“カイザー訴追問題”と日本国内の諸動向

Japan and the Prosecution of Kaiser Wilhelm: The Popular Argument over War Responsibility of Germany and Trial of Its Monarch

The Versailles Treaty was a watershed in the history of international laws. It on the one hand changed a meaning of war from “indiscriminate killing” to “illegal way of diplomacy”. On the other hand, it also provided a clause for prosecuting a monarch defeated in the war: its Clause 227 that stipulated prosecution of German Emperor (Kaiser) Wilhelm II for his war responsibility for the First World War (hereinafter referred as Kaiser prosecution). This clause was sensational because it established a new rule in the international law to prosecute the head of state for the defeat, which later led to a notion of crimes against peace. Apart from the international context, “Kaiser prosecution” was a domestic issue of Japan, particularly related to the national constitution (国体). The Japan’s national authority concerned seriously that this issue would affect the nation negatively. This paper examines how Japanese intellectuals received, and argued, “Kaiser prosecution”, and how police forces responded to such popular argument over the monarch, thorough such primary documents as newspapers and magazines in the interwar period. As a result of this research, it shows that Japanese intellectuals supported the Clause 227 unexpectedly, even some criticizing Wilhelm II. Such an intellectual trend shows it was the first time for the nation to consider a concept of “war responsibility”. With these findings, this paper also argues that the police authorities did not regard as criminal Japanese intellectual’s disrespectful discourse against Kaiser Wilhelm II, as it hardly resorted to criminal investigation. On the appointment of a Japanese judge for Wilhelm’s case, importantly, Japanese intellectuals recommended a person both with enough knowledges of international laws and with a strong belief in Japan’s constitution. For them, Kaiser’s case would never lead to a denial of the monarch of Japan. Therefore, both Japanese authorities and intellectuals had unlearned an issue of war responsibility of monarch’s until the time Japan lost in 1945.