The Osaka District Court on March 28 rejected a damages suit against author Kenzaburo Oe and Iwanami Shoten Publishers that was filed by a former garrison commander on Zamami Island, Okinawa Prefecture, and a brother of another commander on Tokashiki Island, who said the Nobel-Prize winning author's book had wrongly stated that the Japanese Army ordered Okinawan residents to commit mass suicide during the Battle of Okinawa.

The court said it could not be determined whether military orders existed as written in the book because the chain of command is no longer clear. But it said historical materials and research provided an adequate reason for Mr. Oe to believe that such military orders existed. Thus it ruled that his 1970 book "Okinawa Notes" does not defame the two commanders.

The ruling concluded that the Japanese Army was deeply involved in mass suicide on the two islands in late March 1945, before U.S. forces started landing on the main Okinawa Island on April 1. It considered the following facts: Although hand grenades were "precious weapons" to the army units on the islands, many residents were given hand grenades by soldiers as weapons to kill themselves when it became likely they would be captured by U.S. forces. All the mass suicide incidents in Okinawa occurred at places where Japanese Army units were stationed. Mass suicide did not occur at places where army units were not stationed.