Top court rejects 2 suits on poison gas left in China by Japanese army

+

TOKYO, May 26 Kyodo -
The Supreme Court turned down on Tuesday appeals by a total of 22 Chinese
plaintiffs in two separate suits who sought damages from the Japanese
government for their sufferings caused by poisonous gas munitions left behind
by the Imperial Japanese Army in China at the end of World War II.
Justice Tokiyasu Fujita, who presided over the top court's third petty bench,
ruled against the Chinese victims of chemical weapons and their bereaved family
members, denying the responsibilities of the Japanese government.
In September 2003, the Tokyo District Court handed down a landmark ruling that
ordered the Japanese state to pay a total of some 190 million yen in
compensation in one of the two suits.
The district court said Japan ''could have provided information and enabled the
Chinese government to dispose of the weapons more speedily and safely'' even
though the weapons were out of reach of its sovereignty power after the war.
But the decision was overturned by the Tokyo High Court in July 2007, which
said it ''cannot acknowledge a strong probability that the Japanese government
could have prevented the incidents.''
The high court said, however, it expects Tokyo will adopt ''fair remedies based
on comprehensive political judgment'' for the victims.
In the other case, the plaintiffs' damages claim had been rejected by both
district and high courts.
Of the Chinese victims, some suffered aftereffects from inhaling poisonous gas
at construction sites in China's Heilongjiang Province, and others died from
the explosion of a shell abandoned by the Japanese military in the country. The
incidents occurred between 1950 and the 1990s, according to the high court.
Attorneys for the Chinese plaintiffs said two similar damages suits are pending
at the Tokyo District Court.
==Kyodo
2009-05-26 21:52:28