fragile mental defenses began to weep in court, offering incoherent apologies; the stubborn turned pale, their eyes glazed over, falling into a deathly silence before collapse; and some even tried to roar, only to be forcibly restrained by bailiffs.
The trial lasted for several days.
Ultimately, of the first 37 war criminals tried, 28 were sentenced to death by hanging, and nine were sentenced to life imprisonment or more than 20 years of hard labor.
The verdict was read aloud in court, and the sound was amplified throughout the square and broadcast to Kyushu and even further afield via radio.
The verdict is not immediately enforced.
The following day, temporary traffic control was implemented on the main streets of Fukuoka.
Twenty-eight war criminals sentenced to hanging were shaved, dressed in specially made white coarse cloth prison uniforms, and their hands and feet were shackled with heavy, dark iron shackles. They were then escorted onto a parade vehicle converted from a military truck.
Four heavily armed, stern-faced soldiers from Southeast Asia stood around each truck.
The convoy slowly drove through the once bustling Hakata and Tenjin regions.
On both sides of the street, Japanese civilians, ordered to come out and watch, crowded the sidewalks, their silence terrifying. The only sounds were the screeching of chains dragging over the undercarriages of trucks, the rhythmic thud of soldiers' boots on the ground, and the occasional, suppressed sobs that seemed to come from nowhere.
The once arrogant war criminals bowed their heads, some slumped and had to be supported by soldiers, some had blank stares, and some had their eyes closed, their faces ashen.
The purpose of parading them through the streets is not to torture their bodies, but to destroy any remaining sense of dignity and sorrow that might exist in their hearts and in the hearts of onlookers.
Expose evil nakedly to the light of day and accept silent condemnation.
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Meanwhile, another silent but far-reaching harvest was unfolding in the industrial heartland of Kyushu.
What Zhang Chi values most has never been simple punishment, but rather tangible benefits.
A list of equipment marked with the highest priority had already been distributed to the Economic and Industrial Section of the Nanyang Military Command in Kyushu, as well as to the hundreds of engineers and technical officials who would arrive later.
Nagasaki, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Shipyard.
Despite being hit by a 'fat man', Nagasaki's environmental radiation levels were not abnormally high.
This is all thanks to the fat man's design; the plutonium-239 nuclear material was not completely released during the explosion, and the actual mass participating in fission was limited, resulting in a relatively small total amount of radioactive material produced.
Furthermore, because the explosion was conducted in the air, most of the radioactive fallout was ejected into the stratosphere and dispersed with atmospheric currents, rather than settling directly on the ground, thus reducing deep contamination of soil and water.
Therefore, two months after the Japanese troops in Nanyang ordered the local people to participate in the search and reconstruction of the ruins, they could enter the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries shipyard without having to carry out any radiation protection work.
At this moment, the shipyard where the battleship "Musashi" was built is still magnificent, but the roar of rivet guns can no longer be heard.
Instead, there was the hissing of acetylene cutting guns, the roar of crane engines, and commands in Mandarin.
"The base of this 12,000-ton hydraulic press was cut off as a whole, and care was taken to protect the main cylinder and control system."
"Gantry milling machines, numbered K-3 to K-7, have been completely disassembled. Pack the core components separately. Be careful when packing them and remember to fill them with shock-absorbing material; these are precious items."
"That five-meter vertical lathe, yes, that's it. The blueprints are correct. Dismantle it."
Technical officials from Southeast Asia, dressed in overalls and carrying lists and blueprints, directed locally recruited workers, paid in food, and some Southeast Asian engineers, to dismantle the factory's most advanced and critical equipment as if performing a delicate surgical operation.
It's not destruction, but a planned and efficient stripping away.
The massive machine tool was disassembled into transportable parts, precision instruments were wrapped in layers of soft padding, and the giant forging hammer of the steam hammer was carefully hoisted...
All of these were labeled with numbers and transported via temporarily repaired railways to the ports of Hakata or Nagasaki, where they were loaded onto waiting transport ships.
The fleet's destinations were Singapore, Penang, and Yangon.
Yawata Steel Works was once a behemoth that accounted for a quarter of Japan's total steel production.
Metallurgical experts in Southeast Asia were overjoyed.
They not only dismantled steelmaking furnaces and rolling mills, but also the supporting coking plants, blower stations, and even the spectrometers and metal fatigue testing machines in the laboratories.
Steel plates and steel columns are produced directly by rolling mills.
An old Japanese technician, watching the primary rolling mill he had maintained his entire life being dismantled, couldn't help but step forward and say in broken Onsa to the Nanyang engineer leading the team, "These... these are the essence of Yamato Industries... it's such a pity to destroy them... could they be left behind...?"
The Nanyang engineer, a middle-aged man who had studied in Hans, adjusted his glasses and calmly answered in Onsa:
"The essence? That's right. But it is precisely these 'essences' that have been refined into steel that has become bombs that have fallen on Great Xia, tanks in Southeast Asia, and warships in the Pacific Ocean."
He pointed to the giant rolling mill roll that was being hoisted:
"Now, they will be transported to Southeast Asia to be used as steel beams for rebuilding homes, as tracks for tractors, and as bearings for textile machines."
This is neither destruction nor plunder.
This is a small, belated compensation to the victimized countries and regions, made from the very machines you produced that were once used for aggression.
Do you think it's more meaningful to let them rust here, or to atone for the sins they once abetted?
The old technician opened his mouth, but ultimately lowered his head in dejection, speechless.
This technological harvesting proceeded in an orderly manner, from coal mining machinery in Kitakyushu to rubber processing equipment in Kurume, and then to chemical plants along the Ariake Sea coast.
The key point is also clear: prioritize stripping away its potential in heavy industry and military industry to fill the gaps urgently needed for industrialization in Southeast Asia.