Wartime sex slaves' compensation bid rejected

An appeal by four elderly Chinese women forced to become sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during World War Two was rejected today by a court in Japan that said the current government wasn’t responsible for the atrocities committed by wartime rulers.

The four women, aged from 77 to 81, from China’s Shanxi province, filed the original suit in 1995, seeking 20 million yen (around €140,000) in damages and an official apology. They said they were repeatedly raped by Japanese soldiers posted in China during the war.

A lower court rejected the plaintiffs’ demands, saying individuals had no right to seek state compensation in Japan. The four plaintiffs have since appealed.

The Tokyo High Court upheld the earlier ruling, court spokesman Koji Suwabe said.

Japan’s military shipped thousands of women from Korea, China and other Asian countries during World War II to provide sex for Japanese troops. Historians say some 200,000 women were forced into sexual slavery.

It was only in the early 1990s that Tokyo acknowledged its military was involved in setting up and running brothels for its troops.

In today’s ruling, the court acknowledged the wartime government’s role in sexual slavery and the women’s trauma.