Tominaga Mosaburo and another

Case Summary

The defendants, Tominaga Mosaburo and Nagata Takashige, were employed by the Iberaki Agency, which was concerned in intelligence and espionage activities. The Agency, which was under the control of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA), operated under cover, and its agents were ostensibly ordinary civilians. The defendants held employment in the Japanese Steel Tube Company.

The victim, Mohamed Khan, was an employee of the Japanese Steel Tube Company and a civilian resident from Singapore. Mohamed had apparently stolen bags of rice, medicine, secret documents, parts of a wireless transmitting set and personal belongs of Nagata. His motive was either to earn money to provide for his girlfriend, or to desert to Chinese communists, in view of the precarious position of the IJA during that period .

Thereafter, the defendants brought Mohamed to a place in the jungle by train, where he was shot.

For more information see:

http://www.legal-tools.org/doc/bf317e/

http://www.legal-tools.org/doc/f2947d/

http://www.legal-tools.org/doc/4fd30a/

http://www.legal-tools.org/doc/7cc118/

The defendants admitted to have ordered and carried out the summary execution of Mohamed, although they contended that, in light of the Mohamed’s act of allegedly disclosing military secrets to the enemy, this was legally justifiable according to Japanese military law.

Notably, the summary execution took place on 24 August 1945, more than a week after the announcement of the Japanese surrender on 15 August 1945. This was because the defendants had only learnt of the surrender on 27 or 28 August, a few days after the Mohamed’s execution.