Anye Reconciliation from the Purpose of Claims against Japan
Published:
2010-07-01
Abstract:The purpose determines the result to be achieved. The purpose of Chinese workers' claims against Japan should not only be economic compensation, but also to force the Japanese government and enterprises to face up to that period of history and apologize.
Key words:Purpose, Anye reconciliation, compensation
Surviving Chinese workers since 1995Fourteen years after the Japanese court filed a lawsuit for damages against the Japanese government and related Japanese companies,Of the more than 20 lawsuits filed by Chinese workers, only four were successful and two were settled. The settlement reached between the eight surviving Chinese workers and Xisong Construction has attracted wide attention from lawyers, scholars and media at home and abroad. The Japanese media spoke highly of the reconciliation,Japan's "Mainichi Shimbun" gave a comprehensive report on the "Forced Chinese Labor Case: Chinese Plaintiffs and Nishimatsu Company Reached a Settlement... Set up a Compensation Fund and Agree. The "Asahi Shimbun" suggested that "the Hatoyama regime should proceed from morality, apologize to the victimized workers and promote other related companies to take action to thoroughly resolve the compensation issue for the victims of World War II." however, domestic scholars and lawyers have different views,The International Herald Tribune 《Chinese workers have no choice but to "reconcile" with Japan""The title believes that the content of this settlement is" unacceptable ", which is the same as the flower settlement. In the name of moral relief, it evades the legal responsibilities of the Japanese government and enterprises and admits the facts in an empty way.
1. demand that the Japanese government and enterprises admit the facts, apologize and compensate is the ultimate goal of Chinese workers' litigation against Japan.
How to view this reconciliation, different subjects from different positions naturally have different evaluation. The author only evaluates the settlement from the standpoint of the injured party, the Chinese laborers and the Chinese victims of World War II, and the ultimate purpose of filing a claim against Japan. What was the purpose of the Chinese workers filing a compensation lawsuit against the Japanese government and enterprises?Acknowledgement of facts, apology and compensation.Therefore, we should first analyze the intrinsic meaning of this purpose. The apology is by no means a formal or verbal apology, but a sincere apology and true repentance of the Japanese government and its enterprises; compensation, not compensation, let alone the so-called "humanitarian relief", but that the victims should receive full compensation.
The purpose is to determine that there are many ways to achieve the purpose. The first choice for Chinese workers is peace talks. After the peace talks failed, they chose to file a lawsuit in Japan. Judging from the results of the current lawsuit, there is still a great distance from the purpose. Therefore, there will be another peace talks and reconciliation. Some scholars have also proposed ways to file a lawsuit in China. Looking at the efforts of Chinese workers and their helpers, they are all aimed at achieving the above-mentioned goals. After successive trials and judgments by Japanese courts, the purpose of forcing the Japanese government and its enterprises to admit the fact of persecuting Chinese workers has basically been achieved, but it is difficult to ask the Japanese government and its enterprises to apologize and compensate. However, apology and compensation is the ultimate goal. The history that has happened objectively, whether recognized by the Japanese government and enterprises or not, has been stained with the blood and tears of Chinese workers, and is deeply engraved into the memory of Chinese workers. The Japanese government and enterprises should not only face up to this period of history in oral or written recognition, but should show their attitude of facing up to history through sincere apology and positive compensation. Now it is precisely on this key issue that the Japanese government and its enterprises have rejected the reasonable demands of Chinese workers. As for the channels through which Chinese workers and their helpers will continue to demand sincere apology and active compensation from the Japanese Government and its enterprises in the future, they should not deviate from this purpose.
2. the reasons for the settlement reached by Anye and its results.
The settlement reached between Xisong Construction and Chinese Labor is a non-litigation summary procedure "summary settlement (summary settlement)", that is, both parties go to the summary court to go through the settlement procedures on the agreed date. After the settlement is established, a settlement agreement is made. The settlement was a compromise with Nishimatsu Construction in the absence of a successful judicial remedy for Chinese workers in Japan. After more than ten years of litigation, the surviving Chinese workers have been struggling, and the result of reaching such a settlement can be regarded as an explanation for them. Why is Nishimatsu Construction willing to reach a settlement this time when it has been taking a tough stance in dealing with Chinese workers' lawsuits? Most of the Japanese public knows that Nishimatsu's reputation at home and abroad has been severely damaged by scandals in recent years. In addition, after the Democratic Party government came to power, it has begun to cut a large number of large-scale construction projects, which indicates that the prospects of large-scale integrated construction companies such as Nishimatsu Construction in Japan will be very bleak. Asian countries are developing rapidly, which is a very attractive market for large Japanese construction companies. However, the large-scale project contracted by the company in Singapore in 2004 caused a large-scale collapse in the tunnel due to design errors, which caused a serious setback in its Asian market. This time the company decided to reconcile with the victims, there is no doubt that the removal of the company's overseas business obstacles to consideration.⒈
Taking into account the above-mentioned reconciliation factors, it can be seen that the motivation for reaching this reconciliation is not due to the sincere apology and compensation of the Japanese government and its enterprises, but to its economic reasons. Therefore, the purpose of this reconciliation will be far from the original intention of the Chinese side. Although some media said that the reconciliation was a phased result, it was given "limited affirmation".2On the surface, Anye's reconciliation has achieved the purpose of "apologizing, compensating and building monuments. But the author believes that this is far from the ultimate goal of the Chinese side. The terms in Ano's settlement are sufficient to illustrate this point.
Now let's analyze what the Sisong reconciliation has achieved. Article 2 of the settlement clause Nakamatsu admits that "the suffering of the 360 Chinese workers who were forcibly taken to the complainant's (Nishimatsu) Anye power generation operation is based on the historical facts caused by the cabinet decision on the introduction of Chinese workers to the mainland," and "the enterprise also recognizes its historical responsibility and expresses its deep gratitude to the surviving Chinese workers and their survivors". In this article, the Chinese and Western Pines have made conditional recognition of historical facts and expressed their apology.
Article 3 provides for the establishment of a monument to commemorate the facts of the Anno case.
Article 4 To confirm the amount of compensation, Nishimatsu Construction paid a total of 250,000,000 yen "settlement money" to 360 victims, including 8 plaintiffs, and stipulated that the "settlement money" "in addition to the compensation for the 360 victims, it also includes the cost of the investigation of the persons not contacted, the cost of the establishment of the above-mentioned monument, the visit to the place of the victims, the cost of the memorial and all other expenses relating to the suffering of Article 2".
3. the deviation between the purpose of Anno's settlement and the ultimate purpose of the claim.
Looking at all the terms of Ano's settlement, there is serious inequality in the content of the settlement agreement, and part of the content seems to be a kind of pressure from the strong to the weak. Articles 4 and 8 of the agreement deprive the injured workers who did not participate in the settlement of their legal rights in a package. Such provisions should be illegal and invalid in the law of any State.
In Article 4 of the agreement, the compensation to be given to Chinese workers will be replaced by "settlement money", followedContinued citing the Supreme Court of Japan in2007April 27DayThe wrong judgment continues to deny the legal responsibility for compensation for human rights violations such as forced abduction and abuse of labor, and distorts the nature of compensation as humanitarian relief. This makes Xisong construction completely evade its legal responsibility. In addition, it is also deposited in the name of the "Nishimatsu Yano Friendship Fund" in the "Free Human Rights Association" of Japan ". What's more, Xisong Construction has put gold on its face as a philanthropist, turning itself from a perpetrator of the year to a philanthropist. with Germany in2000Established in the year for the purpose of compensation for bonded labor.Remember, responsibility and future "public foundation, donated by the German government and German enterprises 10 billion marks. Compensation was paid to workers enslaved by Germany during the war, which also included compensation for the negligence of German companies during the war. TanThe rate faces history squarely, clearly assumes responsibility, and forms a clear contrast. This is also a complete departure from the truth and the purpose of the Chinese side's claim.
Article 5 of the agreement left the "settlement money" to the management and control of the Japanese civil society "Free Human Rights Association. This seems to be an incomprehensible clause, both legally and in common sense. The compensation paid by the perpetrator to the victim has already become the property of the victim, but he has to obey the arrangement of the perpetrator and hand over the property that originally belongs to him to the third party of the perpetrator's country to manage and control. And the victim's withdrawal of the money is subject to various restrictions in Article 7 of the agreement. This way of compensation is not the attitude of a perpetrator to sincerely apologize and compensate, but more like the mentality of being willing to give the victim under pressure. These terms precisely reflect the true state of mind of Xisong Construction.
There is still a big gap between the ultimate goal of the Anye settlement and the ultimate goal of the Chinese workers' claim, which is to admit the facts, sincerely apologize and make full compensation. "Acknowledge the facts." What China hopes is that the Japanese government and enterprises will face up to that period of history and not shirk their responsibilities. In this settlement, Nishimatsu Construction"The suffering of the 360 Chinese laborers who were forcibly abducted to the complainant's (Nishimatsu) Anye power generation operation was based on the historical facts created by the cabinet decision 'on the introduction of Chinese laborers to the hinterland'," on the grounds that the responsibility was shirked to the government and the corporate responsibility was denied.The fact is that the Japanese companies that forcibly abducted and enslaved Chinese workers were all military enterprises, which were consistent with national interests. Historical archives can be confirmed. The Japanese company was decided by the Japanese cabinet after it had agreed with the Japanese government to force the Chinese laborers. Several Japanese courts, including the Supreme Court of Japan, have ruled thatAt that time, the Japanese government and Japanese companies jointly planned and carried out the act of forcibly abducting and enslaving Chinese workers.3
"Sincere apology", although the agreement shows the "apology" of Xisong Construction in the form of words, the other provisions of the agreement cannot give the victim the feeling of apology. The agreement also made no mention of the fact that Nishimatsu brutally abused the laborers back then.
Moreover, the "compensation", which best reflects the sincerity of his apology, is only 250,000,000 yen in the name of "settlement"."In addition to the compensation for the 360 victims, it includes the expenses of the investigation of the uncontacted persons, the establishment of the above-mentioned monument, the visit of the victims, the memorial and all other expenses related to the victims of Article 2" (Article 4 of the agreement).By this inference, AnnThe actual compensation received by each of the wild workers was only more than 20,000 yuan.
Reasons for deviation of 4. purpose and german experience.
Why is there such a big deviation from the original purpose of the Chinese workers' claims? In addition to China's own reasons, the root cause lies in the inability of the Japanese government and enterprises to face up to the crimes they committed in the war of aggression against China. It would pale if only words and language were used to condemn the attitude of the Japanese government and its enterprises towards the victims. So let's compare Germany, which is also an aggressive country in World War II, to see the performance of the Japanese government and its enterprises on the issue of compensation for victims.
Objectively speaking, the post-war Federal Republic of Germany was not the natural successor of the Third Reich in law, but the current Japanese government is the full successor of the Japanese government that launched the war of aggression against China. However, the successive heads of German government after the war have expressed remorse for the disasters their country has caused to other countries and other peoples in the past, and the Federal Republic of Germany and the German government after reunification have been more proactive and consistent for decades to provide huge financial compensation to the victims of the Nazi regime. Since the Federal Republic of Germany passed the Human Rights and Private Rights Act for Nazi victims and the Act on Assistance to War Victims on August 22, 1949, it enacted the Federal Act on Compensation for Nazi Victims in 1956. "," Federal Supplementary Act on Compensation for Nazi Victims ", and" Act on the Categories and Principles of Compensation for Victims "in 1957. And every time a new law is introduced or the result of an amendment to the above-mentioned law, the scope of compensation has been expanded. In order to implement these basic compensation laws, several corresponding auxiliary laws were enacted to help those who were victims of the Nazi discriminatory policies. On May 1, 1992, two years after the reunification of Germany, the Act on Compensation for Victims of Nazi-Occupied Territories Following the Federal Republic of Germany was introduced. According to the new law, Nazi victims who were unable to receive compensation for some reason during the former Federal Republic of Germany can reapply, especially those who previously lived in the Democratic Republic of Germany. The scope of compensation under the Act covers persons who have been persecuted by the Nazis for reasons of race, religion, ideology, etc., and who have suffered damage to their health, deprivation of personal freedom, obstruction of economic and professional development, and damage to personal property. By 1 January 1997, 735076 of the applications received, except in a few cases, had been settled in accordance with the above-mentioned relevant laws.4In addition to legalizing and proceduralizing compensation for war victims through domestic legislation, the German government has also actively signed compensation agreements with Israel and European victimized countries to establish compensation funds. Although as early as 1953, the former Soviet Union and Poland have said no longer to Germany to recover compensation. So far, however, there has been no indication that Germany will categorically suspend the compensation.
Compare the attitudes of Japanese and German companies that also committed crimes during World War II to compensation for victims. Kagoshima Company in the settlement of Kagoshima and Nishimatsu Construction in the settlement of Anye represent Japanese enterprises with a better attitude towards compensation issues. During the Nazi period in Germany, some well-known German companies also used the so-called "forced labor" captured by the Nazi army in an ignominious manner to accumulate wealth from their almost unpaid labor. However, after World War II, German enterprises treated compensation for labor very differently from Japanese enterprises. In 1951, IC Company compensated 2.5 million Mark. In 1988, Mercedes-Benz paid 20 million Mark to Jews who were forced to perform labor in the company during the war. In 1991, Volkswagen paid 12 million Mark to the Jewish Civil Claims Group. Volkswagen also recorded the history of forced labor for Jews in the company's history. There is a monument at the gate of the company, and the inscription reads: "Remembering the victims of politics and racism, the wartime prisoners, the victims of forced concentration camps from various European countries, and the thousands of forced labourers who were abused in the VW factory because of military supplies and war." Every year, the company sends new employees to the site of the concentration camp to study history. In 1999, when some judicial organs in the United States accepted the joint prosecution brought by the survivors of "Nazi labor" or their descendants and demanded compensation from German enterprises, 65 large German companies, including Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz, proposed to set up a huge compensation fund for "Nazi labor. Representatives of the German government and the business community are actively negotiating with representatives of all parties concerned to set compensation standards and distribution plans. The compensation funds are shared by the German government and enterprises, and German Finance Minister Eichel even said that he would consider selling national assets to make up for the lack of funds. In response, U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Stuart Eisenstadt said at a press conference: "This is an important day for Germany. It once again shows the world how a country assumes its responsibilities."
The above data and facts are enough to show whether the Japanese government and enterprises are responsible governments and their enterprises. What did the Japanese government and its enterprises do for the victimized countries and victims after World War II?
5. epilogue
The Anno reconciliation has become an established fact and cannot be changed. But compensation claims by Chinese workers and war victims against the Japanese government and its companies are far from over. To some extent, the Anye settlement represents the shift of Chinese workers' claims against Japan from a single lawsuit to other means to achieve the purpose of litigation, but it is by no means a "political settlement". And this reconciliation that deviates from the original intention is far from what the Chinese laborers and other war victims and the Chinese people want. In addition to the Chinese need to explore more ways to achieve the goal, the Japanese government and related enterprises need to reflect. It is hoped that one day China and Japan will achieve a real and fair "reconciliation" on this issue ".
1Liu Di, Post-war civil claims against Japan: Can the "West Pine Construction Model" be universally applicable?http://blog.huanqiu.com/? uid-137-action-viewspace-itemid-368501
2World War II Chinese workers disclose the contents of the settlement of the Anye case for the first time.
4Jin Duo, German war reparations and introspection after World War II, unity, 2005.05
(This article won the third prize of Jinan excellent lawyer paper in 2010)
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