By Avijit Chatterjee, IANS
Kolkata : Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will play the role of a dutiful grandson when he visits Kolkata Thursday to record his gratitude to the family of Radhabinod Pal, the lone Indian judge at the war crimes tribunal led by Allies that indicted Japan after World War II.
It was Pal’s carefully crafted argument that led to the acquittal of Abe’s grandfather Kishi Nobuske, who was detained by the 11-member war tribunal. Nobuske went on to become prime minister of Japan in 1957.
Pal had argued that the trials were an act of vendetta by the Allied Forces and that all Japanese tried by the 1948 Tokyo tribunal should not be found guilty.
Pal’s judgment was banned by the Occupation Forces, but he began to be widely regarded as a hero in Japan. After Pal’s death, the Japan government opened a museum in his memory at Hakone, a resort town near Mount Fuji.
Three days before the Japan’s premier’s visit, his 81-year-old son Prasanta
Pal is all worked up.
“I am hearing that the Japanese prime minister will visit my house but I have not received any confirmation yet. I am frail and old and don’t know how to host him. I received a call from the Japanese consulate asking me to join him for dinner. But I have politely declined the invitation as I am no longer in a position to travel that far,” Prasanta told IANS.
He recalled that in December 1967, a few months after his father’s death, Nobuske had come to Kolkata with a 65-member delegation to pay his tribute at Pal’s ‘samadhi’ or memorial.
“He told me that the Japanese government was interested in setting up a museum in my father’s name and asked me if I could give any of my father’s belongings. I told him that I would donate the Parker fountain pen used by my father during the Tokyo tribunal.
“He said he would send someone to fetch the pen after the museum was ready. Some months later, a person from the Japanese Consulate arrived to take the pen which is used in a museum there,” he said.
“My father didn’t use the pen after signing the judgment. He had told me to preserve the pen, saying it will have a historical value later.”
A few months after he had donated the pen, a neatly wrapped parcel arrived at Prasanta’s house.
“Nobuske had sent me a pair of cuff links made of pearls as a mark of appreciation for gifting the pen to the museum.”
The present prime minister will make it a point to stop by Prasanta’s house to express the gratitude of the Japanese government and renew old bonds during his three-day India visit beginning Tuesday.
“My father was showered with respect and affection in Japan. In October 1966, the Radhabinod Pal Reception Committee in Japan invited us to Tokyo where he was conferred the First Order of The Secretariat, the country’s highest award. He was also conferred D.Litt by Nihon University and the Key of Tokyo,” Prasanta said.
“After his arrival from Japan, my father fell sick in November 1966 and died on January 10, 1967 after being in coma for about a month.”
But the ties continue to be strengthened, more than four decades after his death.