The Kamloops Kid

The Canadian government did not pay much attention to prosecuting enemy war criminals after the Second World War. The commander of the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend, Kurt Meyer, was tried by a military tribunal for ordering the murder of Canadian prisoners of war in Normandy, found guilty, and sentenced to be shot, but his sentence was commuted to life in prison on review. Ottawa had neither representation nor influence on the Nuremberg trials. In the Far East, it did have a judge on the tribunal created to try Japanese war criminals, but, according to Gary J. Bass’s recent book, Judgment at Tokyo, his presence had no impact on the proceedings.

There was, however, one war criminal in Hong Kong in whose case Canada had an interest. This was Kanao Inouye, accused of abusing Canadian officers and other ranks who were taken prisoner in December 1941, during the Imperial Japanese Army’s conquest of the British Crown colony. Some 2,000 Canadian troops had...