CARNAL NATION

More than 60 years after the end of World War II, victims have still not received adequate compensation (if such a thing can ever be meted out) for the atrocities they endured during one of the lowest points in human history. The People's Daily reports that a Tokyo court has rejected the suit brought by women from China's Hainan Province, seeking damages and apologies from the Japanese government for forcing them to be "comfort women," essentially sex slaves, to the occupying forces. Presiding judge Watanabe Hitoshi ruled that individual Chinese citizens do not have the right to sue Japan or demand compensation following the 1972 Japan-China Joint Communique, in which the Chinese governement renounced all claims to compensation by its citizens from Japan for its wartime activities. Imperial Japan occupied China from 1937 through 1945. The court did, however, recognize that the plaintiffs had been imprisoned and raped by Japanese soldiers and that due to the brutal treatment they received, these women do suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome. Gee, thanks.