Suit Planned in China for 9-B.-Yuan War Reparations from Japan

Beijing, July 13 (Jiji Press)--Residents in China's Hebei Province are preparing to lodge a suit against the Japanese government for 6 billion yuan in reparations for the Sino-Japanese war, a Chinese activist said Sunday. Some1,200 residents in the province in northern China eye the suit over the former Japanese military's murder of residents in a village in the province in 1941, Tong Zeng, chairman of the Chinese Association for Claiming Compensation from Japan, told Jiji Press over the phone. About 30 of the residents including the bereaved family members of those killed plan to join a group of plaintiffs as representatives at first, Tong said. The suit will be filed with a court in the province, but the timing has yet to be determined, according to him. In China, a court in Beijing accepted a suit in March against two Japanese companies by Chinese for damages for wartime forced labor in Japan. Moves to lodge similar suits are spreading in the country. Tong supports such suits. END