Certain acts if committed by such inhabitants are punishable by the enemy as war crimes. The deceased would, being civilian inhabitants of an occupied territory, be guilty of the war crime known as War Rebellion if they rose in arms against the occupant. War treason includes such acts by private individuals as damage to war material or conspiracy against the armed forces or against members of them. Charges of war crimes may be dealt with by military courts or such courts as the belligerent concerned may direct. In every case there must be a trial before punishment and the utmost care must be taken to confine the punishment to the actual offender.
All war crimes are liable to be punished by death.
So far as I have been able to ascertain . . . The type of trial to which the deceased were entitled was therefore subject to certain fundamental principles of justice, that were directed by Japan. Among the acts defined as war crimes in Oppenheim-Lauterpacht International Law , Vol. But they cease to be private individuals if they organize themselves in a manner which, according to the Hague Convention, confers upon them the status of members of regular forces. Espionage and war treason .