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Military Trials of War Criminals in the Netherlands East Indies 1946–1949 by Fred L Borch [Oxford University Press, New York, NY, 2017, 255pp, ISBN 9780198777168, US$94 (h/bk)]

Fred Borch, an American military lawyer, was the first Chief Prosecutor for the Military Commissions at Guantanamo Bay. He is now the Regimental Historian and Archivist for the US Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps. His fluency in Dutch enabled him to research and analyse archival records on the 448 military trials of 1038 Japanese, Korean and Formosan war accused that were held from 1946 to 1949 in what was then the Netherlands East Indies (NEI). The accused were tried in 448 separate trials held at Amboina, Balikpapan, Bandjermasin, Batavia, Hollandia, Macassar, Medan, Morotai, Pontianak, Tanjung Pinang and Kupang. The publication that has emerged fills a gap in the legal English-language literature, where there is already some knowledge of the NEI forced prostitution case of Prosecutor v Washio Awochi reported in XIII Law Reports of Trials of War Criminals 1 (1946). The book is manageable and written in an easy style, making it accessible to a wider audience. There are 12 chapters: four on the background, four on subject matter clusters (mistreatment of civilians, prisoners of war and civilian internees, mass murder and unlawful executions, forced prostitution, violations of the terms of the Armistice); two on issues of responsibility (criminal group responsibility; command responsibility); one on the trials of collaborators, and a concluding reflection. These are supplemented by a select bibliography, and two appendices (Appendix A listing the trials by location; Appendix B listing the judges, along with a biographical sketch of Judge Levinus Franciscus de Groot). The author includes two statistical tables, a photograph of Judge de Groot, 24 photographs of Japanese accused, and four maps. The Japanese occupied the NEI from 8 March 1942 to August 1945. During this time, a great many atrocities were committed. Borch hints that the Japanese policy against Europeans, the Dutch in particular, was genocidal ((19–30) although he scrupulously avoids using the term). The post-surrender return of the Dutch to the NEIwas complicated. The Japanese had supported the local anti-colonial movement led by Soekarno. This turned into a full-scale liberation struggle, firstly against the British, who together with the roped-in Japanese essentially ‘held the fort’ until the Dutch could return, and then against the Dutch themselves. The NEI trials should therefore be seen in the context of decolonization, and not just in terms of retributive justice. Borch, in his third chapter, explains how these trials were linked to, yet separate from, the trials of Germans held in the home country, and the broader programme of post-War prosecutions in the Far East that was coordinated by ALFSEA, the Allied Land Forces in Southeast Asia, from Singapore. TheNEI trials were, Borch asserts, unique in a number of aspects. This was the only national process with jurisdiction over group criminality (the offences must have been committed as part of the group’s day-to-day activities). The NEI was alone in prosecuting ‘forced prostitution’ and ‘systematic terrorism’ as war crimes. Enemy soldiers were, uniquely, prosecuted for violating the terms of the armistice. And, Borch argues, this was the only post-war legal process with a mandatory sentencing framework. Borch appropriately queries the generic failure of the Allies to take up themany crimes committed against women and girls in the course of Japan’s so-called ‘comfort women’ system. TheDutchwere an exception for having the grand total of three trials, but despite the fact that many more local women, citizens of the NEI, were similarly victimized, it was only the experience of Caucasian women and girls that was of interest (130–4). However, in other areas, there were prosecutions for crimes against local Indonesians, such as Prosecutor v Tadashige Daigo (mass murder of 1,054 persons in Pontianak, Borneo). Chapter VII focuses on the three forced prostitution trials, including but going beyond theWashio case that has been internationally reported. He presents the ‘Semarang forced prostitution affair’ involving 11 military and civilian accused tried together, and a separate case against Colonel Shoichi Ikeda. Borch also details the case of the Dutchwoman Franciska Hendrika Eckhart, who was convicted of ‘trafficking in women’ and of ‘promoting lechery’ under the NEI Staatsblad Decree No 46 of 1946. 774 International and Comparative Law Quarterly