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In Beijing on Sunday a special ceremony granted nongovernmental financial aid to 586 Chinese survivors of forced labor during World War II. During the 1930s and '40s the Japanese army treated most of  these survivors as slave laborers.

Ten survivor representatives, mainly from China's northern provinces of Hebei and Shanxi, central Henan and eastern Shandong, attended. China Red Cross Foundation (CRCF) and Chinese Federation of Demanding Compensation From Japan (CFDC) conducted the ceremony.

Each of the survivors was given 1,000 Yuan (US$131.6). One "extremely poor" survivor was given 3,000 Yuan. This is the first time they have obtained any kind of domestic aid.

Tong Zeng, head of the CFDC, said that the Hong Kong Philanthropist, Zhong Huiming, offered the financial aid. It will be primarily used to help WWII victims with "special difficulties" and women who were forced to be sex slaves during the war.

Tong, an activist fighting for war compensation in Beijing, said that the 586 former forced laborers were the only known survivors.

Between 1943 and 1945 about 40,000 Chinese were forced into slave labor at 135 Japanese labor camps. The labor sites, consisting of 35 various enterprises, all operated in Japan. According to Tong more than 6,800 Chinese teenage laborers died of exhaustion. The CFDC research compiled all the figures. China won a final victory over the war against Japanese invasion in 1945.

"The majority of the survivors from the forced labor camps are suffering diseases left from the war. Today most of them are over eighty years old. We hope the aid can comfort them and help them to enjoy a restful life in their remaining years," said Tong, while calling for more social assistance for World War II victims.

"The Japanese foremen abused us. I lived like a beast. I can not use words to describe it," said Li Liangjie, 78, who was brought to Japan at age 14. Li made an angry, spontaneous speech at the aid-granting ceremony, accusing the Japanese of war atrocities.

Li said the aid greatly inspired him to continue seeking compensation from the Japanese government and related Japanese companies by filing lawsuits both in domestic and Japanese courts.

On April 27 the Japanese Supreme Court rejected the demands of five former Chinese laborers. They had all worked as slave laborers in Japan during the WWII under Tokyo-based construction contractor Nishimatsu Construction Co.  According to the court Nishimatsu was not liable to either apologize or issue compensation.

The court said that Chinese individuals had no right to demand war reparations from Japan.

"The case shows that lawsuits demanding compensation are facing even bleaker prospects," Tong said.

The CRCF and the CFDC initiated the aid campaign for WWII victims on June 10. They wanted to financially help victims of Japan's notorious bacterial war, sufferers of chemical weapons abandoned in China, and women who were forced to be sex slaves for the Japanese army.

Statistics show an estimated 200,000 "comfort women" were forced to serve as sex slaves in China for the Japanese forces during the war.

(Xinhua News Agency July 23, 2007)