Individual war victims can claim compensation from the government for war atrocities committed by Japanese military forces, a Dutch legal expert testified in a damages suit June 27.
Frits Kalshoven, 73, a professor emeritus at the University of Leiden, the Netherlands, appeared as an expert witness in international humanitarian law in a suit filed by former Philippine sex slaves. Forty-six Filipinos filed the suit with the Tokyo District Court in 1993, seeking 20 million yen each in damages from the Japanese government for having been forced to serve as "comfort women" during World War II.
Kalshoven countered the legal position of the defendant -- the Japanese government -- that individual war victims cannot sue a state based on international law. Kalshoven was the first overseas legal expert to speak before a Japanese court, according to lawyers representing the plaintiffs.
He said that Article 3 of the Hague Convention of 1907 clearly implies, although it doesn't spell out, that individuals have rights to claim compensation against a state. The article was drafted with the intention that those rights be recognized, he said.
The government has refused to pay direct compensation to the victims, saying postwar peace treaties have already settled the issue. On June 23, Kalshoven appeared as an expert witness in another damages suit in which eight plaintiffs, comprised of former Dutch POWs and civilian internees, are demanding 2.2 million yen each.