Editing Douglas MacArthur (section)

===War crimes trials===
[[File:IMTFE defendants.jpg|thumb|right|The defendants at the Tokyo War Crimes Trials|alt=Three rows of benches with a dozen or so men standing behind each. Behind them stand five men in uniform.]]
MacArthur was responsible for confirming and enforcing the sentences for war crimes handed down by the [[International Military Tribunal for the Far East]].{{sfn|MacArthur|1964|pp=318–319}} In late 1945, Allied military commissions in various cities in Asia tried 5,700 Japanese, Taiwanese and Koreans for war crimes. About 4,300 were convicted, almost 1,000 sentenced to death, and hundreds given life imprisonment. The charges arose from incidents that included the [[Rape of Nanking]], the [[Bataan Death March]] and the [[Manila massacre]].{{sfn|Drea|Bradsher|Hanyok|Lide|2006|p=7}} The trial in Manila of Yamashita was criticized because he was hanged for Iwabuchi's Manila massacre, which he had not ordered and of which he was probably unaware.{{sfn|Connaughton|Pimlott|Anderson|1995|pp=72–73}} Iwabuchi had killed himself as the battle for Manila was ending.{{sfn|Manchester|1978|p=487}}

MacArthur recommended that [[Shirō Ishii]] and other members of [[Unit 731]] be granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for germ warfare data based on human experimentation.{{sfn|Gold|1996|pp=108–110}} He also exempted the Emperor and all members of the imperial family implicated in war crimes, including princes such as [[Yasuhito, Prince Chichibu|Chichibu]], [[Prince Yasuhiko Asaka|Asaka]], [[Prince Tsuneyoshi Takeda|Takeda]], [[Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni|Higashikuni]] and [[Prince Fushimi Hiroyasu|Fushimi]], from criminal prosecutions. MacArthur said that the emperor's [[abdication]] would not be necessary. In doing so, he ignored the advice of many members of the imperial family and Japanese intellectuals who publicly called for the abdication of the Emperor and the implementation of a regency.{{sfn|Dower|1999|pp=321–323}} His reasoning was if the emperor were executed or sentenced to life imprisonment there would be a violent backlash and revolution from the Japanese from all social classes and this would interfere with his primary goal to change Japan from a militarist, feudal society to a pro-Western modern democracy. In a cable sent to General Dwight Eisenhower in February 1946, MacArthur said executing or imprisoning the emperor would require the use of one million occupation soldiers to keep the peace.{{sfn|Sebestyen|2015|pp=96–100}}