The Georgetown Law Library has
announced the acquisition of the
John G. Brannon papers:
“… I am fighting for a human life. The life of a hated enemy but
nevertheless a life,” wrote John G. Brannon on November 25, 1947 in a
letter to his brother Bernard. John Brannon had arrived in Tokyo, May
17th, 1946, about five years after the attack on Pearl
Harbor. He was an American attorney from Kansas City, Missouri,
appointed by MacArthur to defend Class A Japanese war criminal
Osami Nagano, Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff, in his
trial before the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal.
The Law Library’s Special Collections has recently acquired over 150
letters written by John Brannon to his brother over a period of 3 years
(1946-1949), along with numerous photographs, manuscripts and two 16mm
films (John G. Brannon Papers).
It is a collection teeming with fervent American patriotism, Truman
politics and personal reflections of a transitional time in world
history. In his letters, Brannon discusses and describes: Japanese
culture, his defense strategies, the Tribunal, the Defense team,
mounting U.S. tension with Russia, and the stigma attached to American
attorneys defending the enemy after the war in the Pacific. His writing
is a vibrant personal view of the inner workings of, and politics
behind, an important historic and international trial.
According to the announcement, Georgetown also holds the papers of
George Yamaoka, who was "one of the select group of American attorneys appointed by
General MacArthur in 1945 to help in the defense of those Japanese
accused of war crimes." More information is
here.
