War compensation: claims against the Japanese government and Japanese corporations for war crimes

Source: (2003) In John Torpey, ed., Politics and the past: on repairing historical injustices. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Pp. 127-147.

Over the last decade, notes Laura Hein, remembrance and redress for actions committed in World War II have become major issues both within Japan and internationally. For example, significant efforts have arisen to institutionalize a critical narrative of Japanese acts during the war and to pressure the Japanese government to repudiate those acts and compensate wartime victims. Hein points out that demands for sustained remembrance and redress of Japanese acts in World War II have focused on four main arenas: textbook reform; museum exhibits and memorials; metaphorical attempts to institutionalize repudiation of the past through analogy and rhetoric; and litigation for redress. With all of this in mind, and with specific examples of acts that were committed and people seeking remembrance and redress, Hein examines the issue of demands for legal redress through reparations from the Japanese government and corporations. She considers legal claims to humanity, the growing precedent for recognizing individual standing in international law, and suits against corporations.