Non-governmental Compensation Claims Against Japan, Why a Rocky Road?

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, August 21, 2003

Non-governmental Compensation Claims Against Japan, Why a Rocky Road?

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On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the People's Republic of China and Japan, the poison leak incident in Qiqihar City of China's northernmost Heilongjiang Province on August 4, which had injured more than 40 people, has again drawn close public attention. (Report and photos about the incident)

Chemical experts have confirmed that the arch culprit of the tragedy is mustard gas contained in five metal barrels left behind by a Japanese troop. The troop, under the number of "516", is as notorious as "Unit 731". (The difference is, "731" was specializing in developing germs, but "516" toxic gases.) At the end of the WWII, upon Japan's surrender, the troop 516 took most of its confidential documents back to Japan, but left a large quantity of its equipment, toxicant and bombs behind in China.

By August 14 there were still as many as 37 victims remain in hospital treatment. Since the latency period of mustard gas injuries may linger several months long, medical workers dare not relax a bit.

The Chinese government has lodged solemn representations to Japan on the chemical weapons issue, and raised compensation requests over the issues of site cleanup, medical care and personal injuries, and now is waiting a reply from the Japanese side. A delegation consists of Chinese and Japanese lawyers who had handled previous lawsuits over abandoned chemical weapons has intervened into the "August 4" incident.

Compensation requests on Japan, a long way to go

Although the issue of war compensation has long been settled between the Chinese and Japanese governments, calls from ordinary people have never ceased.

The chemical weapons abandoned by Japanese troops pose a great threat to Chinese people's life security. Rough statistics by Chinese related departments suggest that around 2 million pieces of chemical weapons were left in Chinese land, the number stands at 700,000 pieces even by Japanese statistics. More terrifying is, there are still some weapons buried or abandoned by Japanese troops in secrecy remain uncovered.

By now more than 2,000 Chinese people have fallen direct victims to weapons of the said kind, most of them in the northeast regions. For example, on May 15, 2003, Tokyo local court ruled against the compensation plea by five Chinese plaintiffs injured by Japan-left chemical weapons. To our indignation, the court, though recognized the injuries Japan made, rejected the compensation claim under the excuse that retrieving the abandoned weapons was rather difficult.

China has another 23 lawsuits lodged against Japanese government over other wartime issues, such as forced labor and "comfort women", but most victims failed to get substantial compensations.

In Japan there also appeared chemical weapon injury cases, in which the government made prompt compensations. However, towards China the government adopted another attitude, that is, refusal of compensations and acknowledgement of war crimes. Its long-term indifference to the misery it caused to Chinese people even roused indignation from home. After the Tokyo ruling in last May many Japanese organizations gathered to protest their government's irresponsible attitude towards the war it launched.

Where on earth the difficulties lie?

Domestically, the difficulties of non-governmental compensation claims mainly lie in the following two aspects.

Firstly, China lacks non-governmental organizations specialized in compensation-seeking activities. Currently most pleas are made by individuals and information is not openly shared. With rising calls from people we are glad to see some rights-protecting institutions and lawyer groups began to take actions.

Secondly, some myths need to be exploded, such as questions on whether people's compensation claim should spoil the China-Japan relations. In response to this, many experts hold that rational, ordered lawsuits will not damage the friendship between the two countries, since the condemns made on Japanese court and carried on local paper would help people to understand the nature of war and therefore guard against future ones.

From a view of the Japanese side, there are two points. First, Japan believes that the compensation issue has been settled, this is an error of common sense. In the 1972 China-Japan joint statement, the Chinese government declared to give up the right for compensation requests for the sake of friendship between the two peoples. Just as the late Premier Zhou Enlai put it, it is for China-Japan friendship that China decided not to add any burden on Japanese people. But the point is what is given up is governmental rights, not that of ordinary people. According to the International Law and international practices, war victims from China and other Asian countries have the right of lodging compensation requests against Japan.

Then, regulations on time limitations of actions. Every country has its regulation on the time limitation of compensations in their civil laws, and Japan laid out a period of 20 years during which compensation can be sought. However, war crimes are beyond these limitations according to UN resolution on the issue of war compensations.

The Japanese government has for many times sent officials and experts to China for on-the-spot investigations. They do understand the situation of their abandoned weapons in China, but by now never take any solid action or make substantial promise to Chinese victims.

Japanese attitude slightly changed

This time's poison incident only found its way to one or two Japanese papers, it seems that the Japanese authority want the matter to calm down.

Four officials from Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs visited the city of Qiqihar on August 8. They admitted that the accident was caused by the chemical weapons abandoned by the Japanese army during WWII, and expressed sympathy for the Chinese victims.

Later, a medical team led by Kawakami Fumihiro, an official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan arrived in Qiqihar on August 16. The team, which consists of seven members, including three medical doctors, two officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, one researcher and one interpreter, visited the No. 203 Hospital of the People's Liberation Army and exchanged views with Chinese experts on the Chinese victims.

Kawakami Fumihiro offered an apology and showed sympathy for the Chinese victims on behalf of the Japanese government.

Japan is ready to make joint efforts with China to deal with the accident, he said, stressing that treating the victims is the most important task at present.

However, upon the issue of compensation to Chinese victims, Japan has by now taken no clearcut stand.

Japan's embarrassing diplomatic relations with China

In recent years the people-to-people exchanges between China and Japan displayed a favorable trend never seen in past years, but the political stage has been empty and listless. The latter fact is mainly caused by the Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's successive three visits to the Yasukuni Shrine in his three office years, thus deliberately laid barriers for the sound development of China-Japan relations.

Since the end of 1998 Japan has been complaining that China pesters her on historical questions, saying these questions have been solved and relations between the two countries should "march toward the future". In fact, it is some Japanese politicians, instead of China, who have been creating troubles on "historical questions".

Even in the extremely abnormal relations with China, Japan has been seeking way outs towards China. Japan's two major newspaper Mainichi Shimbun and Yomiuri Shimbun, while continue to complain there is no "change' in China's diplomacy to Japan, admit that a sound Japan-China relation calls for efforts from both sides. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Japan Economic News) even carried an editorial on August 14 under the title "Stability of Japan-China relation, a cornerstone of Asian peace".

People with insight believe that the incidents of abandoned chemical weapons by Japanese troops testify to Japan's invasion history and reflect how the Japanese government understands its history; and the questions can be solved as long as the Japanese government observes the principles in the three political documents signed between the two nations, makes deep self-examination on its war history and sincerely should war responsibilities.

By People's Daily Online

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