Ben Bruce Blakeney

Benjamin Bruce Blakeney (July 30, 1908, Shawnee, Oklahoma – March 4, 1963) was an American lawyer who served with the rank of major during the Second World War in the Pacific theater.

Tōgō was ultimately depicted as a reluctant participant in Hideki Tojo's war cabinet and in Japanese empire-building more generally, in spite of his having led the Greater East Asia Ministry after 1943.

In the most heavily-quoted excerpt from his remarks, Blakeney noted that killing by a nation, wartime or peacetime, and even waging a war of aggression, could not be considered crime under international law.

[3]Blakeney's speech was covered in the New York Times, but was overshadowed the same day in the courtroom by an incident where Shūmei Ōkawa slapped Tojo Hideki and made a scene later by crying and praying.

[7] Blakeney, together with defense attorney George Furness, filed an appeal with the Supreme Court of the United States on behalf of the convicted Japanese officials, arguing that the ruling could not be upheld because General Douglas MacArthur had acted unconstitutionally in constituting the tribunal.