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Compensation Cases and Their Impact on China and Japan

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History and the notion of compensation are two key aspects in the study of Sino-Japanese relations. During the 1980s, the opening up by the People’s Republic of China’s government about war atrocities led a number of victims to seek reparations and apologies from Japan. Compensation cases were brought forward from the 1990s and broke the silence about what had ‘truly’ happened during the war. Moreover, the rapid spread of new information about the past prompted increased tensions between the two countries that had previously ignored the issue in order to privilege economic and diplomatic cooperation. To date, the affiliation between China and Japan seems to have deteriorated significantly and history is one of the main matters addressed in …show more content…

The VAWW-NET (Violence Against Women in War- Network Japan), Chinese War Victims Lawyer’s Research Committee (now Chinese War Victims’ Compensation Claim Group), Society to Support the Demands of Chinese War Victims (Rose, 2005, p.77), etc. are all joint-organizations fighting for the rights of the victims and trying to force Japan into taking legal responsibility for its actions and it is still a work in progress today.

The creation of these Sino-Japanese groups emphasizes the fact that the problem of compensation was just as important for both sides and signified that the history issue hadn’t been dealt with properly. The 280 members of the Chinese War Victims Lawyers’ Research Committee were ready to defend Chinese victims in their lawsuits against Unit 731, the Comfort Women System, forced labour, etc. among many more. Their research played a significant role in providing evidence (Rose, 2005, p.76) that undermined Japan’s stance on lack of sufficient evidence in order to accept legal liability for their actions (Tow, 2009 ). The involvement of academics and citizens were equally important as they too, discovered compelling evidence incriminating Japan and organizations such as Suopei counting over 2000 members are still collecting funds, providing evidence and reporting on the compensation movement in order to continue on their quest for justice and recognition (Rose, 2005, p.77). Numerous symposia were held in order to discuss war reparations and

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