In June 1940, the Axis powers conquered France as part of the broader World War II, establishing a collaborationist Vichy regime in the country.

On 2 September 1945, Vietnamese nationalist resistance group Viet Minh declared North Vietnam to be independent, while British and Chinese troops moved in to occupy the colony.

[3] French attempts to reimpose its colonial administration in Indochina, faced opposition not only from Vietnamese nationalists but also from the United States of America and China.

France therefore saw its participation in the persecution of Japanese war criminals as a way to legitimize its colonial ambitions in Southeast Asia and uphold its role as world power among the Allies.

[4] The Provisional Government of the French Republic was faced with completely reforming its legal system in order to remove the footmarks of the Vichy regime.

American officers likewise conducted investigation in Indochina independently from the French until 1947 when the onset of the Cold War led to a warming of Franco-American relations.

In early 1947, American military authorities in Japan helped French representative Captain Gabrillagues to extradite 52 Japanese suspected war criminals to Saigon.

By January 1946, they had arrested 650 suspects and sent their case files to the Allied Land Forces South East Asia’s War Crimes Registry in Singapore.

In an effort to curb the Viet Minh insurgency, French authorities offered to pardon Japanese war criminals willing to surrender.

[10] Delays in the disarmament of the Japanese army and the ongoing Viet Minh insurgency meant that certain areas remained inaccessible to the investigators further complicating the process.

[12] The General Directorate for Studies and Research had collated evidence from interrogations and intelligence reports, later sending the case files to the UNWCC.

FPMTS served as an instrument of French foreign policy, aiming to highlight France as a victim of Japanese aggression while simultaneously showcasing the ability of the colonial authorities to govern the region.

They were accused of torturing 60 arrestees by depriving them of food and water, holding them in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, beating them with batons and forcing them to drink boiling tea.

[22] After 1949, the trials lost their political importance as France sought to improve its relations with Japan and struggled to contain the Viet Minh rebellion after the communists emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil War.