TOKYO, March 29 (Reuters) - A group of 45 elderly Chinese who were taken to
Japan during World War Two for forced labour lost their bid for compensation and
apologies from the Japanese government and two companies in a local court on
Wednesday.
The ruling came at a time when Japan's ties with China are at their worst in
decades, particularly due to Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's annual
visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, where some war criminals are honoured along
with Japan's war dead.
The result was in line with most Japanese rulings on World War Two-related
compensation claims, dozens of which have been filed against the Japanese
government or firms.
"The court rejected all of the plaintiffs' claims," a spokesman for the
Fukuoka District Court in southern Japan said by telephone.
The plaintiffs were seeking about 1 billion yen ($8.5 million) in total
damages from the Japanese government, Mitsui Mining Co. Ltd and Mitsubishi
Materials Corp., Kyodo news agency reported.
According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs were forcibly taken from China to
Japan's Fukuoka prefecture between 1943 and 1944 to work without pay at
locations such as the Mitsui Miike mine and Mitsubishi Iizuka mine, Kyodo said.
The lawsuit, filed in 2003, also demanded that apologies be published in both
Japanese and Chinese newspapers, Kyodo said.
The Japanese government insists that the issue of war reparations was settled
by the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty that formally ended the war and by later
bilateral treaties.
It says all wartime compensation issues concerning China were settled by a
1972 joint statement establishing diplomatic ties.
Resentment lingers in China over Japan's invasion and occupation of parts of
the country from 1931 to 1945.