The David Conde Fonds is a long-standing project we’ve been working on in partnership with UBC’s Asian Library, Rare Books and Special Collections, and the University of Tokyo (thanks to a grant the latter organization received from the National Diet Library). We are happy to announce that many of the materials from the Conde fonds are now uploaded and available for consultation, including transcripts of the International Military Tribunal For the Far East (IMFTE).

First page of the IMFTE

The IMFTE, also know as the Tokyo War Crimes Trials, convened on April 29,1946 to try the leaders of the Empire of Japan for war crimes. The range of crimes was significant including prisoner abuse, torture, rape, execution without trial and inhumane medical experiments, among others.

David Conde was a Canadian journalist working in Japan from the 1940’s to the 1960’s. He is best known for his reporting on the IMTFE trials from 1946-1948. This notoriety may be because General Douglas MacArthur threw Conde out of the trial about halfway through and banned him from further proceedings.

IMFTE charter

Conde’s time in the courtroom however, was not without benefit. Conde collected extensive documentation at these trials, as well as during his time in Japan, where he spent many years as a critical journalist of Japanese and American politics. Conde’s documentation provides a valuable resource for study of this important period in post-War history. The portions of the David Conde fonds that have been digitized can be accessed, along with a detailed finding aid for the fonds listing all materials,  here.