Arriving for his arraignment at the U.S. High Commissioner’s Residence in Manila, Philippines, on Oct. 8, 1945, Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita looked solemn but self-confident in his mustard-green field uniform decorated with a general officer’s lapel insignia and four rows of ribbons. Completing his ensemble were brightly polished boots with gold spurs. Though the general stood only 5 feet 7 inches, one of his appointed American defense attorneys described him as “a large man for a Japanese.… His neck was thick and bull-like, and the back of his neck and head ran in almost a vertical line from the white shirt collar which was turned over his tunic collar.” Also present in court was U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Harry D. Pratt, the general’s appointed translator. Pratt later recalled Yamashita’s “distinguished appearance” as he stood before a military commission of five U.S. general officers to hear the charges against him. “He made no angry attacks and gave answers in a clear voice.”
Less than a month had passed since Yamashita’s arrest, on Sept. 2, 1945. Presiding officer Maj. Gen. Russel Burton Reynolds read aloud the indictment holding Yamashita responsible for all “brutal atrocities and other high crimes” committed between Oct. 9, 1944 and Sept. 2, 1945, by troops under his command in Manila and elsewhere in the Philippines. After the charge was read in Japanese, Yamashita firmly replied in that language, “Not guilty.” The arraignment ended within minutes, and the general was returned to his cell in New Bilibid Prison, 15 miles south of Manila. His trial, which opened on October 29, set a precedent in international law as well as in American military and constitutional law.
At his side throughout the proceeding was Pratt, who was somewhat surprised to find himself involved in the historic event. At just 26 years old and with only a few years of Japanese language
