Pierre Boutier

TOKYO: Members of the Association of the Council of Air-raid Victims of Japan gathered on Tuesday in front of the Japanese Diet to commemorate the civilian victims of the American bombing of Tokyo during the Second World War. Hundreds of thousands were killed in the raids.

Many of those outside the Diet carried placards in memory of the victims of the bombs – many of them firebombs – which struck the cities of Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya. The placards noted that, apart from the families of war veterans, other victims have not been compensated by the Japanese state.

The association’s legal efforts for this failed as judges did not consider themselves competent to settle the dispute on a legal basis. In March 2007, judges of the Tokyo District Court and Tokyo High Court said they understood the sense of injustice but that victims should approach lawmakers to pass laws that restore the honor of the civilian victims.

During the air raids, which targeted civilians and military installations indiscriminately, there were many civilian casualties and deaths, with many people being permanently disabled. Many children were orphaned and some died of hunger.

A total of 650,000 people died as a result of bombardments across the country between 1942 and 1945, including more than 116,000 people in the Tokyo area.

A group of Diet members from different political parties have drafted a bill on the subject of compensation, but the bill has yet to be passed.

In a leaflet distributed to passers-by outside the House of Representatives, the group of air raid victims denounced the “injustice done to them and being abandoned by the state.”