Court orders government to pay for damages from poison gas weapons left in China
A court has held that the Japanese government responsible for the damage caused to residents of northeast China by chemical weapons left behind by the Imperial Japanese Army at the end of World War II.
The Tokyo District Court on September 28 ordered the government to pay Chinese victims (or bereaved families) 190 million yen (1.78milliion dollars).
The suit had been filed by 13 residents demanding compensation for the damages, including those caused in 1974 in Jiamusi City in the northeastern Chinese province of Heilongjiang.
The chief judge criticized the Japanese government for neglecting to investigate abandoned weapons and provide information about them to China even after Japan and China restored relations in 1972.
In the ruling, the judge applied the State Redress Law to the case because what the Japanese Army did amounted to the use of state power.
A plaintiff said, "My father for 17 years suffered from the after-effects of the poison from abandoned weapons. I ask the Japanese government not to appeal to the higher court."
A lawyer for the plaintiffs said, "This is a landmark ruling. It should immediately take steps to relieve about 2,000 Chinese victims of Japan's weapons, and remove all weapons abandoned in China."
The lawyers also emphasized that the latest decision will help in settling all the other suits involving Japan's due compensation for its wartime crimes.
In a meeting held in the House of Representatives Building, Hayashi Toshiko of the Japanese Communist Party stated that the JCP will make further efforts to get similar cases solved. (end)
