A Japanese district court Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit filed by
former Chinese forced workers and bereaved families, who demanded a
total of 460 million yen (about US$4 million) in compensation from
the Japanese government and related companies for suffering endured
during the Second World War.
The Maebashi District Court in Gunma Prefecture acknowledged
that the plaintiffs suffered great suffering due to wartime forced
labor, but refused to justify their argument that the 1972
Japan-China Joint Communique has no intervention into individuals'
rights for compensation.
The 46 plaintiffs, consisting of 13 former laborers and 33
relatives of seven deceased laborers, vowed to appeal to the Tokyo
High Court.
The 20 former Chinese labors were forcibly taken to Japan by the
then Imperial Japanese Army in 1944 and 1945 and were forced into
hard labor at military-related facilities in Gunma.
The ruling was the latest in a series of dismissals of lawsuits
filed by Chinese citizens for their wartime suffering.
In April, the Japanese high court dismissed a forced labor suit
and a sex slavery suit filed by Chinese sufferers, citing the
ineligibility of Chinese individuals to ask for compensation from
the Japanese side as "the Chinese government gave up such right in
a bilateral statement with Japan in 1972."
(Xinhua News Agency August 30, 2007)
