Radhabinod Pal

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Lore & Background

Radhabinod Pal was born in 1886 in the village of Salimpur, Kushtia, then part of undivided Nadia district in Bengal Presidency, British India (present-day Bangladesh) into a Bengali Hindu Vaishnavite family. He passed the Entrance Examination in 1903, and F.A. Examination in 1905 from Rajshahi College with distinctions. Pal took his BA Honors (1907) and MA (1908) in Mathematics from the Presidency College, Calcutta. He worked as a clerk at the Allahabad Accountant General Office before taking his BL degree in 1911. Pal later served as a lecturer in Mathematics at the Ananda Mohan College, Mymensingh, and alongside teaching practiced law at the Mymensingh Bar. He obtained the LLM degree (1920) from Calcutta University, standing First in the First Class. Pal then moved to Calcutta to build a legal career in the High Court. He studied mathematics and constitutional law at Presidency College, Calcutta, and the Law College of the University of Calcutta. Pal was a major contributor to the formulation of the Indian Income Tax Act of 1922. The British Government of India appointed Pal as a legal advisor in 1927. He worked as professor at the Law College of the University of Calcutta from 1923 till 1936. Pal became a judge of the Calcutta High Court in 1941 and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calcutta in 1944.

Reader's Guide

Radhabinod Pal's significance centers on his lone dissent at the Tokyo Trials. He was asked to represent British India as a member of the tribunal in 1946. In deliberations with judges from 10 other countries, Pal was highly critical of the prosecution's use of conspiracy and maintained the tribunal should not retrospectively apply Class A war crimes or crimes against humanity. He dissented from the verdicts of guilt for defendants charged with Class A war crimes. His reasoning influenced judges from the Netherlands and France, who also issued dissenting opinions. While finding that "the evidence is still overwhelming that atrocities were perpetrated by the members of the Japanese armed forces," Pal produced a judgement questioning the tribunal's legitimacy, calling it a "sham employment of legal process for the satisfaction of a thirst for revenge." He concluded: "I would hold that each and every one of the accused must be found not guilty of each and every one of the charges." Pal argued the United States had provoked Japan, noting the Hull note. His 1,235-page dissent was banned during the American occupation of Japan, but after the occupation ended in 1952, Japanese nationalists used it to argue the trials were biased. In 1966, Pal visited Japan and said he admired Japan for being the only Asian nation that "stood up against the West." The Emperor of Japan conferred upon Pal the First Class of the Order of the Sacred Treasure. Monuments dedicated to Pal stand at Yasukuni Shrine and Kyoto Ryozen Gokoku Shrine. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh referenced Pal's dissent in speeches in 2005 and 2006 as a symbol of Indo-Japanese friendship. In 2007, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe met with Pal's son Prasanta in Kolkata.

Did You Know?

• Pal was the only judge among all those at the Tokyo Trials who submitted a judgement insisting all defendants were not guilty.
• Pal's 1,235-page dissent was banned during the American occupation of Japan, which ended in 1952.
• The Yasukuni Shrine and the Kyoto Ryozen Gokoku Shrine have monuments specially dedicated to Pal.
• Pal was a major contributor to the formulation of the Indian Income Tax Act of 1922.
• The Emperor of Japan conferred upon Pal the First Class of the Order of the Sacred Treasure in 1966.