The Tokyo High Court on Thursday rejected an appeal by six Chinese women and the families of four deceased women seeking damages from the Japanese Government for repeated rapes by Japanese soldiers before and during World War II in China.

As in the lower court ruling, the high court acknowledged that the women, who were in their teens and 20s at the time, were raped by many Japanese soldiers, but rejected the demand for compensation on the ground that the government was not responsible for compensation for state actions according to the old constitution at that time.

A lawyer representing the plaintiffs said they would immediately appeal the high court ruling.

According to the ruling, the 10 women from Shanxi Province in North China were raped between 1940 and 1944 by Japanese soldiers. The women suffered severe physical and mental shock, including the inability to give birth and post-traumatic stress disorder.

The plaintiffs filed the suit in October 1998, seeking damages of 20 million yen (US$186,237) each. Nine of them were alive at the time of filing.

Their claims were rejected by the Tokyo District Court in April 2003 and again by the high court Thursday.

(Shenzhen Daily, Xinhua News Agency April 1, 2005)