A proposal to set up a foundation to compensate Chinese forced laborers in Japan during the World War II will be handed to the Diet or the Japanese government by lawyers in late May.

The Japanese lawyer group, which represented Chinese forced laborers in a number of compensation claims, will hand the proposal after fully discussing with Chinese counterparts and the forced laborer delegates, said Toshitaka Onodera, acting head of the lawyer group and attorney at law from Onoderakyodo Law Office in Tokyo, at a meeting with lawyers from the All-China Lawyers Association (ACLA) here Wednesday.

According to the draft proposal, the fund will come from both the Japanese government and relevant enterprises.

The time is coming to set up such a compensation foundation when Chinese forced laborers and their folks are beginning to win in some compensation lawsuits against the Japanese government and companies these years, Onodera said.

The District Court of Niigata in Japan passed the judgment on March 27 this year that the Japanese government and a local shipping company compensate 11 Chinese for forced labor during the World War II, the first judgment in Japan to clarify the government's legal duty for compensation.

"The success of a single lawsuit could only benefit several people and we hope the foundation to cover most victims," Onodera said, "Those victims still alive are growing older and older. Few time is left to have them compensated."

According to the Japanese government, 38,935 Chinese forced laborers -- most of them teenagers or in their 20s -- were taken by force to work as coolies for 35 companies in 135 locations in Japan during the war, of whom some 7,000 died of inhuman treatment.

The total number given by Chinese historians was some 40,000, not including those sent to Korea and Southeast Asian countries.

The foundation will be conducive to settle the issue of forced laborers in the wartime and also benefit compensation claims against other wartime atrocities, said Kang Jian, deputy head of the lawyer group for compensation claims against Japan under the ACLA.

"Provided the present political climate in Japan, we are not optimistic that the Diet will pass the proposal soon but we will still try our best to fight for the legal rights and interests of victims," She said.

The Japanese lawyers will also put forward a written proposal on local media right before the High Court of Fukuoka starts the second hearing on May 24 on a compensation lawsuit raised by 15 Chinese forced laborers, according to Onodera.

"There are chances. We will hit the target no matter the Diet passes the proposal or the government accepts it," he said.

According to Onodera, Chinese forced laborers should have received 80 million yen, equal to about 80 billion yen now, from the Japanese government when the war ended in 1945, following the decision of the United Nations, but they did not. The money is still entrusted to the Japanese government.

Meanwhile, the 35 Japanese companies also received 56.72 million yen, around 60 billion yen now, from the government as compensation after the war.

The money could be the initial fund of the foundation, Onodera said.

"It will be good to have such a foundation," said Ma Dezhi, a forced laborer, "But what we ask from the foundation is still the same as what we want at the court -- admitting to the atrocities, apology and compensation."

Ma was seized by force from his hometown in east China's Shandong Province to Japan at the age of 21 in 1944. The young primary school teacher worked as a stevedore for more than a year.

Source: Xinhua