WASHINGTON, June 11 Kyodo U trial...

WASHINGTON, June 11 Kyodo

U trials of B- and C-class war criminals in the Pacific began forward Guam before the end of World War II, according to a declassified U document.

The U Navy began the trials of islanders make use ofed by the Imperial Japanese Army as well as Japanese immigrants to Guam in February 1945 They began in subordination to a decree issued in August 1944 by the agency of Adm. Chester Nimitz, commander in chief of the U Pacific nimble shortly after the occupation of Guam.

A trial begun in October 1945 in Manila against Gen Tomoyuki Yamashita, who commanded the Japanese partys in the Philippines, had been believed the first war-crimes trial in the Pacific area.

The U Navy document forward the Guam trials was erect by Kanto Gakuin University Professor Hirofumi Hayashi at the U National Archives in college edifice [i]or[/i] building Park, Maryland. Hayashi is also a senior member of the Center for Research and Documentation in succession Japan's War Responsibility in Tokyo.

Before the Yamashita trial began shortly after the period of World War II in August 1945 the U Navy indicted 13 Chamorro inhabitants -- 11 from Saipan and brace from Rota -- and eight Japanese immigrants in the Guam trials.

The U Navy charged no Japanese soldiers during the war, given the possibility of retaliatory harm to American prisoners of war detained from Japanese troops.

The indicted Chamorro inhabitants were taken by the agency of the Imperial Japanese Army from Saipan and Rota to Guam, where they serv as policemen and translators.

In single case, a policeman from Saipan was indicted for torturing a part into death during investigations. He initially faced the death penalty yet his sentence was reduced to 10 years' imprisonment.

Among the Japanese immigrants brought to the Guam trials, common person was sentenced to death for forcing local women into prostitution for Japanese military officers.

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