WORLD / Asia-Pacific
Japan court rejects claims by WWII laborers
(AP)
Updated: 2007-03-26 15:16
TOKYO - A Japanese court Monday rejected demands for compensation of
about 184 million yen (US$1.56 million) by a group of Chinese forced to
work as slave laborers at a Japanese mine during World War II, a court
official said.
The Miyazaki District court dismissed the suit seeking damages from the
Japanese government and Mitsubishi Metals Corp., formerly Mitsubishi
Metal, that operated the mine in Hinokage on the southern island of
Kyushu during the World War II, said court spokeswoman Tomomi Hirata.
Kyodo News agency quoted judge Yumiko Tokuoka as saying the state has an
obligation to pay damages but the deadline for filing compensation claims
- 20 years under Japanese law - had expired.
The suit was filed by seven Chinese men who said they were among 250
people, mostly from China's Shandong province, who were forcibly brought
to Makimine mine in Hinokage town, 890 kilometers (550 miles) southwest
of Tokyo, toward the end of World War II, according to Kyodo.
A relative of a laborer, who has since died, also joined the suit, it
said.
The plaintiffs charged that Chinese laborers were forced to work under
severe conditions and meager food, and often with no salary.
Seventy-seven of the workers died from illnesses and other causes, Kyodo
quoted them as saying.
Monday's ruling comes nearly two weeks after the Tokyo High Court
overturned a lower court's landmark verdict that held a company and the
government responsible for the World War II conscription of Chinese as
slave laborers.
The Tokyo District Court in 2004 ordered a Japanese company and the
Japanese government to pay plaintiffs damages - the first ruling in Japan
that ordered the state to pay compensation in such a case.
But on March 14, the Tokyo High Court ruled the present government wasn't
accountable for wrongs committed by Japan's wartime leaders, even though
the government and companies had committed an illegal act by bringing the
Chinese to Japan against their will and forcing them to work.
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