Why simultaneous interpreting was never used in the Tokyo Trials(1946)

The aim of this study is to answer the question of why simultaneous interpreting, successfully introduced in the 1945 Nuremberg Trials, was not utilized in the Tokyo Trials that took place the following year. At Nuremberg, simultaneous interpreting had dramatically accelerated the trials and allowed justice to be achieved in four languages. It was an innovation that gave rise to the profession of conference interpreting, and established research on interpreting as an independent academic discipline. The Tokyo Trials, however, employed only consecutive interpreting. The primary reason was the shortage of bilinguals fluent in English and Japanese. Additionally, the Tokyo tribunal neglected the fact that linguistic justice was a prerequisite for legal justice. A more fundamental reason was the tribunal’s mistrust in Japanese interpreters. The US-led tribunal, forced to depend on Japanese interpreters in a courtroom where their compatriots were being tried, assigned Japanese-Americans (Kibei) as monitors and US military officials as language arbiters to keep close watch on them. Unlike their counterparts in Nuremberg, the interpreters in the Tokyo Trials were reluctant to publicly disclose their involvement. The Tokyo Trials thus failed to become a turning point in the history of interpreting and Interpreting Studies in Japan.