AFP Mar 28, 2008
Japan court rejects war suicide suit against Nobel laureate
Mar 28, 2008
Mar 28, 2008
TOKYO (AFP) — A court Friday ruled the Japanese military had a role in wartime mass suicides in Okinawa, rejecting a libel suit by former senior officers against Nobel laureate Kenzaburo Oe.
The closely watched lawsuit was filed against Oe and the publisher of his 1970 book of essays "Okinawa Notes," which mentioned how Japanese troops in the southern island chain ordered people to kill themselves in 1945 rather than surrender to US invaders.
"It is recognised that the military was deeply involved in the mass suicides," presiding judge Toshimasa Fukami ruled at the the Osaka District Court, as quoted by local media.
The suit, filed in August 2005, was one reason cited by the central government last year for its controversial decision to change school textbooks to delete references to the military forcing islanders to commit suicides.
Conservatives have led calls for Japan to break post-World War II taboos against "patriotism." Just Friday, the government revised education guidelines to require schools to teach students to sing the national anthem.
The 83-day Battle of Okinawa, the bloodiest in the Pacific war, left 190,000 Japanese dead, half of them civilians on the southern island chain.
While many perished in the all-out US bombardment, local accounts say mainland Japanese troops forced residents of Okinawa -- an independent kingdom until the 19th century -- to commit suicide rather than surrender.
The judge supported Oe's book, noting that many local residents say that soldiers gave them grenades to kill themselves and that no suicide pacts were seen in places where the military was not stationed.
The court rejected a 20-million-yen (200,000-dollar) damage suit by a 91-year-old former garrison commander in Okinawa and the family of another late commander.
The court also turned down their demand that the book's publication be suspended, a court official said.
The plaintiffs argued they had not ordered local civilians to kill themselves and that the suicides were voluntary.
The pair were "disappointed with the very regrettable ruling," their lawyer said, adding they would appeal to a higher court.
Oe had referred to garrison commanders on two of Okinawa's islands without naming them. He said Friday that he did not intend to denigrate the two men on an individual level.
"The presiding judge read my 'Okinawa Notes' correctly in issuing the ruling. It made a most strong impression on me," Oe told a nationally televised press conference in Osaka.
Oe, now 73, won the Nobel prize for literature in 1994. He is known for his pacifist views and staunch backing of the post-war constitution, which says Japan will never again wage war.
Oe argued that the lawsuit was the work of "large political drift" towards a more nationalistic Japan.
"This drift intends to develop a mindset so as to become capable of waging war," Oe said.
The central government deleted the reference to the military involvement in textbook screening under nationalist prime minister Shinzo Abe, arguing that it was a point of contention rather than indisputable fact.
The move sparked off furious protests in Okinawa, including one of the island chain's biggest rallies in memory, surpassing attendance of most demonstrations against the heavy US military presence.
Abe stepped down in September.
Under pressure, the education ministry in December restored references in history textbooks to note that Okinawans "committed group suicides with the involvement by the Japanese military."
