Recent UoP history graduate Benjamin Taylor wrote his third-year dissertation on Japanese war crimes, discovering that the US and other Western states played a far larger role in the cover-up than has been previously acknowledged. Below he writes about the trial and error process of writing his dissertation, and how the guidance of his supervisor, Dr Rudolph Ng, has been vital.
General Tojo was among 7 defendants sentenced to death by hanging at the Tokyo War Crimes trials from 1946-48.
My chosen topic for my dissertation was an investigation of the cover-up that has surrounded Japanese war crimes. Specifically, my dissertation sought to answer two questions: has there been a cover-up surrounding Japanese war crimes? And two, if so, which country was most instrumental in creating and perpetuating this cover-up? Throughout my dissertation, I argued that the U.S. played a far larger role in creating and perpetuating the cover-up than most traditional scholars attribute to them. The topic of covering up Japanese war crimes may seem like a strange project to research given the wealth of other options. However, the topic fascinated me. As a historian, I believe one of the most important aspects of history is remembrance and acceptance of our past, whether it is pretty and paints us well or not. When I learned of how much effort had been put into making sure this part of history was forgotten, I viewed it as a personal mission to expose the efforts that have gone into concealing these crimes on the part of not just Japan but the whole world.
I began my research initially by diving into the resources that surrounded the two most notorious of Japan’s war crimes, the Nanjing massacre and the atrocities of Unit 731. These resources helped me write my dissertation’s first draft, which I sent to my supervisor to get his initial opinions. The email I received back was not exactly thrilling, with my supervisor telling me he was glad that I had sent this to him early as, in its current form, the dissertation would have failed spectacularly. I hope it eases your nerves a little to know when writing your own dissertation that my dissertation, which eventually received a first, was a complete failure on its first draft. However, I decided that I would not let this end here. I rewrote the first part of the dissertation and again sent it to my supervisor. It got much the same result, though he did admit it had improved a little. At this point, I knew something needed to change and met with my supervisor to discuss a better approach to my dissertation. After a quick meeting where I refined the questions my dissertation would ask, I got to work on draft number three.
In 1949, 12 members of the Japanese Kwantung Army were tried as war criminals in the Russian city of Khabarovsk for manufacturing and using biological weapons and carrying out medical experiments during WWII. They were sentenced to terms in labour camps and released in 1956.
After refining my questions, I then looked further into the topic by researching and gathering sources related to the Tokyo war crimes trials, the Soviet Khabarovsk trials, the Chinese Shenyang trials, and gathering sources on the cover-up efforts of the wider world, including those committed by the Dutch, French, and British. During the writing of draft number three, I found an invaluable set of primary sources in the archives of the Pacific Atrocities Education Charity, which had received their documents from the national archives of the United States. These archives contained many documents relating directly to how and why Japanese war crimes were covered up, and these documents proved invaluable to my research. A few weeks later, I sent the newly written, complete draft to my supervisor, and using his helpful feedback comments, I refined the dissertation even further. I ended up writing two more drafts before sending in my work for its final evaluation.
Prosecutors of Japanese war criminals at the Special Military Tribunal held in Shenyang, China, in 1956.
My takeaways from this experience are as follows: Number one, and I cannot stress this enough, is to give yourself time. By starting my dissertation relatively early, I had time to fail and refine it without the stress of knowing that my deadline was next week. Number two: don’t expect it to be great on your first try. My first try, as mentioned before, failed spectacularly. It took me five drafts to get my dissertation right, and many people take even more drafts than that. Don’t be afraid to go back to scratch; it is better than trying to make something you know is wrong work. Number three: take some time off. A dissertation can feel overwhelming. I certainly felt that I should be working on it all day every day, but it will not help. Taking some time to yourself does an immense amount of good, and often you’ll find your work is better once you have taken a break. Number four is probably the most important takeaway of all: have fun. Do not research a topic you hate because you think it will get you a good grade. I personally loved researching my dissertation, and while there were parts I did not enjoy, overall, researching and writing about a topic that I was genuinely interested in helped the whole process go a lot smoother. Remember, this is your project at the end of the day. And number 5, if I can do it, so can you? My grades coming into this year were not exactly stellar, and I genuinely thought I did not have any chance of getting a first grade the hard work will pay off.
Well done Ben. You clearly worked hard at your research & showed the determination to prove your beliefs were right and opened up a ‘can of worms’ for other potential historians to continue your research so highlighting the facts you have brought forward & showing the world of the atrocities that were going on at that time & —-in fact still are!!
Also you have shown & proved to potential students that it can be done & they too can do it with determination & effort.