[Larry381]

I believe there were some American sub commanders who spoke up for Donitz at Nuremberg because essentially our submarines were ordered to act exactly the same way during the war.

[HenpeckedCon]

Admiral Nimitz saved Donitz’s neck at Nuremberg. He testified that American submarines were under the same orders as the Germans not to rescue stranded Jap sailors.

[CougarGA7]

Though Admiral Stark would confirm it a few hours later, it was Admiral Thomas Hart who gave the order for U.S. submarine forces, and aircraft to conduct unrestricted submarine warfare against the Japanese.

This is an interesting shift in policy for him personally since back in 1920 when he was still a Captain he criticized the Germans for unrestricted submarine warfare in World War I while giving a lecture at the Naval War College:

"I shall pass over the inhumane features of German submarine warfare because their ways were characteristic of the race...Any nation that attempts commerce destruction by submarines will tend toward certain of the same practices that the Germans arrived at; how far it will go depends on its racial characteristics and, very likely, by how hard it is pressed."

And yet by 8 December 1941 his opinion had changed and at 0345 Manila time he gave the order for that very policy he used to argue against.

A good book for those interested in this is "Execute Against Japan" The U.S. Decision to Conduct Unrestricted Submarine Warfare by Joel Ira Holwitt