Chinese forced laborers, kin appeal rejection of damages suit+

FUKUOKA, March 23 Kyodo - A group of Chinese has appealed a high court ruling that dismissed a damages suit filed against the Japanese government and two Japanese companies for forcing 45 Chinese nationals to work as laborers in Japan during World War II, sources close to the matter said Monday.

The March 9 Fukuoka High Court ruling noted that individual Chinese have no
right to demand war reparations from Japan as the right was abandoned under a
postwar agreement between Tokyo and Beijing, upholding the Fukuoka District
Court's dismissal of the lawsuit.
But the high court at the same time acknowledged that forcibly taking the
Chinese to coal mines in Fukuoka Prefecture and making them work there was an
illegal act committed jointly by the state and the companies.
In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs -- forced laborers and bereaved relatives -- had
demanded that the state, Mitsui Mining Co. and Mitsubishi Materials Corp. pay a
combined 1,035 million yen in compensation.
The high court ruling that individual Chinese have no right to seek war
reparations is in line with a Supreme Court decision made in April 2007.
The top court said then that the right was abandoned under the 1972 Japan-China
Joint Communique, in which Beijing declared it ''renounces its war reparation
from Japan,'' and cannot be exercised at courts.