Woman lived history in post-war Japan

SEMINOLE -- Willianna Abrams took part in a history-making event more than 50 years ago, but these days she's content to get out in her 1991 Oldsmobile for trips to the bank and post office, to the Albertson's to pick up a prescription or hunt for the two-for-one meat specials.

Now 89, Mrs. Abrams was one of the first Americans to land on Japanese soil in 1945 after that country surrendered to the United States. She was a law clerk working with the International Military Tribunal for the Far East -- the equivalent of the World War II war crimes trials in Nuremberg, Germany.

She was part of a group working for the Department of Justice that was sent to Japan to conduct the trials for Japanese military leaders involved in World War II. Seven defendants ultimately were hanged and 19 others were sent to prison, most of them for life.

Mrs. Abrams settled in St. Petersburg in 1951 with a soldier she had met and married in Japan. She worked as a secretary and raised her daughter alone after her husband died. She eventually remarried and moved to Seminole.

Now, nearly six decades after the trials, Mrs. Abrams will share her recollections of the two-year period with a Georgia university professor who is writing a book and a paper on the historical event.

"I have so many memories of that time of my life," said Mrs. Abrams. "There aren't many people still living who participated in the trials."

Willianna Settle was raised in Montross, Va., a country village about 100 miles from Washington. She had never even been on an airplane when her boss asked her to go to Japan in the winter of 1945 to help administer the war crimes trials.

"I knew that an executive order had been issued by the White House to try the Japanese warlords who had planned (the attack of) Pearl Harbor," she said. "I was glad, but I had no desire to have any part of it."

Mrs. Abrams wasn't scheduled to go to Tokyo, but at the last minute one of the other clerks decided not to go. Because Mrs. Abrams already had security clearance, she was asked to take the other woman's place.

Her initial response was "no way." Her feelings toward Japan, a country that was responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans, were bitter. She also was worried about her safety.

She sought advice from missionaries who had lived in Japan and her father who encouraged her to go. On Dec. 2, 1945, only a few months after Japan had surrendered, two chartered airplanes left Washington. They carried 20 attorneys, two Army officers and 18 secretaries and administrative assistants.

Willianna Settle was on board.

Yuki Takatori says she's been interested for years in the Tokyo war crimes trials. But it wasn't until she received her doctorate five years ago that she began researching the trials.

"Most Americans know about the Nuremberg trials, but many don't even know that there was an Asian counterpart," she said.

Takatori says a friend of Mrs. Abrams told her about Mrs. Abrams' participation. Although the trials happened 55 years ago, Mrs. Abrams has vivid memories and talks about her experiences in Japan as if they happened yesterday. She has scrapbooks of newspaper clippings and original photographs. She has the original copy of the executive order from the White House, autographed photographs of the Japanese defendants, and a copy of the opening statement of the prosecution.

Takatori, 40, a college professor, says she has many questions about the trials and hopes Mrs. Abrams might be able to answer some of them.

Did the emperor of Japan have a deal with the prosecution team that spared his life?

Why did John Patrick Higgins, who was the American judge for the trial, leave Japan only a month after the trial started?

Takatori was scheduled to meet with Mrs. Abrams at her home on Saturday and possibly today.

Takatori was born and raised in Tokyo, but has lived and worked in the United States since 1990. She is a linguistics teacher and faculty adviser for Asian studies at Georgia State University in Atlanta.

She is writing a paper and a college textbook on the Tokyo war crimes trials. She says the Gen. Douglas MacArthur Memorial in Norfolk, Va., the National Archives in Maryland and the Hiroshima Peace Institute in Japan are interested in Mrs. Abrams' recollections.

When Mrs. Abrams arrived in Tokyo, the devastation shocked her. The city was in ruins. Her living accommodations were rough, with neither water nor heat.

Although conditions would improve, Mrs. Abrams and the other women had no mirrors in their rooms. That changed when an assistant to MacArthur asked the women if any of them had any Vicks nose drops. The general had a cold.

Mrs. Abrams had some. She gave it to the assistant, who told her MacArthur would want to buy her a gift. She told him a simple mirror would be nice.

She did get a mirror, but it was more than she expected. MacArthur picked out a large mirror that was attached to a wooden base with drawers. The mirror is one of many treasured Japanese items that Mrs. Abrams brought home to the United States.

While in Tokyo, Mrs. Abrams was the executive assistant to the administrative officer of the International Prosecution Section. She wrote all of his correspondence and directives to departments within the section.

Indictments were brought against the Japanese military officers, including War Minister Hideki Tojo, on April 29, 1946. Many consider Tojo responsible for the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, where 2,388 Americans lost their lives.

Mrs. Abrams says she often watched the trial. "I could go any time I wanted to and I went whenever my work was caught up," she said.

The trial ended Nov. 12, 1948. Tojo and six other defendants were hanged in the middle of the night at a Japanese prison.

"Why didn't they hang them all?" a maid asked Mrs. Abrams at the building where she was staying.

Of the 40 people who arrived on those two charter planes, Mrs. Abrams and an Army officer were the only two left when they locked up the building where the trials took place.

And in the 2 1/2 years that passed, Mrs. Abrams' feelings toward the Japanese people had changed.

"It was such a beautiful country and the Japanese people were wonderful to me," she said. "I made friends with many of them."

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