A Case to Answer: The Story of Australia’s First War Crimes Prosecution
Australian History Biography True Crime Legal History World War II Military History Pacific War War Crimes
A Case to Answer: The Story of Australia’s First War Crimes Prosecution is the only full-length account of the 1948–49 Rabaul war-crimes trial that sent Australian legal history in a new direction. In this gripping 259-page biography David Bevan follows the case of Lieutenant-General Hatazō Adachi, commander of the Japanese 18th Army, whose troops committed atrocities against Australian and Allied prisoners on Ambon and elsewhere. Readers see how a fledgling Australian military legal team—working with limited precedent—built a prosecution that still shapes modern war-crimes law today. The book is therefore essential for anyone interested in true crime, military history, or the origins of Australian war-crimes legislation.
What makes the paperback special is its rare focus on Australian jurisprudence rather than battlefield narrative. Bevan combines courtroom drama with meticulous archival research, presenting vivid portraits of the young Australian lawyers, the Japanese defendants, and the Papuan witnesses who risked everything to testify. The result is a fast-moving, human story that illuminates the Pacific War’s brutal aftermath and Australia’s determination to seek justice for its fallen soldiers. Collectors of Second World War memoirs and legal historians alike prize this 2018 first edition because it remains the definitive, single-volume treatment of the trial.
This copy is in very good condition—clean, tight, and from a smoke-free home—so it can go straight to your shelf or reading list without the usual ex-library markings or spine creases. Because the title had a short print run and is seldom offered on the secondary market, a well-preserved paperback like this one is increasingly hard to find. Whether you are building a collection of Australian military biographies or researching the evolution of international humanitarian law, A Case to Answer delivers both scholarly depth and page-turning true-crime appeal.
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