FM spokesman on Japanese court's rejection of compensation for Chinese forced laborer

China urged Japan on June 23 to properly handle the issue on the Japanese court's denial of the compensation for a Chinese forced laborer, said Liu Jianchao, the spokesman for Chinese Foreign Ministry.

"It was one of serious crimes committed by the Japanese militarists to forcefully take the Chinese laborers to Japan and enslaved them during the World War II," said the spokesman.

He urged the Japanese government to take up its due accountability with a highly responsible attitude towards history, and properly handle the issue concerning a Chinese forced laborer.

The Tokyo High Court Thursday denied the compensation of 20 million Japanese yen (approximately 183,000 US dollars) to the family of Liu Lianren, a late forced laborer from China who escaped from a worksite toward the end of World War II and hid in mountains for about 13 years unaware the war had ended.

The high court overturned a 2001 first-instance verdict of the Tokyo District Court that signified for the first time a Japanese court had passed a verdict on compensation to a foreign national forcibly brought to Japan for labor during the war.

Source: Xinhua