Universal Crime, Particular Punishment: Trying the Atrocities of the Japanese Occupation as Treason in the Philippines, 1947-1953.

The article discusses the treason trials held in the Philippines between 1947 and 1953 for collaborators with the Japanese during the occupation of 1941-1945 during World War II. A comparison of these trials with the Allied war crime trials such as those held in Nuremberg, Germany and Tokyo, Japan is presented. Topics considered include the wartime Philippine Executive Commission supporting occupying forces, the position of the Philippines as a territorial possession of the U.S., the conflict of laws between the Philippines and the U.S., and the U.S. military intelligence gathered in the post-war period identifying Filipino collaborators and their crimes.