After the Khabarovsk Trials of 1949 over the Japanese war criminals, who were involved in the bacteriological program and human experimentation, the USSR initiated a new trial. The Soviet leadership was willing to attract public attention and bring to court not only the key figures of Japan’s bacteriological program but also emperor Hirohito as a war criminal. That was a direct threat to the US policy in occupied Japan, and thus caused a confrontation between Moscow and Washington