The Tokyo High Court ruled on Wednesday that four Chinese women
seeking compensation from the Japanese government had in fact been
forced to serve as sex slaves to the Japanese military during World
War II. But it also ruled that they were not entitled to
compensation for the government's acts at that time.
The plaintiffs and their lawyers said the ruling is unjust and
they will appeal to Japan's Supreme Court.
Li Xiumei, 77, and three others filed the lawsuit since 1995
with the Tokyo District Court, seeking compensation of 23 million
yen (US$219,000) each. The lower court rejected the case on May 30,
2001.
Presiding Judge Makoto Nemoto handed down the High Court's
written decision but did not read it aloud in court.
The court found that the Japanese military did set up wartime
brothels in China and that the four plaintiffs, when they were aged
15 to 20, were forced by the military into brothels in northeast
China's Shanxi
Province. They were confined there and repeatedly raped between
1942 and 1944.
But he rejected their claims for compensation, saying that Japan
"has no responsibility to pay compensation for any acts committed
by state authorities under the Meiji Constitution." The Meiji
Constitution was replaced after Japan's defeat in World War II by
its current constitution.
The court also ruled against the plaintiffs on the grounds that
the 20-year statute of limitations had expired.
"It cannot be denied that the four continue to be seriously
affected and that (state) immunity would contradict the principles
of justice and fairness," Nemoto was quoted as saying by Kyodo
News. However, he indicated that the statute of limitations
prevailed.
Japanese courts have rejected numerous similar cases on the
grounds that the 20-year period for demanding compensation had
expired.
On a more positive note, according to the Japan Times the court
also ruled that the 1972 Japan-China Joint Communiqué does not
prohibit individual Chinese victims from exercising their rights to
seek damages. This is a turnaround from earlier decisions in which
the High Court said that wartime compensation issues had been
settled by international and bilateral treaties since the end of
the war.
(China.org.cn, Xinhua News Agency December 16, 2004)