Kyoto court rejects claim by former forced laborers taken from China

The Kyoto District Court on January 15 rejected a suit filed by former wartime laborers forcibly taken from China who were calling for compensation and an apology by the state and a related mine firm.

The suit was initiated in 1998 by Liu Zonggen, 72, and four other former laborers along with a family of one worker who died, demanding that the state and Nippon Yakin (metallurgy) Kogyo Co. pay a total of 132 million yen in compensation and apologize to them.

The judge stated that the state and the firm had jointly acted illegally, and the firm, which neglected safety measures at the mine, needs to pay the sum unlawfully obtained through the plaintiffs' labor.

However, the ruling rejected the plaintiffs' demand for compensation, saying their right to seek redress had expired under a 20-year statute of limitations. The plaintiffs decided to appeal to a higher court.

The decision, for the first time, rejected the logic that the government could not be held responsible under the Meiji Constitution, because what they did was "not an exercise of state power" but purely "a systematic act by the former Japanese military based on its superior power" with no legal basis. The argument has been used to disclaim compensation by the state.

Commenting on the ruling, the plaintiffs' lawyer Hatanaka Kazuo said, "The ruling is unjustifiable. It goes against the 2002 Fukuoka District Court decision and a previous decision on the Liu Lianren suit."

"However, the decision is epoch-making in that it acknowledged the defendants as having acted illegally and rejected exempting the state from compensating individuals damaged by the exercise of state power. We are resolved to win the case in the high court," he said.

In 1944, about 200 Chinese in Henan Province in China were brought to the Oeyama firm in Kyoto, and thrown into brutal labor conditions for almost one year in the mines, from early morning till late at night with inadequate food and clothing, and without payment.

Before about 100 supporters, Liu said, "The ruling lacks humanity. I wonder how such a decision can be made. For the sake of the 200 Chinese who were forcibly taken from China, I must continue to fight." (end)