Chinese plaintiffs and scholars will go to Japan to testify against the Japanese government over the bombings of areas in Sichuan province and Chongqing Municipality during the Japanese invasion. The Tokyo District Court will reopen the case and question witnesses from April 16 to June 30, said Xu Bin, the lawyer representing Chinese plaintiffs from Chengdu, Tianfu Morning Post reported Monday. Luo Suqin, the daughter of a woman wounded during the bombing of Zigong, and Liu Shilong, a professor from Sichuan University who will provide his testimony, are confirmed to be going to Japan. Luo's mother, Luo Fuyi, who lost her right leg and her unborn child during the bombing, died at the end of 2009. Xu said the acceptance of witnesses is a tremendous achievement in the fight over the past eight years. In March 2006, a group of 40 Chinese who were wounded or lost family members in Japan's bombings of Chongqing sued the Japanese government for damages, seeking 10 million yen ($100,000) each, Japan Times reported. The court held the first trial in October 2006, Chengdu Business Daily reported, but the ruling from the first trial has not been handed down yet. Some other groups from nearby regions of Sichuan province, such as Chengdu, Leshan and Zigong, also filed lawsuits in Japan for compensation. Later they formed an alliance to sue the Japanese government. The plaintiffs also tried to sue the Japanese government at the Chongqing High People's Court in China in 2012. Liu Nanlai, a senior research fellow on international law at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the major legal problem is that China renounced all claims for war reparations in the Joint Communiqué of the Government of Japan and the Government of the People's Republic of China in 1972. Liu told the Global Times that the clause has been used by the Japanese government as the reason for not being responsible for compensation, and it is also the basis on which the Japanese courts have denied requests from Chinese plaintiffs. "Though the Chinese government dropped the claims for compensation from the Japanese government, Chinese individuals still retain the right to seek compensation from Japan," said Xue Lei, a research fellow at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies. Xue supported the legal action of the victims, which helps to expose the war crimes committed by the Japanese. Historical records show the Japanese army indiscriminately bombed the country's then wartime capital Chongqing and nearby cities, including Leshan and Chengdu in Sichuan province, between February 1938 and December 1944. According to a study by a Chinese group, the bombings killed 23,600 people and wounded 37,700 others, the Xinhua News Agency reported. Related News
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