Families of Chinese victims who were allegedly forcibly taken to Japan during the war filed a complaint with a Chinese court seeking damages from 6 Japanese companies. The complaint was reportedly filed on the 16th with a court in Hebei Province.
The families of 50 Chinese victims who say they were forcibly taken to Japan and subjected to harsh labor during the war filed a complaint with a Chinese court seeking damages from 6 Japanese companies. The victims’ families claim that the Japanese companies did not treat Chinese people as human beings.
According to the complaint, the action was brought before a court in Hebei Province and seeks, among other things, the publication of apology advertisements. One of the plaintiffs cited an apology from the Japanese government and compensation from the companies as minimum demands in the complaint.
An estimated 39,000 Chinese people were forcibly taken to Japan during the war. Since the Japan-China Joint Communiqué, the Japanese side has maintained that the issue of claims has been settled, and plaintiffs have suffered a series of defeats in Japanese courts.
An official involved with the plaintiffs’ group said that proceedings in China depend on the wishes of the Communist Party leadership, and that the focus will be on whether the court accepts the case.