TOKYO, Sept. 29 (UPI) -- A Japanese court has awarded $1.7 million to 13 Chinese nationals who sued over poison gas and artillery shells dumped in China after World War II.
Yoshihiro Katayama, the presiding judge of the Tokyo District Court, said the Japanese government had neglected its responsibility to supply information to China concerning the whereabouts of the weapons, which killed and wounded Chinese nationals.
The Mainichi Daily News reported Katayama said: "The government had a responsibility to collect as much information as it could, to supply this to China and to request measures to prevent people from being victimized. Not fulfilling this responsibility after 1972, when diplomatic relations between China and Japan were restored, was illegal."
Chinese authorities say more than 2,000 people have been injured in China by the former Imperial Japanese Army's weapons.
The newspaper said it was the first time a court has accepted a damages claim related to abandoned weapons overseas.
