Court Rejects Japanese 'War Orphan' Suit

TOKYO -- A court rejected a compensation suit filed against the Japanese government by 40 Japanese who were abandoned in China as children after Tokyo's defeat in World War II, officials said Tuesday.

Many were children of Japanese farmers sent to China's remote northwest to develop land seized by Tokyo. They were left behind by their fleeing parents as Soviet troops closed in at the end of the war in 1945, returning only a decade ago.

The plaintiffs blamed the government for the delay in their return to Japan and for failing to support them when they came back. Now elderly, they say they have struggled in Japan because some are ill and cannot speak Japanese fluently.

In the case, among more than a dozen lawsuits filed by about 2,200 so-called war orphans, the plaintiffs sought $270,000 each in compensation, according to Kyodo News agency. The Tokyo District Court rejected the demands, according to a court official who refused to be named, citing protocol.

"The damage incurred by the plaintiffs was as a result of a war," Kyodo quoted Judge Kenichi Kato as saying. "The state was not responsible for realizing the plaintiffs' early return home and not obliged to provide support to help them become independent."

Keiko Kasamatsu, 65, one of the plaintiffs, said they faced 55 years of hardship in China, and their 10 years back in Japan have been consumed by fighting the lawsuit while trying to make a living.

"But this is my fight for justice and I will keep fighting," she said.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed that the war orphans remain in a difficult situation, despite the court ruling. "We have the responsibility to consider ways to help them," Abe told reporters Tuesday evening.

About 6,300 people returned to Japan after the normalization of ties between the two countries in 1972, including 2,500 who were abandoned in China under the age of 12, according to the Health Ministry.

Most were raised by Chinese who adopted them and were too young to remember their Japanese names or those of their natural parents. Some, however, have been able to reconnect with their families.

In December, the Kobe District Court ordered the government to pay between $54,000 and $189,000 to 61 of 65 plaintiffs. In July 2005, the Osaka District Court rejected a suit filed by 32 war orphans seeking compensation.