Suing Japan for 1938-42 Chongqing bombings (#102; Topic J)

Today's Japan Times Online has an article on survivors and victims' relatives suing Japan for its 1938-42 bombings of Chongqing, China's capital at the time -- these plaintiffs, 40 in number, have either suffered disabilities or lost close relatives (the lead plaintiff, a 77-year-old, exactly my age, lost a sister). According to the group's lawyer Keiichiro Ichinose, "Asian people have questioned whether the Japanese government really feels remorse over its wartime aggression." Well said. One of the suit's aims is to "question the legality of the Chongqing bombings" -- attacking unarmed cities is banned by the Hague Convention. Another is to demand a restitution of 10 million yen each -- a mere US$86, 371 in today's exchange rate. Equally important, it seems to me, is to bring the world's attention to the atrocity of these bombings that killed 23,600 poeple and wounded 31,000. This suit will be followed by another one involving some 60 survivors and victims' relatives. We need more. Perhaps residents of Nanjing can bring similar suits for Japan's indiscrimate and inhumane massacre of the city's citizenry in 1937-38, where between 260,000 and 350,000 died (Iris Chang, The Rape of Nanking, 1997, p 6).
Posted at 10:53 am, Tuesday, March 7, 2006