Title: Colonel Henry Lyons' War Crimes Papers

Date/Date Range :   1948

Extent: 4.5 linear feet

Abstract:

This collection contains prosecution and defense material relating to the Yokohama war crimes trials arising out of the Japanese defeat in World War II.

Call number: MS-0983

Repository: University of Tennessee Special Collections Library, Knoxville, TN

Aquisition Information:

This collection was a gift of Colonel Henry Lyons in 1979.

Access Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Copyright:

The copyright interests in this collection remain with the creator. For more information, contact the Special Collections Library.

Preferred Citation:

[Identification of Item], Colonel Henry Lyons' War Crimes Papers, MS-1983. University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Special Collections Library.

Collection consists of three boxes.

Colonel Henry Lyon, a native of Greeneville, Tennessee, served as president of a War Crimes Commission trying Japanese war criminals at Yokohama in 1948. Colonel Lyon's military career began in 1917 after he completed a degree in electrical engineering at Virginia Polytechnical Institute. He served as an officer at posts in New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and the Canal Zone, and was a professor of military science to ROTC groups in Nebraska and Alabama. As commander of infantry units and training regiments, Colonel Lyon saw service in Montana, Panama, Colorado, California, Georgia, and Alabama. After his War Crimes Commission appointment was conducted, he remained in Yokohama until 1950 as deputy commander of the Yokohama Command. On his return to the United States he was appointed chief of the Kentucky Military District at Louisville.

The Yokohama trial files, amounting to more than three shelf feet of material, include special orders regulating the detention, interrogation, and trial of suspected war criminals, and consist primarily of defense exhibits and prosecution exhibits complete with photographs and maps. The mistreatment of prisoners of war is the subject of many of the deliberations.

• Yokohama Trials, Yokohama, Japan, 1945-1949.
• War crimes trials -- Japan.