Ruling delivers more misery to "war orphans'

Homare Endo The Asahi Shimbun Tokyo

On July 6, the Osaka District Court handed down the first ruling in a series of group lawsuits filed by war-displaced Japanese left in China. The suits, which represent 80 percent of those so-called war orphans, have been filed in more than 15 locations. All seek compensation from the central government.

The plaintiffs argue that it was the government's duty to "repatriate the abandoned children as soon as possible" and "help them achieve financial independence." This, however, was not the view of the court. The claims were dismissed and the government was found in no way liable.

It seems to me that the ruling is unjustified. Especially problematic is the decision regarding the state's duty to expedite the war orphans' repatriation.

The ruling concedes it is appropriate to acknowledge that from the time diplomatic ties between Japan and China were normalized on Sept. 29, 1972, the then health minister and his staff were duty-bound to plan and implement policies that promptly facilitated the repatriation of war orphans who wished to come to Japan. Nevertheless, the ruling cleared the former health ministry, including its chief, from any wrongdoing.

I was 4 years old when Japan lost the war. I was living in the city of Changchun in China's Jilin province and had experienced living with large groups of Japanese emigrants who had left the north in favor of moving south.

Under the "sending of the millions" project in 1946, vast numbers of Japanese were sent home from the continent. But with the start of the Chinese civil war between the Communist Party of China and the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) the Japanese exodus was temporarily halted.

Its resumption was further delayed by the beginning of the Korean War after the birth of the People's Republic of China. In 1953, the pullout restarted and continued for several years.

However, those who were able to go to Japan were mostly people with established backgrounds, like technicians and intellectuals and their families.

As one of those family members, I arrived in Japan in 1953. By then, many Japanese were notifying authorities here that many Japanese children had been adopted in China and were being raised as Chinese.

The government knew all along that many Japanese children had been abandoned in China. Even without any "established ties," it must have been perfectly possible to speedily retrieve the children under the repatriation program that resumed in 1953.

We must emphasize that there was no need to wait until 1972.

The recent ruling notes, "There has been no dereliction of duty since the normalization of Japan-China relations."

This is just rhetoric. That the government did not attempt to expedite the repatriation of war orphans before normalization is clearly negligent. I think it can be said that the defendants of the lawsuit totally lacked human morals and conscience. In this sense, the Osaka ruling loses all legitimacy.

Furthermore, the ruling refers to the "duty to help the former war-displaced achieve financial independence" by comparing it to the current North Korean abduction issue, saying the postwar situation "was not conducive to Japan acting like a normal independent country."

But we are not talking about the immediate postwar period. Japan had resumed full activities of an independent state by 1953. This section of the ruling, therefore, also lacks justification.

If the government had taken action then, the Japanese abandoned in China would have been able to, like myself, speak fluent Japanese and gain employment within Japanese society.

As a special exception for those war orphans who did arrive in Japan but did not gain (or could not gain) employment here, the government adds 22,000 yen per month to the returnees' monthly National Pension stipends. But if they accept that, the amount is subtracted from their monthly welfare benefits. They are not even allowed to use their welfare stipends to pay their way to return to China so that they can look after their elderly adoptive Chinese parents, or to visit their graves.

The orphans have decided to appeal. This is perfectly reasonable. But they, too, are aging, and there are limits to how long they can continue this legal battle. The country must not push the war orphans into such sad actions, and must implement as soon as possible, policies that stress and respect their dignity.

The writer is director of Teikyo Study Abroad Center at Teikyo University.