Japanese court rejects Koreans' demand for wartime compensation

Ulhas Joglekar ulhasj at bom4.vsnl.net.in
Mon Jan 31 17:21:16 PST 2000


28 January 2000

Japanese court rejects Koreans' demand for wartime compensation TOKYO: A court on Thursday rejected a suit demanding 60 million yen ($571,000) and a state apology for two South Koreans forced to work in a Japanese textile plant during World War II, a court official said. The suit was brought by two Korean women, said Kenji Wada, an official of the Shizuoka District Court in central Japan. He identified them as Sun Cho-kap, 70, and Sun Woo-chong, 70. Wada refused to provide further details, such as whether the two women were related. "The court has found the state not responsible to compensate individuals for illegal deeds of public employees under the old constitution," Kyodo News agency quoted judge Yoshiko Tanaka as saying in the ruling. According to a lawsuit, the two from Pusan, South Korea, were sent to Japan in 1944 at the age of 14 and forced to work long hours at a textile plant in Shizuoka. They returned home after the war ended in 1945. During Japan's harsh pre-1945 colonization of Korea, about 240,000 Koreans were drafted by the Japanese imperial forces and many Koreans were forcibly brought to Japan to work as laborers. The two women filed the suit in April 1997, demanding the Japanese government pay compensation. Many lawsuits have been filed demanding the government apologize and offer redress. Tokyo has repeatedly opposed giving out individual compensation in such cases. (AP) For reprint rights: Times Syndication Service
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