Court rejects compensation demands of former sex slaves for Japan's army

[dArKeR]

A Japanese court yesterday rejected demands for compensation and an official apology by seven Taiwanese women forced to serve as prostitutes for Japan's army during World War II.

Tokyo High Court Justice Yoshinori Ishikawa upheld a lower court decision turning down the women's demands for 70 million yen (US$662,000) in damages, court spokesman Katsuhiko Saito said.

The lower court said in its October 2002 ruling that Japanese and international laws do not allow individuals to seek such restitution.

http://www.etaiwannews.com/Taiwan/2004/02/10/1076378015.htm

[pop goes the weasel]

There should be greater international pressure

Japan has been allowed to get away with not facing responsibility for the most heinous war crimes. Relations between East Asian nations will remain strained until official apologies and remuneration are extended to the victims of Japanese war time atrocities.

[JaySherman]

1. I'm amazed that they were only suing for $662,000.

The legal fees alone in the U.S. would cost at least that much between the three of them for a high profile case like that.

[madrchsod]

2. caught the" war" channel`s

program on the japans ww2 "medical"experiments on the Chinese civilians and allied soldiers. un-fucking-believable,the usa let the bastard go so we could have the code to decipher the medical data on such things as anthrax,plagues,gases of all descriptions, and other equally evil methods of death. this ruling makes it hard not to say that the japanese still think the chinese are a inferior people..old habits die hard ,i suppose.

[pnorman]

4. Here's a website on those "medical experiments":

http://www.centurychina.com/wiihist/germwar/731rev.htm

After the Surrender, that Unit tried to scatter. The Soviets captured some and tried them as War Criminals. Some were executed, with most of the rest doing time. But the ones who made it back to Japan pretty well got off scot-free (thanks to the Occupation authorities). The head of that Unit 731 (Ishii) got stashed away safely by Gen. Willoughby (McArthur's G2) in a so-called "historical research" outfit. I'll have to dig out my references again, but I believe he ended up as a big-shot in the postwar medical industry. Cold War imperatives triumphed over Humanity. What's new?

pnorman

[pnorman]

3. I'll look it up again

but I seem to recall that the near "free-pass" on wartime atrocities & wartime damage, was part of the so-called "Reverse Course" of the US Occupation Government. That's when the semi-New Deal policies were rolled back, in favor of building Japan up as a strong and strategic Cold-War ally.

pnorman
STAND UP, KEEP FIGHTING http://shows.implex.tv/wellstone/