Tokyo court upholds WWII laborer verdict

The Tokyo High Court upheld on Friday a lower court decision that rejected a damages suit filed by a group of Chinese nationals against the Japanese Government and 10 corporations for having forcibly brought them to Japan and used them as slave labourers during World War II.

The number of defendants is the biggest of all previous lawsuits filed by Chinese labourers, said Kang Jian, a lawyer well known for taking such cases.

The lawsuit was filed in 1997 on behalf of 42 Chinese, only about half of whom are still alive, with the relatives of the dead joining the plaintiff group, taking the figure to over 80 on Friday, Kang said.

In March 2003, the Tokyo District Court rejected the suit saying the plaintiffs no longer had the right to claim damages based on a Civil Code provision that set a status of limitation of 20 years.

"Friday's ruling used the same excuse; however, it did acknowledge the crucial fact that Japan had systematically used forced labourers in wartime," Kang said, adding that the acknowledgement is progress.

She said the plaintiffs had already decided to appeal Friday's ruling.

"Today's ruling was extremely unjust. I am firmly opposed," one of the plaintiffs, Lou Qinghai, told reporters outside the courthouse.

Lou, 78, said he was forcibly brought to Japan in 1944 to work at a quarry in the country's northwest.

The defendants in the case were the state of Japan and 10 companies Hazama Corp, Nishimatsu Construction Co, Tekken Corp, Nittetsu Mining Co, Japan Energy Corp, Furukawa Co, Ube Industries Ltd, Dowa Mining Co, Tobishima Corp and Mitsubishi Materials Corp.

According to the plaintiffs, they were captured by the Japanese military in 1944-45 and sent to work under dangerous conditions, mostly in Japan's construction and mining industries. They sued for a total of 847.5 million yen (US$7.25 million) in damages.

Kang said the case is one of several in Japanese courts seeking redress for alleged wartime brutalities. She said of the 14 cases over the past 10 years, the Chinese plaintiffs had neither received an apology nor compensation.

Japan shipped up to 800,000 people from China and other Asian countries to Japan to work in coal mines and ports early last century.

Hundreds of thousands of others were forced into military service or sexual slavery for Japanese troops.

But Tokyo has generally refused to pay damages to individuals, saying the issue was settled on a government-to-government basis in post-war treaties. The stance has drawn accusations at home and abroad that Japan remains unrepentant for its wartime wrongs.

In April, the same Tokyo appeals court dismissed a compensation claim filed by relatives of seven South Koreans forced to work at a steel mill in northern Japan during World War II.

Another court in March rejected demands for compensation by 45 Chinese men forced to work as slaves at Japanese coal mines in the 1940s, saying the current government is not responsible for the country's wartime actions.

Source: China Daily