Lawyers accused the Japanese government of "inaction" over
legislating state compensations for sex slave atrocities during
World War II.
Sakaguchi Sadahiko from Tokyo-based Johoku Law Office said the
Japanese government is obliged to make a special law on wartime
compensations and its inaction has constituted an obstacle to the
victims' legitimate demand for justice.
Sadahiko made the remarks in Beijing on Friday shortly after the
Tokyo High Court rejected the compensation claim by two Chinese
women who were forced to suffer as teenage sex slaves for Japanese
invading troops during the War of Resistance Against Japanese
Aggression (1937-1945).
Although the presiding Judge Hiromu Emi admitted the wartime sex
slavery gave the plaintiffs severe physical and mental damage, he
refused to support their compensation claim citing a treaty signed
after the war and the statute of limitations.
Sadahiko, who is one of the seven Japanese lawyers representing
the victims, described the ruling as "a great pity," saying it is
an "unjust" verdict.
The wartime atrocities violated human rights and did great
damage to the dignity of the "comfort women," the lawyer
continued.
"We insist that it is totally unacceptable to impose the statute
of limitations upon the issues concerning people's human rights and
dignity," Sadahiko said.
In March 2002, the Tokyo District Court acknowledged that the
Japanese troops forcibly took, confined, beat and raped the two
women, and that they have suffered from post-traumatic stress
disorder ever since.
But it rejected their compensation claims, citing a rule
stipulating that the current government cannot be held responsible
for any acts by the state under the former Constitution of the
Empire of Japan.
Guo Xicui, 79, one of the plaintiffs, turned up at the court on
Friday.
The other plaintiff, Hou Qiaolian, died in 1999 at the age of
70, while the case was still pending.
The Japanese soldiers abducted separately the two victims at the
age of 13 and 15 respectively in 1942 to a military facility where
they were beaten and raped for up to a few months.
They originally filed the lawsuit in 1996 and demanded the
Japanese government to pay them 23 million yen (US$220,000) each in
compensation.
Chinese lawyer Kang Jian said at a news conference on Friday
that the victims' claim is not a matter of demanding compensations,
but is related to how the Japanese government treats history.
"As the number of the living victims is dwindling year on year,
we hope the Japanese government can face the truth as soon as
possible," she said.
(China Daily March 19, 2005)