樂生@浮世寫真

In a landmark ruling, made late last month (25 October), Judge Kanno Hiroyuki of the Toyko district court announced that Chinese who were forcefully interned in the Lo Sheng Leprosy hospital, during the Japanese occupation of Chinese-Taiwan, are entitled to the same level of compensation as Japanese Leprosy sufferers who were themselves interned under brutal Japanese Leprosy containment laws which ran from 1907-1996.

A Victory for Taiwan, a Victory for Justice

In his ruling, Judge Kanno stated that, because Taiwan's internment facilities were run as a subdivision of the Japanese state, those interned there should be eligible for the same compensation as Japanese internees.

Judge Kanno additionally made it clear that he could see no viable reason why a 2001 commitment by Tokyo, to compensating victims Leprosy laws, should only apply to those who were located inside Japan at the time, and not apply to everybody who was subjected to them.

News of Kanno's ruling was greeted with relief from former Taiwanese internees.

Internment

Much of the contention revolves around controversial legislation, brought in by the Japanese government in 1907, which mandated that sufferers of Leprosy should be interned in specialist facilities away from society, and that they should be prevented from marrying non lepers and from bearing children. Legislation which was applied both to Japan's home territories, and to its overseas colonies.

Under this legislation, Japan constructed the Lo Sheng hospital in Xinzhuang, Taipei County, Chinese-Taiwan (formerly Formosa) in 1930. Where authorities forcibly interned Taiwanese Leprosy sufferers to isolate them from the wider community.

Historically, Japanese courts had refused to compensate Taiwanese internees on the grounds that they had been subjected to identical rules as Japanese internees, who were similarly denied compensation. The situation changed in 2001 May 2001 when, in a landmark ruling, the Kumamoto District Court determined that Japanese internees had been unjustly treated, and were due compensation.

Soon after the Kumamoto ruling was made, Taiwanese internees argued that, because they had been subjected to internment under the same laws as Japanese Leprosy sufferers, they should be entitled to the same compensation as Japanese Leprosy sufferers. A view that was echoed by Japanese experts who were assigned to address the issue.

Further Battles

Though the battle to win compensation from Tokyo appears to be over for Taiwanese internees, there remains one further battle to be fought, that to win compensation from the Taiwanese government.

Despite Chinese-Taiwan's liberation from Japan in 1945, the island optioned to continue to follow Japan's lead; isolating leprosy sufferers in internment facilities until 1962 when Taiwan's laws were amended.

As such, those who suffered internment from 1945- 1962, after Chinese-Taiwan's liberation from Japan, are not eligible for compensation from Tokyo.

According to Wu Xuzhou, the head of the legal team representing Taiwanese internees, Interned Leprosy sufferers now intent to press the the island's de-facto government to put in place a compensation structure, as now exists in Japan, to compensate those who suffered internment in the post war period.

Cash Questions

Since the initial compensation ruling, in favor of those who suffered internment, Tokyo has paid out over a total of over 42 Billion yen to approximetly 3500 Japanese victims, with each victim receiving up to 14 million Yen ($US119,000) each.

The amounts paid out to Taiwanese internees by Tokyo is expected to be based on the same criteria used to award compensation to Japanese nationals and, thought no concrete figures are yet available, each Taiwanese victim is expected to be able to claim between between 8 and 14 Million Yen ($US68,000 - $119,000) in compensation, with the exact amount depending on the specifics of their cases.

The Anti-Compensation Culture

While an increasing number of countries either have , or are developing, a US like compensation culture, prevailing attitudes about compensation and culpability in Japan still make it notoriously difficult to win any kind of compensation, particularly from the state, even if the facts of a case are not in dispute.

To complicate things further, problems in gaining compensation in Japan are often magnified exponentially if those seeking compensation are, as was the case with Taiwanese internees, not resident in Japan.

posted Tuesday, 8 November 2005
tags: junichiro koizumi human rights justice trial compensation japan lawsuit taiwan china