52th Year of Soul Searching
On Sept. 17, 1987, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Redress Bill HR442 for the wrongful internment of Japanese American during WWII :
1. Acknowledge that the internment order violated basic civil liberties
and constitutional rights.
2. Make a formal apology to the Japanese American for the internment.
3. US $1.37 billion in compensation - $20,000 to each survivor.
4. US $50 million fund to educate the American public about the internment.
In 1988, the Japanese Canadian also successfully managed to get
1. A formal apology from Canadian government to Japanese Canadian.
2. Canadian $291 million compensation fund - $21,000 each in compensation.
3. Canadian $50 million educational fund.
However, Cliff Chadderton, chairman of the National Council of Veteran Associations in Canada, has been trying unsuccessfully for the past 12 years to get compensation from Japan for the Canadian PoW since 1985. The PoW were captured by the Japanese on the Christmas Day 1941 in Hong Kong. They spent four years of extreme hardship as slave labourers. Many died in the Japanese prison camps. Mr. Chadderton said, "It is a legal debt owed by the Japanese".
Dec. 12, 1998 Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy said Canada has lobbied Japan unsuccessfully on the subject for some time. The government decided that time was too important for the aging vets to waste it on prolonged legal fights, so it paid up on its own to each PoW Cad $24,000.
During the 14 years brutal WWII invasion into China, Japan not only manufactured huge quantity of WMD Biological Weapons, it also mass produced WMD Chemical Weapons by its top-secret Chemical Weapons research facility Unit 615. Japan had used these destructive weapon in more that 2,000 battles against the Chinese and caused great civilian casualties. It has been estimated that 700,000 - 2,000,000 Chemical Bombs most of them loaded with mustard gas and many of them corroded and leaking, are still scattered in China.
Tokyo finally acknowledged the existence of WMD Chemical Weapon Unit 516 and is now helping to preventing the disaster, on the quiet. But Japan's efforts already come too late for approx. 2000 Chinese had already been injured by these abandoned deadly WMD Chemical Weapons.
On Feb. 9 1997, as a signatory of Chemical Weapons Convention banning chemical weapons, Japanese government finally proposed that it may plan to build a large factory in Northern China to destroy these deadly weapons. After the treatment the extreme poisonous solid remainder - Arfrodic must be transported back to Japan for disposal. So far there is no concrete agreement. International chemical weapon prevention organization has pressed Japanese government to cleanup the weapons in 5 years, but the Japanese government said may need 10 years due to the large quantity of these deadly WMD Chemical Weapons. According to UN regulation, the chemical weapon must be destroyed by 2007.
Many deaths resulted e.g. owing to the poison gas released while dredging the Songhua River in Heilongjiang Province, and poison gas leaked out during sewerage construction on Guanghua Avenue in Mudanjiang City etc. Victims of these deadly WMD Chemical Weapons are now suing Japanese government and demanding compensation. The will be hearing in Tokyo court in July, 1997.
On Feb. 12, 1997 Mrs. Li XouYing, a Nanjing Massacre survivor, who is now 79 years old, tearfully recalled in the Tokyo court about the atrocities she had suffered 60 years ago : She was 19 years old with 7 months pregnancy. To avoid being raped, she forcefully smashed her head against the brick wall determined to suicide. She didn't die but fainted. After she woke up, she found herself lying on a cot. Then a Japanese soldier came to rape her. She again fought fiercely. Other soldiers came and used their bayonets keep stabbing her again, again and again for a total of 37 times during the fight. She lost her 7 months old fetus. She was later rescued by Mr. Magee and miraculously she survived. Magee used his camera and recorded her terrible conditions on film.
The 20-minutes film is now being used as the proof in the lawsuit against the Japanese government. Ms. Li and 9 others including some 731 survivors went to Tokyo to testify. "Japanese Government MUST apologize and compensate for the massacre." demanded 79 years old Mrs. Li in the court, "I want the whole world to known that it was such an In-human War." Their trip to Japan was organized and sponsored by a group of 200 courageous and conscientious Japanese lawyers, scholars and others so that the Japanese can be better educated through the court hearing.
The lawsuit is supported by the Society to Support the Demands of Chinese War Victims (SuoPei). Other SuoPei cases are:
* Forced Relocation to Japan, and Forced Labor
* Comfort Women
* Pingdingshan Incident: 3,000 people were massacred in Liaoning Province. The pretext for this slaughter was reprisal for cooperating with guerrillas in the resistance movement.)
* Abandoned Poison Gas and Bombs
On March 20, 1997 the U.S. Justice Department added 17 more names to the "Watch List" (Holtzman Amendment) barring these Japanese War criminals from ever entering U.S.
On March 27, 1997 the Center for Internee Rights (CFCIR, Inc.), representing former PoWs and civilian internees brutalized by Japanese forces, turned over 100 additional names of suspected Japanese war criminals to the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. the "Watch List" (Holtzman Amendment) has more than 60,000 Nazis, Austrian, and Italian war criminals , but has only 33 Japanese names added since 1996.
On June 27 1997, Frits Kalshoven, a legal expert, Dutch professor emeritus at the University of Leiden, the Netherlands, appeared as an expert in international humanitarian law suit filed by 46 former Philippine sex slaves in 1993 seeking 20 million yen each in damages for being forced to serve as "Comfort Women" during WWII.
The Japanese government insisted that individual war victims cannot sue a state based on international law and the postwar peace treaties have already settled the issue. Kalshoven pointed out that Article 3 of the Hague Convention of 1907 clearly implies, although it doesn't spell out, that individuals have rights to claim compensation against a state.
On June 23 1997, Kalshoven also appeared as an expert witness in another damages suit in which 8 former Dutch PoWs and civilian internees, are demanding 2.2 million yen each.
Chinese citizens have for years been barred by their government from making claims for compensation from Japan. The number of surviving victims has continued to fall. The few alive are now more than 80 years old.
In July, 1997 the Nanjing municipal government finally decided to trace massacre survivors, victims and witnesses. With the help of 10 thousand high school students including some Japanese student reps from 14 schools of Japan as summer camp activity, about 2630 survivors were found. The Nanjing City Notary Association also issued them with certificates in batches. Hope the Nanjing government will soon do more to help survivors in their endeavor to obtain justice.
On July 25 1997, Resolution HCR 126, condemning Japan for its atrocities in WWII is also being introduced by Congressman Lipinski, Stump, and others. It calls for the Japanese government to :
1. Formally issue a clear and unambiguous apology.
2. Immediately pay compensation to all the victims of Japanese WWII war crimes.
The bill was cosponsored by 78 members of House of Representatives. Over 12,000 petitions had been gathered from every State in the Union in support of this legislation and over 50 veterans and military and human rights organizations are supporting HCR 126. Although it did not pass in the 105th Congress, a similar resolution will be introduced as soon as the 106th Congress is started in 1999.
On August 11 1997, 108 Chinese filed a law suit involving the former Japanese Imperial Army's germ warfare in Tokyo District Court demanding $9.39 million compensation and apologies from the Japanese government. This was the latest in a series of court cases against Japanese WWII crimes. Kouken Tsuchiya, the plaintiffs' chief lawyer, said they needed such long time to gather evidence before filing suit because the Japanese government had covered up the germ warfare. The Japanese Imperial Army carried out germ warfare despite a ban under the 1925 Geneva convention.
On Sept 22, 1997, Japanese steelmaker, Nippon Steel Corp. and the families of 11 Koreans have reached an out-of-court settlement for a lawsuit filed 2 years ago for using them as forced labor during WWII. The company will pay more than $163,000 in "condolence money" to each of the victims. "We are not completely happy with the settlement, but we wanted to focus more on the positive side -- the fact that a Japanese company is paying money for the victims and their memorial services," Akihiko Oguchi said. The families, however, plan to continue their legal fight against the Japanese government. Nippon Steel and many other corporate giants today, have said they only operated under government orders. Companies, including NKK Corp., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Kajima Corp., face similar lawsuits.
In Germany, the Federal Compensation Law for slave labour were established in 1953. Claims are valid for damage to health, persecution and for being kept in prison-like conditions.
On Oct 7, 1997, 37 Japanese lawyers and scholars of a group established earlier this year, including lawyer Koken Tsuchiya, the former head of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, Hosei University Professor Yoko Tajima and novelist Ayako Miurars, will push for legislation that would make Japanese government directly compensate foreign WWII victims. The group will urge a nonpartisan group of Diet members to introduce 2 bills, One bill would be aimed at investigating "violations of international humanitarian law" committed by the Japan before and during WWII. The other would enable a provisional payment by the government to the comfort women.
Nov. 1997, South Korean National Assembly decided to prohibit entry of war criminals into South Korea.
On Dec. 10, 1997 the Tokyo District Court dismissed a lawsuit filed by Chinese former slave laborers during WWII. The lawyer Takashi Niimi said the group will appeal. In February, Judge Sonobe angered the plaintiffs when he, during an oral hearing, suddenly announced that the court would wrap up its deliberations without questioning the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs immediately filed for dismissal of the judges, but the Tokyo High Court rejected the motion. "An unjust ruling like this has not only hurt the Hanaoka victims," he said, "but also has downgraded the credibility and dignity of the Japanese justice system."
The plaintiffs claim that 986 Chinese were forcibly brought from China to Hanaoka copper mine in Akita and were slaved into hard labor for Kajima-gumi, the predecessor of Kajima Corp. In June 1945, the Chinese revolted and were soon rounded up and tortured. In the end, 113 Chinese died by torture. They sued the giant construction firm in June 1995, demanding 5.5 million yen each in damages for malnutrition, slave labor and torture.
53th Year of Soul Searching
On Jan 12, 1998 Japan tried to apologize to Britain to smooth the visit of Emperor Akihito to Britain in May, for the suffering of prisoners during WWII. Japan also offered 1.3 million fund for the grandsons of the British PoWs to study in Japan for 1 year. But the veterans in both England and Canada rejected it as too little and too late. "There are several ways in which you can say sorry in Japanese without in any way apologizing. If it is not the form of Japanese that says, 'We apologize' [i.e. use more sincere word " shazai ", NOT less sincere word "owabi"], I say so what ?" said Roger Cyr. " They were waiting for us to die then and they are waiting for us to die now." said Arthur Titherington.
On the very same day, Germany agreed to establish a fund of 200 million marks to compensate Jewish victims in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. They were barred from receiving the substantial compensation because of Cold War politics. Payments will be released over a period of 4 years starting in 1999.
In Hong Kong, Mr. Ng Yat-Hing, the chairperson of the Hong Kong Reparation Association, tells another fact that from 1941 to 1945, HK was under the control of Japanese Imperial Army. During this dark period, all other currencies were forbidden except the Japanese Military Yen, called Gunpyo. HK residents were forced to hand out their HK and foreign currency, gold, jewelry etc to exchange the Military Yen. Whoever disobeyed were executed. All the gold and valuables were either shipped back to Japan or used to buy military materials. The exchange rate at that time was 2 to 4 HK dollars for 1 Military Yen. After the war, the Military Yen immediately became worthless paper. Many families had become broke over night. For decades, the Association has been unsuccessfully demanding the Japanese government to take the responsibility of exchanging the Military Yen which totals 540 million, now valued at about US $1.28 Billion, back to HK dollars. In August 1993, they filed a law suit with the Tokyo District Court. There has been 28 hearings in the Japanese court. The Japanese government is still trying to forgo its duty.
On June 17, 1999 the Tokyo District Court rejected their request. Presiding Judge Seiichiro Nishioka acknowledged that the exchange of HK dollars with Military Yen was compulsory. He said, "Whether the plaintiffs should be compensated is not a matter to be decided by the courts but one to be decided by the Diet." "We are not demanding for war compensation, we are demanding Japan to pay back their legal debt", said Mr. Ng. "The Japanese government's fraudulent act of reneging on its debts will remain in history." Japanese courts rejected a similar claim filed by a Taiwanese woman on her military yen in the early 1980s.
On March 12, 1998, the Japanese Supreme Court will rule : In 1987, Mr. Shiro Azuma, a retired Japanese soldier, published "My Nanking Platoon" a diary describing his days in Nanjing. It described criminal acts committed by the Japanese Imperial Army which included savage killings, malicious rapes and countless war atrocities. Mituharu Hashimoto and his former officer Hideo Mori claimed the diary is a collection of lies. The Tokyo Lower Court ruled against Azuma. Mr. Azuma wrote in his recent letter, "On March 12, 1998 exactly at 2 pm, I will testify in the Supreme Court, and I will tell the truth of the Nanjing Massacre. The seats for the public hearing will, without doubt, be filled with the Kaikosha Society, the group of the old Japanese Imperial army officers...... I am 86 year old now, but I will fight to death like a young man, but this time is not for the Emperor but for the Justice and the History."
On 23 Dec. 1998 Dismissing the appeal, presiding Judge Koetsu Okuyama of the Tokyo High Court said Azuma's diary describes some Imperial Japanese Army actions that cannot be recognized as fact. Expressing strong disapproval of the ruling, Azuma's lawyers said they will appeal the case to the Supreme Court.
On Apr. 6, 1998, a US $11 millions movie " Pride - The Fateful Moment" about Tojo's trial and execution was released by Toei Co. in Japan. Gen. Hideki Tojo, a class-A war criminal, was Japan's prime minister in 1941 and gave the go-ahead for the attack on Pearl Harbor. He stepped down in 1944 to take responsibility for the fall of Saipan. The movie's cast said they wanted to correct what they called misconceptions. Tojo, they said, took Japan to war in self-defense and to liberate Asia from control by white Western colonizers.
The growing popularity of such views here can be seen by the crowds that lined up to see the movie, making it one of the top-grossing domestic films of last year with proceeds of $169 million. By contrast, only a handful of theaters dared to show "Nanjing 1937," a Chinese film released at almost the same time. Right-wing protesters even slashed the screen at a Tokyo theater where the film was shown.
On Apr. 21, 1998 failing to give any specific arguments or evidence Kunihiko Saito, the Japanese Ambassador to Washington took the extraordinary move of attacking the international best selling book The Rape of Nanking - The Forgotten Holocaust of WWII.
In addition, Saito sternly warned members of the US House of Representatives not to sponsor the HCR 126. The bill currently has 63 cosponsors and various victims groups and veterans groups are pushing for its passage prior to the adjournment of the 105th Congress. Over 12,000 petitions have been gathered from every State in the Union in support of this legislation and over 50 veterans and military and human rights organizations are supporting HCR 126.
Rabbi Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center wrote a protest letter to Japanese Ambassador Saito for failing to provide "any specific details to back up your serious allegations." In April 28 reply to the rabbi's letter, Ambassador Saito merely quoted from the war apology read by then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama on Aug. 15, 1995 and offer no specific back up for his allegations. But the apology in 1995 was not passed by Japanese parliament.
On Apr 27, 1998 calling the army's actions an example of sexual and ethnic discrimination and a "fundamental violation of human rights", Japan's Yamaguchi District Court Judge Hideaki Chikashita ruled that Japan must compensate the 3 South Korean women forced into sexual slavery during WWII with $2,300 each. The lawsuit was filed in 1992 by 10 women who demanded about $4.2 million in compensation for the pain they had suffered. However, the court rejected claims by 7 of the women, who had demanded in the same lawsuit that the Japanese government pay them for being slaved to work during the war. Seita Yamamoto, attorney for the 3 women, said he would appeal for more money and apology. Some are outraged," he said. Still, he called the ruling a big step in the right direction.
Japanese government has refused to compensate individual war victims, arguing that postwar treaties settled all wartime claims. Japan has paid $760,000 to former sex slaves, but through a privately funded body "Asian Women's Fund" so it could skirt admitting official responsibility. Many women have refused to accept money from the fund, which they say reflects Japan's failure to show true remorse for its wartime actions. Japanese government spokesman Kanezo Muraoka called the ruling "regrettable". Both the Japanese Foreign Ministry in Tokyo and the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Seoul declined comment. The ruling is likely to profoundly affect other 5 pending cases and encourage others to file similar lawsuits.
On May 26, 1998 Japanese Emperor Akihito visited England while survivors of PoW turned their backs and booed the newly arrived Emperor. Some protesters whistled Colonel Bogey, the tune associated with the film Bridge on the River Kwai. Many wore red gloves to symbolize the blood they said was on Japan's hands. They were seeking $22,800 compensation and an sincere apology.
June 22 1998 Author Iris Chang has challenged to a public debate six Japanese scholars who say the 1937 "Rape of Nanking" never happened. "These revisionists are engaged in a second rape of Nanking - the Rape of History," she said. Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which tracks Nazi war criminals, likened Japanese revisionists to those who say that accounts of the Nazi Holocaust were fictionalized or exaggerated. "Japan cannot be trusted as a member of the community of nations until it once and for all, sincerely and genuinely, apologizes for its deeds during World War II -- beginning with Nanking," Cooper said.
June 25, 1998 Yoshio Shinozuka, Takemitsu Ogawa and Shiro Azuma are all aging Japanese veterans who repeatedly have admitted participating in WWII atrocities, and wanted to bring their quest for redemption to the US and Canada. Mr. Shiro Azuma got a severe cold and abandoned his plan to go abroad. Ironically US and Canada barred Shinozuka from entering the country due to their past war crimes.
The US Justice Department barred Shinozuka as a result of a 1996 decision to add suspected Japanese war criminals to the "Watch List" (Holtzman Amendment), which contained names of more than 60,000 Nazi, Austrian, and Italian war criminals. But has only 33 Japanese names added since 1996.
Shinozuka argued that those like himself who want to tell the truth about war crimes should not be on the "Watch List".
Saburo Ienaga, a professor of Japanese history who has battled with mixed success to get Japanese high school textbooks to include the facts of the country's conduct in World War II, suspects that the U.S. government fears Shinozuka's testimony would embarrass American officials. "He will cause them problems, not because of what he did, but because of what he knows."
They were scheduled to take part in a historical tour called "The Forgotten Holocaust of WWII in Asia." and forum of "A Glimpse of Reconciliation-Unit 731 Photo Exhibition". It was organized by The Global Alliance for Preserving the History of WWII in Asia. It traveled five cities: Toronto, New York, Washington, D.C., Vancouver and San Francisco from late June to early July. Mr. Koken Tsuchiya, a senior lawyer from Tokyo, was leading the delegation. He is also the chief attorney for the lawsuit of 108 Chinese germ warfare victims against the Japanese government.
Of the 3 eyewitness, only Dr. Takemitsu Ogawa was allowed to enter into the US to give his testimony. In recalling the basis of Japanese military training, Ogawa explained that it was a training of killing with the three-all policy: kill all, burn all, and loot all. Even with the thorough education system at the time to brainwash the Imperial soldiers, many were not psychologically fit to kill and developed autonomic ataxia with symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhea, abnormal fever, incontinent urine, asthma, spasm, paralysis of one side of the body, etc.
"The soldiers knew that if they deserted the three-all order, they would be shot dead. In those extreme situations, they showed abnormal symptoms - that was extreme autonomic ataxia," Ogawa explained. One of "The soldier was so afraid to return to the battlefield that he killed himself." Ogawa's testimony sheds light on Japan's experience on the war -something that its government and people had for a long time kept silent about.
July 31 1998, Japanese new agriculture minister Shoichi Nakagawa, who is opposed to describing Japan's wartime atrocities in school textbooks, said that Asian women may not have been forced to work as sex slaves in Japanese army brothels during WWII. A few hours later, he retracted them. "They were forcibly recruited," He said at a later news conference. The new Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi played down the incident.
In the past Japanese cabinet ministers have frequently made similar public comments DENYING atrocities Japan committed during WWII, with some losing their posts over the statements. As in January 1997, Seiroku Kajiyama, a LDP contender for the premiership, claimed that "comfort women" had provided sex to Japanese troops "for money."
Feb. 1999 Nobukatsu Fujioka, a professor at Tokyo University and the chairman of the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform which aims to erase all Japan's atrocities from text book, "Comfort women were not sexual slaves" said the professor. They were simply prostitutes taken to war zones by private brokers," Fujioka told a luncheon at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan.
August 23, 1998 Banned from entering North America, 4 Japanese veterans made a global Internet Web Apology over a satellite video link to panelists at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. Click here to view and listen to the testimonies of Japanese Witnesses.
Hakudo Nagatomi said he had witnessed part of the weeks of slaughter from late 1937 to early 1938 at Nanking. Later, as a member of the Imperial Army's tokumu kikan (intelligence force) in China, he had "burned to death" two children inside their house, a crime for which their mother confronted him at a trial in China after the war. "I am so sorry," said Nagatomi, weeping. "I would like a judge to punish me. That is the only way I can repent."
Two of the other Japanese veterans Shiro Azuma and Yoshio Shinozuka, had both been denied entry in June to the US and Canada for their suspected involvement in "crimes against Humanity. Azuma has become well-known in Japan for publishing a diary he kept as a soldier in Nanking that details atrocities. He has since been threatened many times by rightists in Japan, and accused of libel and fabrication by other Army veterans, including his former platoon commander, who are suing him in court. Azuma said he had personally bayonetted to death 37 Chinese civilians, "old men and women, some cradling children in their arms, just like potatoes on a skewer."
Shinozuka, a member of the Imperial Army's infamous "Unit 731" said he took part in the mass cultivation of fleas to carry bubonic plague, and of typhoid, paratyphoid, cholera, plague and anthrax germs. He also took part in the live vivisection of five Chinese prisoners who had been infected with plague germs to test their deadly efficacy. At Unit 731, Shinozuka and his colleagues would dismissively refer to these guinea pigs by their code name--"maruta" (logs).
A former co-member of the Unit 731 "youth corps," Kanetoshi Tsuruta said he also took part in the Nomonhan offensive, dumping liquid from an oil drum into a river which had been laced with typhoid bacilli.
Sheldon Harris, professor emeritus of history at California State University and author of the book, "Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare 1932-45 and the American Cover-up" stressed the enormous scale of Japan's top-secret biological warfare (BW) effort and of the atrocities committed in the process. "My calculation, which is very conservative, and based on incomplete sources as the major archives are still closed, is that 10,000 to 12,000 human beings were exterminated in lab experiments. Most were wiped out in four to six weeks, but sometimes it took 6 months," Harris told the satellite conference.
In addition, BW "field tests were carried out all over China including Manchuria," in which "a quarter of a million innocent people were wiped out ... This was a massive undertaking by the entire Japanese scientific community of the time," Harris told the global audience, "there were BW laboratories in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanking, Singapore, Rangoon and Bangkok," he said.
"The U.S. government is as culpable for inaction as Japan, and the Canadian, British, Dutch and Australian governments knew about it ... While the US "bears a major responsibility" for the coverup of Unit 731, the greater responsibility lies with Japanese."
Tokyo panelist Koken Tsuchiya, the chief lawyer for 108 Chinese victims and relatives of victims of Japanese biological warfare, said, "I am embarrassed as a Japanese by the attitude of the Japanese government of not revealing, on its own, information about BW activity and issuing an apology."
Akira Fujiwara, emeritus professor of history at Hitotsubashi University, added, "There are still politicians in Japan today who deny that the Imperial Army committed atrocities in Nanking. Those who speak out against the atrocities at Nanking receive threatening letters from rightists .... Like Auschwitz symbolizes the atrocities committed during the war by the Nazis, so does Nanking symbolize the worst atrocities committed by the Japanese Army"
Sept 22, 1998 Following Volkswagen's lead, Siemens announced its own plans for a 20 million mark fund to compensate former slave laborers forced to work for the company by the Nazis during WWII, in addition to the 7.2 million marks it had paid to the Jewish Claims Conference in 1961 to provide humanitarian help for the victims. Along with Siemens and Volkswagen, Krupp, Daimler-Benz, Audi and BMW are named in a New York lawsuit seeking a portion of the company profits for thousands of former slave laborers.
Oct. 9, 1998 The Tokyo District Court rejected claims by 46 Filipinas who said they should be compensated for being forced into prostitution by the Japanese military during WWII. The judge ruled against the women saying they could make no individual claims against a nation without international laws to support the action. Lawyers for the women argued that the 1907 Hague Convention requires a nation to pay compensation if it violates the terms of the convention.
The ruling is in stark contrast to two special reports issued by the United Nations that have proposed that Tokyo compensate individuals forced into sex slavery during WWII. official report, submitted by the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women by Radhika Coomaraswamy, on the wartime Sex Slavery, report by International Commision of Jurists, Geneva Comfort Women : An Unfinished Ordeal, and also another report by Special Rapporteur Ms. Gay J. McDougall in 1998 : Systematic Rape, Sexual Slavery and Slavery-like practices during armed conflict.
Oct. 9, 1998 Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi issued his country's apology which was more sincere than those made in the past to the South Korean people for its 35 years of wartime brutal colonial rule. A joint declaration made by Obuchi and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, said Obuchi "expressed deep remorse and extended a heartfelt apology to the people of South Korea, having humbly accepted the historical fact that Japan inflicted heavy damage and pain on the people of South Korea through its colonial rule." But he made no mention of sex slaves. It was the first written apology ever issued to an individual country by Japan for its actions before and during WWII.
The South Korean leader promised Obuchi a gradual opening up to Japanese cultural imports, banned since the Japanese occupation ended in 1945. Japanese movies, popular songs and even cars are prohibited in South Korea. Obuchi offered Kim a loan package to beat its economic downtrun. Many insisted that Japan must pay compensation to the "comfort women".
Nov. 26 1998 Chinese President Jiang Zemin arrived in Tokyo for a six-day visit, becoming the first Chinese head of state to set foot in Japan. However, Japan's inability to apology for its wartime crimes to China was back onstage in a big way. This suggests a sinister failure by Tokyo to renounce its past or to mend its ways. It also casts doubt on the sincerity of previous Japanese attempts to apologize to its neighbours. It also reflects the power of right-wing groups within and outside Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
At the same time, the Tokyo District Court tersely rejected a lawsuit filed in 1995 by WWII PoWs and civilian internees demanding an apology and US $22,000 compensation for each detainee. "I spit on the doorstep of the Diet. There's no justice in this country." Arthur Titherington, a former PoW said after the ruling. "Germany has been able to mollify the world about its wartime past because they didn't hide things, like Japan did," Yasuo Kurata said.
Nov. 30 1998 The Tokyo District Court dismissed a damages suit filed in 1994 by seven Dutch men imprisoned by Japanese military forces and a Dutch woman forced into Sex Slavery during WWII, seeking $22,000 each in compensation. Lawyers for the plaintiffs had argued that Article 3 of the 1907 Hague Convention allows individual victims of war to claim damages from the nation whose armed forces violated rules of war, such as humanitarian treatment of PoWs and respect for the life and rights of residents in the occupied territories. Presiding Judge Taichi Kajimura acknowledged both the inhuman brutal treatment against the plaintiffs and its illegality. Nevertheless, he dismissed the plaintiffs' claims for compensation, saying international law does not give individuals the right to seek redress for suffering during war. The government maintained that the Hague Convention, which Japan ratified in 1911, stipulates state-to-state relations and cannot be applied to individuals.
The recognition of both the inhumane brutal treatment against the plaintiffs and its illegality "is very important -- in relation to the Hague Convention of 1907," said plaintiff Gerard Jungslager "We are going to appeal because individuals' rights have not yet been recognized.... However, the most important step is that the first step has been set in the right direction."