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In a divisive ruling, the Tokyo District Court on Tuesday threw out a claim for compensation from a group of Korean leprosy patients who were segregated in a leper colony by Japanese occupation forces, even as it granted compensation to a group of Taiwanese patients on the same day.
The court¡¯s Third Civil Division threw out the claim for compensation from the Japanese government on behalf of 117 Korean leprosy patients herded into a leprosarium on Sorok Island during the Japanese occupation. Meanwhile, a very similar case being tried in the same courthouse in the 38th Civil Division ended in victory for the 25 Taiwanese leprosy patients who had been deported to the Losheng camp inTaiwan. Under Japan's Hansen disease compensation law, people isolated in state-operated leprosariums became eligible for compensation regardless of nationality.
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A Japanese lawyer holds a banner that reads ¡°unfair ruling¡± on Monday after the Tokyo District Court rejected a compensation claim by Korean leprosy patients against the Japanese government for segregating them at a leprosarium in Korea¡¯s Sorok Island during the colonial era. In another ruling on the same day, the court upheld a similar lawsuit filed by Taiwanese leprosy patients. Under Japan's Hansen disease compensation law, people isolated at state-operated leprosariums became eligible for compensation from Japan regardless of nationality.
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"It would be difficult to deny that the discrimination and prejudice the group experienced was to due Japan's isolation policy at that time," the Third Division ruled. ¡°But in prior deliberations [for the Hansen law] there was no recognition that the law was meant to include restitution to those held in camps in foreign countries.¡± However, the judge in the 38th Division in his decision wrote the law ¡°was clearly enacted with the aim of offering relief to those held at leper colonies¡¦ I cannot see anything in the law suggesting that those held in foreign camps should be excluded.¡±
The lawyer for the South Koreans, Park Young-rip, said, ¡°We regret the ruling, but since opposing judgment was issued in the same case, we will appeal trusting that the good sense of the court will lead to a ruling in our favor.¡± The Koreans argued the leprosariums ¡°were set up by decree of the Japanese emperor during Japan¡¯s colonial rule and must therefore be considered part of Japan¡¯s national Hansen disease sanitariums.¡± They said the law includes no provision specifying the nationalities or locations of those eligible for compensation. But the Japanese government contended the law was aimed at compensating patients confined to domestic segregation centers after World War II but does not cover those interned in overseas facilities where Japan had no authority after the war ended.
The 2001 law provided for between 8 million and 14 million yen in compensation for victims depending on the length of internment, after the Kumamoto District Court ruled the segregation law, repealed in 1996, was unconstitutional. Leprosy patients confined to facilities on Korea¡¯s Sorok Island applied for compensation from the Japanese Health Ministry under the law and sued when their claim was rejected.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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