Japanese court overturns compensation for WWII forced laborer News
Japanese court overturns compensation for WWII forced laborer

[JURIST] The Tokyo High Court [official site in English] overturned a 2001 Tokyo District Court ruling on Thursday that awarded compensation to the family of a Chinese man who was forcibly brought to Japan as a laborer during World War II. The lower court originally ordered compensation not for labor but because the man hid in the mountains of Hokkaido for 13 years after the war had ended. The ruling was overturned [Kyodo News report] on the grounds that there was no duty to find or rescue him, and there was no agreement on redress between the two nations. The Japanese government holds that individual claims for compensation were settled by a 1972 diplomatic agreement. A similar Japanese ruling in April that victims of atrocities in occupied China were not entitled to compensation [JURIST report] strained relations between the two countries. Reuters has more.