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Nanjing Massacre survivor wins defamation case
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-01-22 11:02
![Li Xiuying, survivor of the Nanjing massacre in 1937 in which over 300,000 were killed by Japanese invaders, holds a red candle to commemorate the victims in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu Province in this file photo. She died on December 4, 2004 before she won the defamation case against a right-wing Japanese writer. [newsphoto]](xin_0601022211060921370611.jpg)
Li Xiuying,
survivor of the Nanjing massacre in 1937 in which over 300,000 were killed
by Japanese invaders, holds a red candle to commemorate the victims in
Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu Province in this file photo. She died on
December 4, 2004 before she won the defamation case against a right-wing
Japanese writer. [newsphoto] | The Supreme Court
of Japan upheld Thursday a prior verdict where Nanjing Massacre survivor, Li
Xiuying, successfully sued a right-wing Japanese writer for defamation.
Five judges rejected the appeal of Matsumura Toshio and maintained the
previous verdict of the Supreme Court of Tokyo. The verdict declares that Toshio
will pay Li 1.5 million yen, said Li's lawyer, Watanabe Harumi, in a telegraph
to the museum commemorating victims of the Nanjing Massacre, Friday.
Li passed away before the decision was made, on December 4 in 2004.
"It's a late judgment," said Li's daughter Lu Qi, "my mother did not live
long enough to see this day."
"When we get the judgment paper, we nine sisters and brothers will take it to
my mother's tomb to comfort her soul at rest," Lu said.
"The lawsuit is not a personal feud, but a battle for justice. The right-wing
Japanese should face history and stop denying the war crimes," said Zhu
Chengshan, a researcher with the museum commemorating victims of the Nanjing
Massacre.
Li made her name known throughout China for her courage and perseverance, as
she stood up against the writer who called her a "false" war witness in his
book: "The Big Question in the Nanjing Massacre."
The Supreme Court of Tokyo gave the verdict in May 2002 that Toshio should
compensate Li 1.5 million yen, but did not support Li's appeal for a public
apology. Both parties were not satisfied and appealed. The court upheld the
verdict in the second trial in April 2003.
In December 1937, 300,000 Chinese civilians were brutally killed by Japanese
invaders after the fall of Nanjing, the then capital of the Kuomintang
government.
Li Xiuying was pregnant at the time and suffered 37 stabs from Japanese
soldiers. Thanks to timely medical treatment by an American doctor named Robert
Wilson, Li survived, but lost her baby.
The crime perpetrated against Li was recorded at the time in a documentary
made by American priest John Magee and "The Good Man of Nanking: The Diaries of
John Rabe," as well as in the diaries, letters of some other Western witnesses
of the massacre.
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