China on Friday rebuked the Japanese Supreme Court for ruling
that since the Chinese government's waived its right to war
reparations in the Sino-Japanese Joint Statement, this ban also
extended to individual petitions from Chinese citizens.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Liu Jianchao reacted upon being
asked about the Japanese Supreme Court's rejection of a damage
lawsuit filed by Chinese citizens pressed into forced labor by
Japan during World War II.
The court's final ruling on Friday dismissed the five
plaintiffs' demands for an apology and compensation damages of 5.5
million yen (US$46,760) each from Tokyo-based construction
contractor Nishimatsu Construction Co.
The court also ruled that Chinese individuals had no right to
demand war reparations from Japan, based on the wording in
Sino-Japanese Joint Statement, which waives any right from the
Chinese government to seek reparation.
Liu explained that this declaration had been
politically-motivated to help the two countries co-exist
peacefully. He slammed the Japanese judiciary body for once again
disregarding protests lodged by China and said that China strongly
opposes arbitrary interpretations of this article of the joint
statement.
Liu pointed out that Japan's forced enslavement of Chinese
during World War II was both a grave militaristic crime and a
severe human rights issue that remained unresolved.
The lawsuit was originally filed in 1998 by Shao Yicheng, Song
Yicheng and three families of deceased laborers, all of whom were
among some 360 Chinese interned by Nishimatsu Construction into
forced labor at a work camp near Hiroshima during World War II.
The Supreme Court's ruling did account for the suffering of the
forced laborers and called on "concerned people to make efforts to
provide relief to the victims."
Among those press-ganged by Nishimatsu in 1944, 29 laborers died
either from torture or on the voyage back to China after Japan
surrendered in 1945.
The High Court of Hiroshima Prefecture awarded full damages to
the five plaintiffs in July 2004, the first time a Japanese high
court ruled on the side of the plaintiffs in such a case. However,
Nishimatsu appealed to the Supreme Court for a final ruling.
(Xinhua News Agency April 28, 2007)
