JAPAN: The Tokyo High Court yesterday acknowledged that the Japanese army had carried out a massacre in China in 1932, but rejected a damage suit filed by three ageing survivors of the atrocity, upholding an earlier decision.
The ruling comes as relations between China and Japan are at their worst in three decades after sometimes-violent anti-Japan demonstrations in China last month over what many Chinese see as Japan's failure to own up to its wartime past.
The three Chinese plaintiffs had demanded 20 million yen (€148,000) each in compensation from the Japanese government, claiming the army had killed their family members and inflicted suffering on them in Fushun in northeast China in September 1932. The suit said the Japanese army had rounded up about 3,000 local residents and killed most of them.
While rejecting the claim for damages, presiding judge Kimio Miyazaki acknowledged that the Imperial Japanese army had carried out the massacre, upholding the landmark ruling in a lower court in 2002.
"In the incident, the accusers suffered considerable psychological pain, and we cannot say Japan has provided sufficient compensation," Judge Miyazaki told the court.
"But war-related compensation issues are diplomatic issues that should be handled by governments." The Japanese government has not admitted the massacre took place.
"The court clearly acknowledged the fact that the massacre had taken place, but it was an unfair ruling and our demands were rejected," said Yang Baoshan (83), a plaintiff who said his parents and younger brother were killed in the incident.
"Japan has neither apologised nor compensated. They have been hiding the true nature of the militarism. That makes me very angry," he said. "On behalf of the spirits of the 3,000 victims, I have appealed for true justice."
Japan's parliament yesterday renamed a national holiday to honour its second World War leader, Emperor Hirohito, a move certain to attract opposition from China and others who view the late monarch as a symbol of militarism. The April 29th holiday, which marked Hirohito's birthday during his reign, will be named "Showa Day".