Fury, sympathy over Chongqing Bombing ruling

Chinese plaintiffs, relatives of the victims of the Chongqing Bombing and their lawyers were furious with the verdict delivered on Thursday by the Tokyo High Court.

The court ruled that Japanese warplanes indiscriminately bombed Chongqing, then China's capital, and nearby cities from 1938 to 1944, but relieved the Japanese government of an apology and any compensation demanded by the victims.

In his sixth visit to Tokyo from Chongqing, Su Yuankui, 83, said the Japanese court defied historical facts and international law.

"I struggled out of the piles of dead bodies after Japanese troops bombed our city in 1941. I was seven and a half years old and became homeless," said Su, one of the plaintiffs. Two of them, also in their 80s, were in wheelchairs.

Maeda Tetsuo, chairman of the Tokyo Chapter of the Federation of the Victims of Chongqing Bombing, said the bombardment was a major war crime committed by Japan during its aggression in China during World War II.

Chinese and Japanese troops did not fight on the ground in Chongqing and its adjacent cities such as Chengdu and Leshan, but Japanese bombers attacked residential areas, business areas, schools and hospitals, killing tens of thousands of civilians.

In 2002, more than 500 survivors of the Chongqing Bombing joined hands. From 2006 through 2015, 188 of them filed four lawsuits against the Japanese government, demanding an apology and compensation.

The Tokyo District Court ruled against the 188 plaintiffs in 2015, acknowledging damage caused by the air raids but refusing to recognize the plaintiffs' right to seek compensation.

Twenty-two of the 188 original plaintiffs had passed away by March. The oldest of the survivors is 94.

Chen Guifang, 85, said her parents were killed in the attacks and the family home was destroyed. Left as an orphan, Chen suffered dreadful injuries.

"This episode is inerasable," she added.

Tashiro Hiroyuki, head of the group of attorneys for the Chongqing Bombing plaintiffs, called Thursday's verdict "inhuman". He recommended that lawyers and plaintiffs deliberate new approaches and continue to fight for justice.

The Tokyo High Court's verdict drew attention from some Japanese lawmakers. "The damage Japanese troops did to Chongqing and other cities is irrefutable," Mizuho Fukushima, deputy head of Japan's Social Democratic Party, said. "The SDP wants to work together with the plaintiffs and lawyers for the sake of justice and peace."

The Chinese and Japanese lawyers of the victims of the Chongqing Bombing said the verdict is not the end of the lawsuit, vowing to take further actions including lodging an appeal to the Supreme Court of Japan.

caihong@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 12/15/2017 page11)