Ruling On WWII Japan Slave Labor

For the first time, a Japanese court on Friday ordered both the government and a private company to pay compensation to Chinese forced to work as slave laborers during World War II.

Previously, courts have only ordered private companies to pay compensation to such laborers.

The plaintiffs — 10 survivors and two family members of laborers who have since died — said they were taken to Niigata in northern Japan in 1944 as virtual slaves and forced to work at a port under harsh conditions.

They said they were provided a meager amount of food, treated violently and given no salary. They demanded 275 million yen ($2.6 million) in compensation from the government and the company.

The Niigata District Court awarded them a total of 88 million yen ($830,200).

Japanese courts have recently ruled that the government and companies broke the law by using forced labor, but rarely award compensation, citing the expiration of a deadline for filing such claims — usually 20 years under Japanese law.

Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931 and gained territory in China over the following years before its defeat in 1945.