Japanese court rejects compensation for China war orphans

TOKYO: A Japanese court refused on Friday to grant compensation to orphans left behind in China after World War II, the third time such claims have been dismissed.

Thousands of Japanese children were abandoned in China when the Japanese occupiers were defeated in 1945 and their parents either were killed or fled.

In the latest case, four orphans aged from 64 to 77 and now living in southern Japan demanded 132 million yen ($1.1 million) in compensation, saying the government failed to swiftly repatriate and care for them.

They returned to Japan between 1982 and 1995 and speak little Japanese.

But Tokushima District Court Judge Masayuki Abe said the Japanese government had implemented measures necessary for their return, although he added that the government's support for repatriated war orphans remains weak.

"It is difficult to acknowledge that the government is carrying out its full responsibility to allow war-displaced people to lead independent lives," the judge said.

The ruling follows similar verdicts from the Tokyo and Osaka district courts, which have dismissed suits by war orphans.

Only the district court in the western city of Kobe ordered the state last December to pay 468 million yen to 61 ageing war orphans, saying the government had let them down.

In total, more than a dozen similar suits have been brought in the Japanese courts.

The rest are pending. Most war orphans were adopted in China and adapted to that country's culture and customs before returning to Japan as adults after the two countries restored relations in 1972.